Svegliu d'Isula in concert, Propriano

I’d seen the banners all over town advertising the Svegliu d’Isula concert on port in Propriano for the 14th August, but for some reason it’d been postponed until the Tuesday, so we decided to pop along, have dinner on the port and watch the free concert afterwards.

I really fancied Riva Bella but all the tables had been reserved, which is no surprise really when you consider that their terrace has the perfect view over the make-shift stage on the quay. Eventually we found a spot on the terrace of the No Stress Café which was a miracle given the number of people in the town.

It was only a week or so ago that we’d seen them perform at the Foire de Baracci, so I was worried it might just be a repeat performance, but we both commented on the fact that although some of the songs were the same, there was a really different feel to this performance.

The new camera excelled itself and I managed to get some fabulous photos of Anthony Secondi (one of the singers) and also Sébastien Tramoni (singer, composer & interpretor), but what was great was that there were obviously lots of family members in the crowd – unsurprisingly as they are all local to the Valinco-Sartènais.

This is the last concert of the summer season, and they all seemed a bit ‘demob-happy’; laughing and joking with each other, and involving the crowd. The other concerts have been nothing but professional performances, so it was nice to see them really enjoying this one. Roll on next summer!

Restaurant A Marinasca, Portigliolo

This morning was one of excitement – first, the new sofa finally arrived after the delivery van had managed to drive into the stone archway knocking out a couple of supporting stones, and then we had to do emergency first aid after I nearly amputated F’s toe whilst we were shifting the old sofa out of the way!

What we should have done is go straight to the hospital at Sartène or at the very least, the pharmacy for some steri-strips. What we actually did was go for lunch at the Restaurant A Marinasca in the hope of anaesthetising the foot with a drop of Saparale rosé wine!

We’ve been to this restaurant before and what I like about it is that the food is always delicious, but they change the menu which doesn’t tend to happen too often in Corsica. This time we chose the gnoccheti with mushrooms, red onions, cherry tomatoes and mussels (yummy!) and the dish of the day which was spinach spaghetti with a delicious home made pesto sauce, white fish and cherry tomatoes.

lthough we were chatting in French, the waiter obviously picked up on my English accent and was keen to impress us with his linguistics. Sadly, they only extended to ‘there you go, enjoy your meal’ but at least he tried bless him!

15 August - Fête de l'Assomption

The 15th August is the Fête de l'Assomption which is celebrated all across the island. Of course, I had no idea what that actually was, except that we get a fabulous firework display – what more do I need to know?

However, I knew that my natural curiosity – some say nosiness, but I disagree! – would get the better of me, and I very quickly found myself on Google looking it up. According to the Roman Catholic faith (amongst others), ‘Assumption’ was the day that the Virgin Mary was taken up to heaven at the end of her life. Ah, that explains the candlelit church procession then…

At 11pm, the lights of the port (and more worryingly the lighthouse!) were doused, and the first huge boums were quickly followed by the twinkling coloured lights of the fireworks over the bay.

This year we were treated to three displays all on the same night, so not only could we see the huge kaleidoscope patterns over the port, but another display somewhere across the bay reflecting on the water.

The main display lasted about half an hour and just as that finished, the one at Porto Pollo started up. At first I wasn’t sure whether the ‘pop, pop’ sounds where a by product of the start of the hunting season, or something else but the deep black of the sky was soon broken again with falling glitter.

Calvi and Bonifacio have perhaps the most exciting celebrations as their displays are in the form of ‘son et lumière’ sound and light shows projected on to their respective Citadels, but the 15th August also marks the birth of Emperor Napoleon 1st, which make this date the high point of the summer season in Ajaccio…

Sunset over the Tour de Capo Nero

Today started off a bit overcast but after an hour or two of apocalyptic looking skies and the odd flash of lightning, it brightened up sufficiently to do a 10km hike up the hill – I’m not entirely sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing?!

It also gave us the most amazing sunset, and with the new camera and its super-duper zoom, I was even able to get a decent shot of the Genoese tower ‘Tour de Capo Nero’ which is miles away!

Tonight is the start of the 15th August celebrations (Fête de l'Assomption), so at 9pm the church bells started for the candlelit procession, and then 10pm there was another free concert by Svegliu d’Isula on the port although they were drowned out initially by the over enthusiastic bell ringer from the church (or someone who forgot to turn the tape off!). Tomorrow will be the biggest firework display of the year, so I’d better start charging the camera batteries now...

Cippiniello, Baracci & Vitricella - a trio of beaches!

This morning we’d intended to be on the beach bright and early, as we were going to attempt a sport of trespassing! Whilst technically there are no private beaches in Corsica, some are bordered completely by private land, making access impossible except by boat.

We’d decided to go to the far end of Baracci plage and try a spot of ‘escalade’ to get to the Plage de Cippiniello which is one such beach. Unfortunately, after a rather nasty near-amputation injury the day before, proper rock/hiking shoes were out of the question, so we quickly abandoned plan A, and headed back to the car and on to Vitricella.

We found a fabulous spot just at the waters edge and backed by trees in case we needed to retreat from the sun. It wasn’t long before we were joined by first one young family and then another, keen to make the most of the shallow waters and thick golden sand – the very best for making sand castles!

Within 2 hours, I felt like a giant in the land of midgets (not for the first time in Corsica!) and we were surrounded by toddlers of all nationalities. Some of the parents were apologetic that our bit of R&R in the sun had gone for a burton, so we decided to return the consideration and leave them to it so that the kids could laugh and scream to their hearts content with a clear conscience!

Olmeto Plage

I’d managed to pull a calf muscle climbing over a gate on private land (trespassing is not something I’d recommend generally speaking!), so as it didn’t get any better with my morning walk, I decided that as I was already halfway to Olmeto Plage, I’d see if a swim would help.

Sunday mornings are the best time for the beach in August. Those arriving on the flights from the UK haven’t yet arrived, and those already here tend to have a well earned lie-in, so there was just a smattering of people dotted along the sand.

This is absolutely my favourite stretch of beach in the Valinco – perhaps in Corsica – so after my swim I was happy to amuse myself with a spot of people watching. The bay was full of boats of all descriptions; dinghies to yachts, sailing boats to little motorboats, but by far the most interesting was the one that looked like they had a nun on board...

I’d only got the little camera with me as opposed to the one with the huge zoom, so I had to wonder in ignorance for quite a while before they came close enough to the shore for me to work out that it was actually a teatowel and not a wimple she was wearing which did make a bit more sense when you come to think about it!

There was even an ‘ahh’ moment when I caught sight of the kids fishing from the rocks. They had a long cane fishing rod that was dangling into the shallows so I wasn’t sure they’d catch anything larger than a tiddler, but they seemed content.

There is no peace for the wicked and after about an hour I heard the familiar tunes of the mobile ringing in my bag so it was time to limp back to work. It was then that I discovered that my car is front wheel drive which came as a bit of a relief as otherwise I would have been calling one of the much maligned 4x4 drivers to come and get the car out of the little ditch next to where I’d parked...

Svegliu d’Isula in Concert, Baracci

Perhaps the best known of the Corsican groups is I Muvrini (who sang with Sting), who regularly tour the island, and we’d intended to go to the Sartène concert, but when I discovered that Svegliu d’Isula would be playing at the Baracci fair on the same night, there was really no contest.

Svegliu d’Isula – which translates as 'awakening of the island' – originate from the Valinco Sartenais and so despite their rise to fame locally and on the continent since 2007, we are often privy to free concerts in the region - HURRAH!

This weekend, the concert was the highlight of the Foire de Baracci country fair. We’d arrived early to pick up some unusual bits and bobs such as a handbag made entirely from zips(!) which sounds odd but is actually very creative, and some delicious fig jam.

I am a country girl at heart so I love the Baracci area, and I have always been fascinated by the ‘Hotel de Baracci’ which apparently was built in the 1900’s by Russian immigrants.  The building is really more reminiscent of those found in the north of the island, with Italianate styling and sunbleached façade, which unfortunately has fallen to wrack and ruin.

It is actually a travesty that this building has not been transformed into a boutique hotel or something similar, but when you see it in the cold harsh light of day, you can appreciate the amount of money that would be needed. Nonetheless, every time I pass I can’t help feeling just a little sad…

Being a country fair, there was the usual collection of food stalls and we decided on a couple of Brochettes de Veau (spit roast free range veal kebabs in a hunk of baguette) with a couple of glasses of moonshine (optimistically classed as wine, but no label on the bottle and you wouldn't want to smoke and drink at the same time!) from the little shack erected at the edge of the building.

OK, so as we got closer to the front of the queue I was slightly disturbed at the lack of health and safety (huge flames very close to bamboo type stuff) and the environmental health would have had a field day with the bloke using what looked like gardening gloves to hold the meat whilst he hacked bits off with a saw(!), but it tasted scrummy so that's all that counts I guess...

The grounds were packed with locals and tourists alike and we ate to the sounds of a couple of local groups; Armunia di Vigna and Doministra, before the main concert started at 21h30. There were people everywhere, sitting at tables, on the ground, in the trees and perched on walls.

Each song was explained in French and Corsican. They explained that the language of Corsica should be kept alive and how it is shameful that so many local languages such as ‘Bonifacien’ has been lost over the years. This is what true nationalism is all about, and I have never felt so ignorant and foreign in all my years in Corsica.

The other illuminating moment of the evening - if you'll pardon the pun - was when we came to leave and realised just how dark the dark can be in Corsica. There are no street lights at Baracci and I could feel myself walking on something squidgy, so I was almost glad that the thousands of tiny stars lighting up the night were not bright enough to show me where I was going!

EVVIVA CORSICA!

Foire de Baracci (Baracci Country Fair)

During July and August it seems that there is a fair on every week (well, perhaps not quite!) but this weekend was the Foire de Baracci.

As usual there was very little publicity for what is locally a very important event. The banner over the road to Olmeto had been scrunched up by the wind and there were just a few fluorescent arrows along the road.  Helpfully, these had also fallen victim to the wind and they were all facing in contradictory directions, so I was amazed that anyone actually found the thing!

The surrounding fields had been mown to provide free and easy parking, but of course the thought of walking 30m was too much for the locals, so they most of them had parked in the middle of the road, literally along the white lines so there is no room to pass in either direction unless your car is the size of a Tonka toy!

This one is definitely worth a visit though as the setting is absolutely lovely and so rural you'd never believe you are only about 1km from the sea and the fabulous beaches of the Valinco. There was the usual selection of local produce such as olive oils, jams, trinkets, jewellery, oil paintings and some impressive water colours.

The kids were well catered for by Baracci Natura who’d rigged up a zip wire in the trees surrounding the tennis courts. Goodness knows how they did it in time as none of it was there when I’d walked by first thing in the morning.

Behind the tennis courts the local commune had made sure the swings and slides had been cleared before the fair, and there there was also a manège (merry-go-round) on the tennis courts. M. d’Istria was there to offer donkey rides as usual, but this time they had to run the gauntlet of the flock of sheep that had moved into the second tennis court and seem to have eaten the net…

Responsible Tourism

August in Corsica brings two things in abundance; dust and camping cars. The dust I can cope with (especially when people write friendly notes on the back of my car!), but the camping cars can be a bit of a menace. This was brought home to me this morning whilst we were out walking and came across a very ‘green’ notice written on a recyclable paper bag and attached with twigs.

It seems that a campervan had illegally camped overnight next to the river, leaving behind all kinds of detritus even including old pots and a camping stove (not something you should leave lying around in the shrubbery on an island as dry as tinderwood). OK, so the shepherd cleared it up this time, but who will be there next time?

It got me thinking that a timely reminder about responsible tourism wouldn’t go amiss…

1. Don’t litter! Mum always told us to put our rubbish in our pockets or a bag and take it home with us - sound advice.

2. Avoid picking wild flowers as they may be endangered.

3. Dispose of cigarettes carefully – approximately a third of the island is wooded and it only takes a moment of carelessness to destroy hectares and hectares of countryside.

4. Take an interest in the community in which you are staying and behave in a way that will not offend local people or their beliefs, or more importantly damage the land or endanger their livelihoods.

5. Be aware that water supplies can be limited - take showers as opposed to baths, try use washing machines and dishwashers sparingly, and only when full.

6. Don’t leave air-conditioning units running when you go out. The locals have dealt with the heat for years with the use of shutters. The simple ideas are often the best!

OK, lecture over!!

Mancinu Plage

For some reason I had a Julie Andrews moment this morning and was up at the crack of dawn cheerfully making clothes from curtains (metaphorically speaking!), so by 9:30am I’d broken the back of the days work and was on the look out for something to occupy me.

This morning I wasn’t intending to swim and although it was hot enough to sunbathe, I really wanted to just sit on the beach and indulge in a spot of people watching, so Mancinu was perfect. It sits just between the town and the harbour, and it’s here that most of the water sports start, so there are plenty of comings and goings.

Fortunately, I had my glasses on because otherwise I would have been quite convinced that my eyes were playing tricks on me when I spotted a car crossing paths with a yacht in the bay! It turns out that it was a ‘James-Bond-amphibian’ style pedalo with a slide on the front – how cool is that! I definitely need to have a go at that next time.

The beach itself was surprisingly quiet until about 11am, with only the odd canoe passing and peals of laughter from the kiddiwinks running in and out of the water, but then I suppose most people were indulging in a bit of a lie-in – it is Sunday after all!