Corsica Bike Tour

After three airplanes, a bus trip through Paris, and 24 tiring hours, I arrived in Porticcio, Corsica from Richmond, Va. Consuming a fine dinner and some Corsican wine helped me sleep almost 12 hours to rejuvenate somewhat. The five star hotel where we're starting our trip is several stars above our normal habitations. Here some of the guest arrive in helicopters and motorcades, but usually we're staying at places where folks arrive by bike or normal auto.

Today was a rest day, but after assembling my bike and repairing minor equipment issues with duct tape, I took off up the mountain to Bastilica. One of the things one quickly notices is that the village signs all have the names written two ways, and often one way has been crossed out by the island's purists as in the photo below -



I passed this beautiful lake and was struck by its unusual color -



A little later I began to think I was in a WW II movie as I encountered dozens of vintage U. S. military vehicles filled with folks in old military garb, all of which flew American flags. When I found a restaurant jammed with these"soldiers," I stopped to see what was the occasion. I was told that 66 years ago today the American army liberated Corsica, the first part of France to be freed from the German occupation. It's apparently a big day on the island that is celebrated with much fanfare every year. Just maintaining those vehicles in mint condition is a huge chore, and I was significantly impressed by their appreciation of the American war effort even after so many years.






Today's pedalling - 42 miles with 4,000 feet of vertical.

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 2

Today we rode north along the coast a bit before turning inland and quickly were treated to this view of the deck(right of photo) of our previous hotel with Ajaccio in the background -



A similar view as we pedalled higher up the mountain -



Heading ENE up through an amazing stand of eucalyptus trees lining both sides of the road, I've never seen such amazing bark on a tree, but my camera couldn't do it justice. There were also cork trees whose valuable bark had been harvested, giving them a naked appearance. Our ride today took us through the fabulous views in the mountains of central Corsica to the tiny village of Zicavo -



Mountain switchbacks are our bread and butter -





Just as I feared, our hotel this night deserved barely one star. Even though all bathrooms had bidets, some of us had to endure a communal toilet at the end of the hall. Go figure.... At least the food at dinner was delicious as it was plentiful.

49 miles with 5,000 feet of vertical.

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 2

good stuff Tim...keep on rockin mon ami

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 1

Tim,
Thanks for the travelogue! Looks like beautiful countryside, but too many hills

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 2

Nice Tim. And here I thought Corsica was Italian.
The picture of the jeep has a car in it that I remember from many movies about WW II in France.

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 1

Great photos Tim. Wish I could say that I envy you, but 42 miles in 4000 vertical feet? Maybe another time.
Look forward to the rest of the trip!
PJ in Q

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 1

Great photos Tim. Wish I could say that I envy you, but 42 miles in 4000 vertical feet? Maybe another time.
Look forward to the rest of the trip!
PJ in Q

Click to expand...

This is one tough island. Home to Napoleon and the 4th largest island in the Med.

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 1

Oops, missed that last bit with 49 miles and 5000 vertical...still, maybe another day, but not any day soon!!

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 3

Today's ride took us due north through the center of Corsica along a mountain ridge covered with gorgeous, huge pines in a protected forest. The bad news was that one of my riding pals went down hard on a rapid downhill descent leaving a lot of skin on the road and collecting some of the most amazing, purply bruises I've ever seen. Luckily our tour van was right behind him when he crashed and was able to give immediate medical attention. My brave friend got back on the "horse" to ride the final two hours with us to our next hotel in Corte. This night's lodging was a much nicer hotel with plenty of porcelain for everyone. Also tonight's dinner of trout was the best fresh water fish I've ever eaten. Before the main dish we enjoyed huge salads and pasta to fuel tomorrow's ride.

Forest critters roaming wild -



Typical Corsican mountain village -



Solitude -




52 miles, 5,300 feet of up.

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 4

We rode some more through the forests today, and I witnessed a stupid tourist feeding some of the many feral pigs that we encounter along the roads. The pigs were almost in full attack mode as the tourists retreated rapidly towards their car.

Peacefully roaming pigs without tourists' influence -



Bustling tourist village of Porto -





Porto's streets were jammed with tourists on a Wednesday in September. The Corsican economy seems to be thriving. One in our party has read that only 3,000 Americans come here annually, so we've added .3% to that statistic. With so few American visitors, we're rather an oddity on Corsica. Sometimes we're stopped in restaurants by local folks who want to talk about our country, its culture, politics, etc. I have to admit to really enjoying being in a place where almost no English is spoken anywhere. Practically all the other tourists here are French with a few Germans sprinkled into the mix. We've encountered a lot of young folks hiking the island and some other bike groups.

57 miles, 5,100 feet of vertical

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 5

Andy,

You're right about Corsica's being Italian, but that was back even before your time, the Genoan period several centuries ago when thousands of towers like the one pictured below were built to guard the island's ports -









Even though today was billed as a rest day, some of us did a short ride up to Piana and back. Scenery was magnificent along the coast, but the tour busses were disgorging hundreds of tourists, so I didn't tarry. One of the busses is shown in the below photo to give a reference to the enormous scale of the rock formations -




13 miles with 1,400 feet of vertical

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 3

Tim, Great reporting and photos, as usual... Thanks for sharing with us!

By the way, Gary wants to know if one of those goats is named, "Thunder".

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 3

Toni,

Neither goat introduced himself, but there was an entire herd, so it's quite possible there was a "Thunder" in there.

Lest I give the wrong impression, except in the few touristy spots we visited, animals outnumbered autos on the roads in the mountains. Corsica was the most peaceful place I've ever biked.

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 6

Today we rode north along the coast enjoying spectacular views of the blue Meditarrean waters as well as the adjacent mountains. We had lunch at a hidden roadside resto with great views from its balcony and even greater food. Huge sandwiches with local bread, meats, cheezes and backyard veggies cost 5 Euros.



Beautiful old roofless buildings with no signs of fire. What happened to the roofs? Your guess is as good as mine -



Unfortunately a rapidly moving virus(mal de Corse) has decimated half of our group, but a local pharmacist has filled them with drugs which we hope will get them quickly back on their pedals. Some of my pals and I enjoyed a fabulous fish dinner of the local fish, dourade, and worred if mal de Corse was headed our way.

53 miles with 2,900 feet of up

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 7



From the coast, over the mountains, and down to the coast we go. Today brought us just a little rain, but gale force wind gusts hit us throughout the day. On several occasions as we lightweights fought to maintain control of our bikes, I was reminded of the time I got blown off my bike in St. B. If the winds caught us perfectly from behind, we could easily coast along at 16 mph without pedalling. Of course, they more often caught us from the side or the front....Yesterday we passed a dozen wind turbines, none of which were moving. There was much discussion as to how fast those rascals might be spinning in today's condisions.



59 miles with 3,700 feet of up.

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 8

We left Calvi today in light rain as we made our way north along the coast. The photo below was taken in the village of Nunzo after we pedalled out of the early morning rain. Too bad there was no sun as this is one of the most photogenic villages on Corsica -





A large abandoned mining operation, which can be seen as the scar on the earth in the below photo, and its adjacent processing factory caused much discussion as we passed it just landward of the coast road. Some reserch showed it to be a former asbestos operation. Local scuttlebutt has it that the waste product from the operation was dumped into the sea, thereby turning the beaches gray in that area. The beaches I saw over there were indeed gray....



Stopping a couple of hours later for snacks proved to be a wise move as it started raining buckets and continued to do so. Several of us holed up in a tiny restaurant in the small village of Minervio while our tour van ferried groups of riders over to tonight's hotel just a couple of miles from Bastia, one of Corsica's largest cities. Tomorrow is a rest day, and I'm looking forward to doing some shopping there.

25 paltry miles with 1,500 feet of climbing before the big rains

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 9

Well, so much for shopping this morning. The illness that hit my companions has found its way into my old body, and the last thing I want is to be more than fifty feet away from a familiar toilet. Thank goodness today was a rest day, so I didn't have to deal with this problem on the road. Mal de Corse, YUK!

As bad as I felt I still didn't want to exchange beds with the folks in this hotel -

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 10

Leaving on this beautiful clear morning, we pedalled through Bastia, Corsica's largest town. The traffic presented a challenge but not for long as we quickly made our way out of town to a small coastal road headed north. Within an hour or so we were back in the mountains. Seeing the island of Elba reminded us of how close we are to Italy. It appears that a day of rest cured my "mal de Corse."

Neatest old house award -



Tallest steeple award -



Coolest dualest waterfall award -





66 miles with 5,200 feet of up

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 11

Back through the mountains today to the university town of Corte as we work on our figure 8 around Corsica. Today was another wonderfully clear day for photos and biking.

Our guides stop to provide the group with water and nourishment -



At this mid-day stop, on the far right note my young British friend who has seven decades of experience. A very nice guy, he had one really obnoxious fault in that he could climb past me and several others like we were sitting still -


Share the road -





53 miles with 4,800 feet of climbing

Re: Corsica Bike Tour - Day 11

Tim, i have been enjoying your posts daily, i have wanted to go to corsica, and maybe this will prompt a trip, thanks again erik