Corsica by Ferry
Corsica sits in the Mediterranean looking vaguely like a clenched fist with the index finger aimed at the Midi. After boarding at the Midi, the ferries land you - and your car if you wish -- at one of several their ports: Bastia, a bustling, handsome city and the closest to France; Ile Rousse or Calvi, resort towns on the Northwest coast; Ajaccio, the capital and Corsica's largest city, further South; and Porto Vecchio, a beach resort near the Southern tip.
There are three kinds of car ferries: a sleek fast one that makes the trip in a few hours; slower large ferries that make it in about six hours (to Bastia; longer to the other ports); and overnight ferries that you board in early evening, have dinner (in a white-table-cloths-and-waiters restaurant or in a cheaper cafeteria); and sleep it off in surprisingly nice cabins with private baths.
In the morning, there's coffee and croissants and you debark. The cost varies according to the season, where you leave from (Nice, Marseille or Toulon), and whether you qualify for a senior or youth discount. The range is $20 to $40 per person, plus a cabin fee if you don't want to sit out the trip on the deck or in a salon. Bringing a car will cost you an additional $25 to $100 (cheapest midweek and out of season).
On a recent trip to Corsica my wife and I took the six-hour ferry (it's cheaper and you can be out on the deck, which is not permitted on the high speed ferries that zip along at over 40 miles per hour.) The crossing was calm, sunny and boring. On the return to France we opted for the overnight boat. Our cabin was large and comfortable, with a shower and regular beds, not stacked bunks. The dinner menu seemed to offer an unexpected treat: alouettes sans tetes (larks without heads).
I had lived in Italy and learned to love an equivalent-sounding dish: a skewer of roasted birds in a fragrant sauce served on a bed of polenta. What the waiter brought, alas, was a plate of noodles with meat sauce and some meatballs rolled in a slice of overcooked beef. The joke was on me� and so was a memorable heartburn. If you are not traveling by car, you might opt for a flight to one of several Corsican airports; that gets you there quicker, but costs a lot more and you'd miss out on a leisurely ocean voyage. I used the trip to read up on this amazingly varied island that offers snazzy beach resorts, forested mountain roads that you share with pigs, goats and cows, wondrous scuba/snorkeling opportunities and upcountry hiking on well-maintained grand randonee trails.
There are interesting local food specialties (better than "headless larks", thank God): goat and sheep cheeses in all degrees of affinement (aging); lean pork sausages (more expensive versions add meat from boars and even donkeys); and air-dried ham similar to prosciutto. Try also the Figari wine: fruity white or a smooth, well-balanced red. Restaurant prices are, as you'd expect, higher at the beach resorts, very modest inland where tourists tend to be economy-minded backpackers. Portions are larger than on the mainland and food tends toward the Italian (much of Corsica belonged to Pisa or Genoa for centuries, and the Corse dialect is very close to Italian). On the whole, a most satisfying, laid back respite from mainland haute cuisine and haute couture. If you crave upscale living even in Corsica, there are two top-flight Relais & Chateaux hotels .
For ferry schedules and prices: www.scn.fr
(phone 334 36 67 95 00 or fax 334 91 56 35 86).
Copyright 2000, Paris New Media, LLC Vic Kramer has been living in France since 1988, when he came for a one year consulting gig in the financial services field, that ended up lasting a decade. He's married to Karen Fawcett - yes, that Karen Fawcett - and also contributes to http://www.worldlyinvestor.com, a site he helped launch.
