Bastia to Calvi

So the ferry took us from Livorno to Bastia. We had to board at 6:30 and just after 8 the ferry left and we arrived at 12:30. First we ate some breakfast inside at the bar and after that we went out on deck and enjoyed some sun and a snooze. The time went quite quick. We also had a small lunch snAck before leaving so that we would not have to stop for lunch as soon as we arrived....in fact we wanted to get going. We left the ferry terminal at 1pm and headed north from Bastia....the drive was stunning....let me share some pics....this was the part north of Bastia (Cap Corse area) before we turned to go over the montain towards Luri.

Landscape
Landscape
Landscape
Kim on the bike
We passed Luri (mountain village) until we reached the west side of the island and we drove until we found a cute little restaurant where we decided to have some lunch....the area was called Barrettali and the restaurant....there was no name i could see and i forgot to ask for a business card...oops...anyway, we had great views and enjoyed an amazing Corsican salad with smoked ham....it was delicious...and the tomatoes so damn juicy. Let me share some pics....
View
Lunch
Me after lunch
After lunch, time to make our way to Calvi through Nonza and then to the Desert des Agriates. The Desert des Agriates is a barren, wild and beautiful wilderness based west of Saint-Florent, along the coast and around Mont Genova, in the Balagne region of northern Corsica. The Desert des Agriates is the only 'official' desert in Europe. It is more of a dry, scrub covered landscape than the 'typical' type of desert that you might imagine. Let me share some pics....
Around Saint-Florent
Desert des Agriates
Desert des Agriates
Once we exited the desert we entered an area that is known for wines, especially red (and some rose) called Patrimonio. So we thought, if we see a place for tasting, we would do a quick stop...and we were lucky...we found a small one on the side of the road called Clos Santini. As we entered we asked whether we could try a little bit and he asked us which ones. We opted for the traditional red and the traditional rose. They were both very nice, light wines but flavoursome, so yes, we ended up buying a bottle of the red wine. Let me share some facts...in 1968, Patrimonio was established as Corsica's first Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC). Today, Corsica has nine AOC regions including the island-wide designation Vin de Corse AOC. The majority of the wine exported from Corsica falls under the Vin de pays designation Vin de Pays de l'Île de Beauté (Country wine from the Island of Beauty). The three leading grape varieties of the region are Nielluccio, known as the spice wine of France, Sciacarello and Vermentino.
Corsica's wine regions: (1) Cap Corse, (2) Patrimonio, (3) Calvi, (4) Ajaccio, (5) Sartène , (6) Figari, (7) Porto-Vecchio, (8) Greater Vin de Corse region. The Muscat du Cap Corse region overlaps with part of the Cap Corse and Patrimonio regions.

Here is a pic from our wine tasting....the aim for me is to try the wines from each of the regions which we are visiting; Cap Corse (i tried the white wine at lunch), Patrimonio (i tried rose and red and the tasting), Calvi (white at apertifo, rose for dinner, kim red for dinner).

Wine tasting
Rose and red wine
After that...time to get to Calvi and relax a little bit. We found our Motel in Calvi, very convenient location, clean and that is where i stop the description...hahaha. Anyway, like the first night, we literally dumped our bags and then made our way to the town...exploring the fort and after that the harbour area. We started our evening with an aperitifo at an Irish pub cause Kim felt like a guiness, hahaha...i tried the local wine from the Calvi region. Then at around 8pm we found a quaint little restaurant where we loved the decor and hence decided to eat...the place was called A Cicala, let me share a pic of the decor...
A Cicala
There were a few dishes on the menu that interested me. Starters included fish soup, a charcuterie (cold meat) platter, goat cheese salad....mains included red mullet, john dorry, veal casserole, wildboar stew and paella....so in the end kim spotted a menu which included starter, main and dessert and so we decided to each go for that...the choices were 4 starters and 4 mains and 5 desserts.....kim as his starter chose the fish soup and i chose the charcuterie (which was all various pork cold cuts), we both enjoyed them. The fish soup was very interesting, it was all liquid and no bits in it....very different again...great taste, but would be nice to have some actual fish in it....interesting though it came with cheese and a sauce on the side...my cold cuts were also very nice, especially the prisutu which is smoked pork, their charcuterie is a lot leaner than the Italians. Let me share some pics...
Fish soup
Charcuterie
Mains, Kim chose the wildboar stew and i chose the veal casseroll.....wow...the veal was so soft, it was just falling apart, absoloutely amazing. I really enjoyed it. The interesting fact is that normally veal is only milk fed but in Corsica veal is milk and grass fed, so the meat is slighly more red than normal veal. The wildboard stew was also very nice, not as tender as the veal but still very good, both had amazing sauces. All of the dishes we tried are typical Corsica dishes. Let me share some pics....
Veal casseroll
Wildboar stew
Of course all this was accompanied by wine from Calvi. Kim tried the red wine and i tried the rose....we enjoyed both of them. Dessert, no question, both of us chose the cheese plate. It was small and perfect. The cheese was very good, then again there is not a lot of cheese that i do not like, hahaha. The cheese was accompanied with fresh, cripsy bread and fig jam.
Cheese platter with cheese jam
After that we were stuffed. We carried on enjoying our wine and kim enjoyed smoking a cigar. We are in France, so one is actually allowed to smoke at the table in the restaurants. That was quite nice, i mean the fact that we did not have to move anywhere, we could just carry on enjoying and relaxing. So yes, we had a good first day in Corsica, beautiful scenery, fabulous weather and food....now time to go to bed...tomorrow morning would be an earlish start. So for now...cheers.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wedding time.....my baby sister's wedding

Image
Oh my word....my sister, who wanted to be a nun (inspired by the movie Sister Act), is getting married....and to a guy that suites her perfectly.....we started getting reAdy around lunch time...make up artist, Victor Ortega, was flown in from Manila. He did my sister's, my mom's and my makeup....but now a few steps back...this wedding pre- celebration started on Wednesday night with a Swiss family dinner, Thursday night a pub crawl and Friday night a close family (Aboitiz and Bucher) at a Spanish tapas place (where the food was amazing...first time i tried nero paella)....but to the pub crawl we get later..... Nero Paella Lechon So....the make up artist was fabulous.....he did an amazing job, he also did the hair for the three of us...the other brides maides' make up and hair was done by his entourage.....here a pic of us getting ready for the big event.... My sister and Victor Victor and me I loved how subtle he did it...and then time for pics with t
Read more

Another cruise in Western Caribbean

Image
This is the second week....we started the journey in Tampa and this Tampa we decided to take Sofia to the aquarium...I was quite interested to see whether she would be fascinated with the fishes or not....and she was....certain ones...certain ones not too much....but she definitely enjoyed going there. The aquarium had 8 sections: Wetlands Trail, Journey to Madagascar, Bays & Beaches, No Bone Zone, Coral Reefs, Dragons Down Under, Ocean Commotion and Splash Pad. We visited all except for the Splash Pad (that is outside for the kids to play and it was closed at the moment). It was nice also because there were areas where you could touch the sting rays...I enjoyed that, Sofia did not want to touch them, and nor did Kim. Sofia Enjoying the Aquarium Sofia Enjoying the Aquarium  Sofia in the Playground at the Aquarium Kim Enjoying the Aquarium The following day was VIP and unfortunately Sofia and I did not make it as Sofia was just way too tired....but that'
Read more

First few days in our new home- Dallas TX

Image
So we have arrived in Texas....yay for us....and we have been doing quite a lot...so yes, we have been keeping busy. We arrived on Friday 23rd June in the afternoon at 2pm....after doing immigration, we went to the hotel, dropped off the luggage, literally, and went to fetch our new car....a white Jeep Cherokee....it is so nice....we are soooo excited to have it...beautiful...have a look.... Sofia in the Jeep Kim and the Jeep Cherokee Friday night we had some Sushi take-aways because Sofia was jet lagged, and so were we, so we did not make it to a restaurant with her.  Saturday there was also quite a few admin things to get done...but it was a rainy day....it rained almost the whole day...so we got a bit wet, but it is warm rain......so never mind. We started off by driving past our new home (could not go inside as the current owners were packing up) and then we made our way to McKinney where we have a friend who has been so kind to receive and store all of our post,
Read more