Guagno les Bains

It really isn’t a great idea to go hiking in the middle of August, but I’m not known for my common sense where the possibility of an excursion is concerned, so we found ourselves heading north to the Lac de Creno.



Our route took us past Ajaccio and heading up the west coast through Guagno les Bains. Guagno is a thermal town with natural sulphur springs, so we decided to stop off and check it out. Amazingly, the baths were closed, as was the hotel which seemed incredible as everything looked pretty newly refurbished, but just like a ghost town.



The thermal baths themselves date back to 1808 and their claim to fame is that the Emperor Napoléon III (first President of the French republic and last Monarch of France) and his wife Eugenie took the waters here during their reign. Of course we only know this because a locked gate is no match for Florence and her camera, so over she went to get a close-up of the plaque and an old enamel bath which we suspected had lost its curative powers given the amount of weeds growing out of it!



As we were leaving, we noticed an abandoned zimmer frame near the gate and in view of my bad back and Flo’s gammy hip, the thought did cross my mind that we should take it with us just in case the Lac de Creno proved more difficult than expected…