Polyphonics but no fuzz in the furse

At breakfast we had a bit of a show from the French Paras based in the Citadel as they practised abseiling down the walls of the Citadel. After picking up provisions and a copy of the CD referred to last night we headed off towards l'Isle Rousse with the strains of I Murivani coming from the CD player.

Harbour

L'Isle Rousse is named after the red coloured rock just offshore from the town and which forms part of the harbour. A relatively new town and pretty unremarkable; I imagine that when busy in the summer months, like Calvi it would be pretty unbearable – for me anyway. We then made for the hills behind, where we gathered are some very pretty villages. We were not disappointed; the road made for the familiar exciting drive higher and higher until we reached the lovely hilltop village of Saint Antonio, where we had our picnic lunch.

Church at Aregno

On the way up we stopped at Aregno to see an unusually constructed church with a chequered pattern of brickwork. We also saw some sheep standing rather pointlessly on a roof – perhaps it felt more like a mountain? Saint Antonio is a delightful village that has managed to retain its authenticity and eccentricity, while making only necessary concessions to make it somewhere people want to live.

St Antonino in the Balagne

It is genuinely on a mountain top; many of the houses have parts of the rock forming walls, steps and paths, morphing the natural with man-made materials. From the top, you get a fabulous view of the area in a 360º sweep. When we arrived in the car park at the bottom of the village (the one road ends here), there were a lot of vehicles around the church with some generators and tents hidden behind and after some analysis concluded that some filming was taking place but it being France, lunch is god and everyone was taking their allotted time. In due course the luvvies emerged and started fussing around the next location shot by a gate about 200metres away.

The Film Set with Citroen at St Antonino in front of the Church

On the way back down, I managed to stop, get out my camera, change lens and capture a kite before it disappeared over the hill. It was a wonderful moment, even if the shot wasn't. We drove on to Monticello, which was a pleasant enough village with the usual bog-standard lovely vistas but fairly unremarkable apart from the fact that Frank Muir had a place here.

We came down from the mountains a bit like Moses but without the tablets of stone, although with the way the local drivers hog the road, we could well have collected some embedded in the car (stone tablets that is).

Our tour then took us along the coast road before turning off to cross the Desert des Agriates before almost completing our circuit of the island at St Florent. The compulsory tortuous road through this contained its usual level of attention demand but the scenery was quite remarkable. It was like a lunar landscape with bushes. Although on our trips around the island, there have been relatively few occasions when the speed limits could be safely exceeded, I have never been temped – it struck me on one or two of the straight stretches on the Desert that I could exceed 90kph, I was reminded of Ollie's experience and was sure that a gendarme would triumphantly appear from behind a bush having waited a week for a passing car. (He would have filled his book in under an hour on the main road).

St Florent

We arrived at St Florent and having found a hotel, set out for a quick assessment of the place. Again, without tourists, it is quite delightful, especially as by now the weather was absolutely glorious with temperatures in the sun a balmy 15ºC and the wind having dropped. The view from the citadel over the harbour with the sun low in the sky over an azure bay and sparkling off the water was wonderful. The only consequence of there being no tourists is, in common with so many of the places we have visited that so much of the place is closed, which gives it a slightly surreal atmosphere.

By mid-afternoon, the clouds that have constantly shrouded the mountain tops over the last week had dissipated. So hopefully the change in the weather will mean that we should be able to complete the things we want to do in the centre of the island over the next few days.

written by

rickandsuejohnson on March 29, 2008 from Bastia, France

from the travel blog: The island of birth for 'Le petit caporal' and the roots of Bernard Nobili

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