Fall in Love with Corsica, Episode 267

Join Us in France Travel Podcast

Annie Sargent

History, Places & Travel, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the podcast, Annie and her guest Michael Grove give you many reasons to fall in love with Corsica. Specifically upper Corsica or Haute-Corse.

Michael spent a whole month exploring Corsica and wrote about it on his travel blog. He shares his favorite places, hidden gems that took his breath away, details about the food you'll find in Corsica and more.

Hotels Michael Used on this Trip

Bastia—Hotel Napoleon, 43 Boulevard Paoli

Rogliano—Hotel U Sant Agnellu (perched village with great view from the dining room and from rooms facing Mediterranean Sea)

Centuri—Hotel Vieux Moulin (overlooks small port and has good restaurant)

Cargèse—Residence Roc E Mare

Places Michael Visited

He'll take us to (not necessrily in that order, see map in the show notes) Bastia, Rogliano, Centuri, Saint-Florent, L’Île-Rousse, Calvi, Porto, Cargèse, Corte, Patrimonio, the Calanques de Piana, the Réserve naturelle de Scandola, Pigna, Nonza, and Sant'Antonino.

Great Foods from Corsica

And the foods sound out of this world: brocciu, beignets au chaud sucré (ou salé), coppa, lonzu, figatellu. Don't know what those are? I didn't know either! Let Michael explain! If you're having a hard time with all the Corsican words, follow along with the transcript. I've done my best to spell all those names correctly 🙂

Corsica: Recipes and Stories from a Mediterranean Island

The restaurant Michael mentions where he couldn't remember the name in Pigna is called A Mandria di Pigna. To see more of his restaurant recommendations click on Guest Notes below.

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Discussed in this Episode

Balagna Area [04:16]
Bastia [10:04]
In the high or medium season don't try to wing it with the hotels [11:34]
Strong regional culture in Corsica [12:10]
Prices in Corsica [16:12]
Corte and the citadel [17:51]
Nonza and La Sassa outdoor restaurant [20:32]
Col de Teghime {23:06]
Calanques de Piana [24:55]
Réserve naturelle de Scandola [25:21]
How to visit the calanques [26:12]
Hicking in the Haute Corse [28:04]
The village of Pigna [29:47]
The village of Sant'Antonino [30:23]
The gastronomy of Corsica: we mention a lot of local specialties in this segment! [34:05]
Is Corsica a vacation for couples or families or adventure seekers? [40:31]
How is Corsica different from the rest of France? [42:01]
Thank you patrons and donors! [45:05]
Annie's new Saint-Germain-des-Prés tour on the VoiceMap App [47:07]
A little bit of a health scare [48:03]
Quick update about the current strikes in France [50:42]

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is join us in France episode 267.
0:04.0	Bonsie Sergeant and in today's episode I am delighted to have a conversation about Corsica
0:11.0	with Michael Groves because he knows France really well and spends about half
0:16.2	the year in France. I've tried to get him on the podcast before but he's one of
0:21.1	those guys who says oh I wouldn't know what to say and then he opens his
0:24.8	mouth and watch out he's a great resource of knowledge and inspiration about travel
0:30.8	to France Michael keeps a really nice travel blog
0:33.8	which includes a great article about this trip to Corsica
0:37.8	you'll find it at m.grows
0:41.3	com and there will be a link to it in the show notes.
0:45.0	If you've never heard of Corsica, it's an island about 300 kilometers south of Nice.
0:51.0	You can fly into Corsica or take a ferry which takes about five hours.
0:56.0	Generally speaking, this is not a vacation spot that's high on the radar for English-speaking visitors, but it is such a wonderful place.
1:06.5	Anyone wanting to go off the beaten track in France should consider it.
1:11.4	Michael explored the northern part of Corsica, what we call
1:15.2	Ot Corsa in French and his drive included Bastia,
1:20.3	Oliano, Santurie, Saint-Floreen, Lillerosse, Calvie, Porto, and Carges.
1:29.0	Oh, as well as Corte, you can see a map of his strip in the show notes. Now this is not the sort of vacation where you
1:36.9	rush from one monument to another. This is a drive, hike, swim, and take pictures
1:42.4	kind of vacation.
1:44.0	Eat and drink too, of course, this is France.
1:46.7	I've only been to Corsica once, but it's pretty clear to me that it's a little bit of
	...

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