Welcome to Corsica, rustic, mountainous, beautiful and like another world. After a short propeller plane ride from the Cote d'Azur, we arrived in the town of Bastia, in the north eastern region of this island situated between France and Italy. Drama landed with us as we had rented an automatic car and although we were told that the car we received was in fact automatic, they were certainly mistaken. An hour later we were off in the largest car Europcar had to offer -- certainly not ideal for switchback turns and tiny one way roads leading into the mountains. Fret not, the car did not hold us back for our rigorous agenda of seven
stops after a 5am awakening, what did however was the fact that most roads indicated on our so beautifully researched directions, simply did not exist where they were supposed to and we even had the fortune of following signs for towns that then seemed to evaporate, as though the signs did not actually lead you anywhere. Truly an adventure!
We did manage to stumble upon a few cute cheese shops in Bastia where I purchased an outstanding looking Corsican brebis or sheep cheese -- an aged washed rind cheese that looks fantastic, however I have yet to try it.
After our morning and early afternoon of fits and starts, we happened on a quaint little restaurant overlooking the beaches of Ile Rousse in the north western portion of the island and there we sampled some fresh goat cheese which was just as rustic, herbaceous and rough around the edges as the island on which it was made.
And folks from there, we drove to our sixteen room hotel in the tiny perched village of Lumio, over one hundred and twenty kilometers of virages and mountainous turns later, to spend our evening without continuing to drive further.
I hope tomorrow to be able to recount to you all the taste sensations of the local cheese speciality, brocciu and of course other adventures on this ruggedly stunning island.
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