Paradise in the Mediterranean

Before leaving the French island of Corsica early yesterday morning, we made more discoveries of note – stunning beaches both sandy and rocky and gourmet restaurants rivaling some of Paris’ finest. Every single moment of our four days on the French island was Perfect with a capital “P.” The conclusion: Corsica is Paradise in the Mediterranean.  

The “séjour” was a very inexpensive one, too. The ferry from Nice was less than 30€ per person each way, the rental car was about 35€ per day and the hotel about 115€ a night. Our meals were almost always 20€ each including wine and coffee. We calculated that for four sharing one rental car, two hotel rooms and dining out twice that our daily expense was 125€ a day from Nice. Not bad.  

The proprietor of our little hotel told us that Americans haven’t yet heard of Corsica. We knew that to be true by the lack of American tourists around us. In fact, we were the only ones we encountered. And it must have been obvious as two of the hotel guests complained we were quite noisy entering the hotel late at night. True, we’re a pretty rowdy bunch.  

I often wonder why Americans don’t choose it as a destination. Is it because they fear the Corsicans don’t speak English?…which of course, was not at all true – the younger Corsicans were thrilled to practice speaking with us. But, I must add, that because the tourists in Corsica are mostly Italian and French, the kind of tourist within which one is surrounded is so pleasant to be around (soft-spoken, well-behaved, nicely dressed, etc.) that you forget they’re tourists at all.  
At the little Arinella beach in Lumio where we dined on a meal of star quality at the “Mata Hari” we couldn’t keep our eyes off the gorgeous men, both young and old, with their good bodies in their little Speedos and tan skin. Everyone was tan, really tan…so tan that at the pharmacy, where there were so many customers one must take a number and form a line, there was a huge stack of boxes of Biafine, France’s miracle answer to sunburn. It must be their best-selling item of the summer.

Sadly, we left all that behind for 5.5 hours on the sea to Nice where we lunched at the Neptune Beach in front of the Negresco Hotel and then spent another 5.5 hours on the tracks to eventually land home in Paris late last night. Lots of people are starting to head back into town now after vacation, tan and relaxed, but with a million tasks awaiting…just like us.  

This afternoon, I will be signing the “Acte de Vente” (title deed) on behalf of clients of ours purchasing an apartment in a Paris location that has views on Notre Dame, the Hôtel de Ville and the Centre Pompidou, all from the same window (hard to find!). And tomorrow and Friday, we’re filming yet another House Hunters International episode – our ninth! So, you see, it’s back to business as usual during “La Rentrée” without a breath in between and with our Nice-Corsican adventure just a memory.

A la prochaine…

Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris

(a shadow on a Corsican beach)

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