post vacation post no. 1

My first vacation started Saturday 27 oct at 4pm when I caught the last bus heading across the island to Porto Vecchio! The ride was pretty intense – but it seems, in France, moving vehicles of any sort are pretty intense. Anyway the buses in Corsica are crazy because the drivers and roads are crazy. And the scenery is stunning of course. We passed through lots of cute little one road towns and also Sartene and Propriano which are bigger places (though ‘bigger’ places in Corsica doesn’t mean much). After we left Sartene we passed the most stunning sight – which my camera failed to capture. The sun setting on the horizon with a beautiful calm golf in the foreground and a Genoese tower. The sun was a huge red ball it was so beautiful! And this is what I have to show you:



Anyway arrived safely in Porto Vecchio at 8pm met by my lovely friend Daphne at the bus stop and from there went to the Lycée where Daphne lives. Daphne by the way is also an English assistant who is from Pennsylvania – we met in a doctor’s office in Ajaccio.

The next day we went to the market! It was really nice and bought lots of goodies for a PIQUE-NIQUE at PLAGE PALOMBAGGIA!! Now if you are living in Corsica and done your reading (like me for example) you would know that palombaggia is one of the most beautiful beaches on the island so exciting!!! We bought Corsican goat’s cheese, fresh Corsican bread, Corsican wine, dates and miel du maquis which is a flower that grows in Corsica and Napoleon claimed he could smell home from his exile in Elba (he could smell the maquis!) It was also used by bandits to hide in. anyway…

Mmm honey!



Here are some cute shots of P.V as we like to call Porto Vecchio (by the way this is pronounced Porto Vecc).









PV is built on a hill and is accessible by three big hill paths so you get some good walking in going up there. It is really cute. Dapnhe lives down below the old town in what you will see later is somewhat of an unfortunate suburban sprawl helped on by the ‘hyper U’ which we quite enjoy!

Anyway then we took off on our adventure to the beach. Me on Daphne’s sweet bike (who doesn’t have a name?? POURQUOI!!!) and Daphne on foot. We decided that we can get anywhere if we got a bike and Daphne’s running shoes! Anyway here are some shots of the way there. Oh and it takes an hour to run/bike to the beach – it’s usually only accessible by car.



This is for gaby <3



Now the key in this adventure was at the big fork to go left… but maeve went right by accident… so after we both arrived at different beaches we spent the whole time being upset and worried about where the other one was that we spent our whole afternoon looking for each other. And stressing out. But eventually Daphne found a nice waitress who let her use her cellphone and called her own cellphone which was in my bag and we found each other and (I was at the wrong beach) walked to the right beach.

Here is the view of the beach I thought was the right beach!



And here are some beautiful wrong beach photos





Then here is the real plage palombaggia





And yes we went swimming. And yes it was OCTOBER 28!!!! and it was fresh and splendid and salty and wonderful.

Daphne’s cool bike



Me and daphne after our swim



Then we called one of the other English teachers who came and got us and took us home because the time had changed and so it now gets dark at 5.30 to 6pm. Then we had our pique nique in Daphne’s room because we didn’t get a chance at the beach and watched the borne identity which is really good!

The next day was exploring PV again. And finding out if we had been paid or not… I thought I had but now I’m not sure anymore.

Here is a GIANT dog in a shop (there is quite a collection of dog photos… and bikes).



Hyper U suburban sprawl



An olive tree with olives on it! And Daphne tried to eat one… which was not a good plan



Honey and other Corsican amazing goods



Then we got the bus to …. BONIFACIO!!!! Cool! The bus was at 12 noon leaving PV and coming back at 2pm (ergo we had LOADS of time to explore…)

The Boni port (we like to call Bonifacio just Boni in affection!)



A LA LA LA boni



One of the specialities you want to have in Boni is PAIN DES MORTS made with chestnut flour (!!) and nuts and raisins and if you eat a whole one it makes you want to MORT hence the name. we were pretty excited about getting our hands on the pain dues morts! We actually bought two so we could have one the next day too!!!



The steep ascent into town/the amazing white cliffs. (steep ascent = d’habi-freaking-tude here). (there’s some good franglais for you).



And what Boni is most famous for – these white cliffs. This is all real. Plus that big big rock out there.. is called the grain de sable… (grain of sand… Daphne pointed out the humorous irony in the name).



And yes the town is perched nicely above these slowly slipping away cliffs.



Sardinia looking moody as ever – apparently the storm clouds hover and never leave Sardinia!



Me and Daphne being real North American tourists







Sailboat for mom



Here are some shots of Boni village – it’s pretty cute too. Everything is freaking cute here!!









Boni port from above



I tried to convince Daphne we could get to Marseille in this… but she didn’t go for that idea.



AJACCIO BOAT!



Then we went to a café in PV had some tea woo hoo and read the corse matin being cultured. They actually have a page every once and awhile written in Corsican! But in order to figure that out I better start auditing the Corsican classes for the 8 year olds!