Calcatoggio to Bastia

Today would ne the day we wee moving hotels again.....this time making our way from Calcatoggio through Corte to Bastia.....of course including some smaller villages in the Castagniccia region, namley Morosaglia and La Porta.

We were lucky with the weather...another beautiful day....sun shining and it would reach 30 degrees in Bastia....we left around 9:30 and made our way to Corte...the natural park of Corsica (Parc Naturel Regional de Corse) around Corte coveres more than a third of the island, and is home to many scenic spectacles, a lot of those are discovered more on foot but the drive for us was beautiful again...very different scenery...a lot of dense forrests and woodlands hiding tiny villages. In fact some of the smaller one definitely does not encounter many tourists. Corte, however, had quite a few tourists as it is quite a big city. We went to the old town and explored the old town and had a cappuccino on the main square. Kim also managed to buy a typical Corsica knife (they are very good at making knifes and that is something you can find almost everythwre, and they are beautiful). Let me share some pics of Corte.

Scenery before Corte

Forrests

Scenery before Corte

Old town of Corte

View point in Corte

Me at the view point

Some Corte houses

After that....time to make our way to the smaller in the Castagniccia region....on the way we stopped at a quaint little place to buy some macaroons....unfortunately i forgot to take pics.....sorry...and there were some seats outside so Kim and i had our lunch picnic of some typical Corsican goodies....Corsican melon and cold cuts...rather yummie. On the road again we loved the peacuful forrests which are dotted with quaint hilltop villages, small hamlets and beautiful churches. All the old, traditional houses are stone-roofed and some are even completely stone-made....whilst driving we also ancountered some cows...and this time we had to just take some pictures....hahaha....time to share some pics....

Stone-roofed houses (note the front of the pic, it is a roof)

Kim driving between the cows

Close-up

Me with the stone-roofed churhch

Of course this region is not called Castignaccia for no reason....this area is known for all the chestnut trees....hence they have a lot of products made from chestnuts...and trust me...kim and i tried a lot of them...in fact one of my blogs will be decicated to the chestnut products that we tried....and of course i will give my opinion on all of them....hahaha. For those of you who do not know what a tree looks like....here we go....

Chestnut tree

Me trying to pick a chestnut

Our final stop before Bastia was in La Porta in a small local bar....beautiful village...with all the typical stone-roofed houses and beautiful piazza with the church.

Chruch

Now...time to reach Bastia and explore a little.....we were hot and wanted to shower. Once we arrived in our hotel....posta vecchia with sea view and perfect motorbike parking, we showered and relaxed a little bit before exploring Bastia. Actually....let me correct...before reaching the hotel we stopped for ice-cream....three scoops...chestnut, cookie and some funny one with biscotto and vanilla, i do not rememeber the name...but it was bery yummie...and the cone...waffle biscuit...not plastic like biscuit....so...yes, that was amazing. I will share pics later in my chestnut blog...hahaha. After our rest we wee not in the mood to explore but we thought let's relax and enjoy a little with an aperitivo...and this time was actually the first time we received some snacks....amazing black, salted olives and some fresh bread sticks....yummie....i needed something savoury, hahaha.

Aperitivo

Dinner we chose a place in the old harbour and we actually decided to have a set menu. We chose a place called La Barcarolle because we thought the set menu looked quite nice...there were still some things we wanted to try and the set menu seemed to feauture them....let me share a pic of the set menu.

Set menu

For starters Kim and i chose together and shared the cheese beignets and the swordfish carpaccio....the carpaccio was absoloutely amazing...the beignets not quite what we expected. In fact, we expected these small ones (like the ones at breakfast filled with chocolate) but these wer huge and had a lot of cheese....not something i would order again...only if there is four of you to share cause they make you quite full...but still nice to try....

Beignets

Swordfish Carpaccio

For mains Kim chose the Pizza and i chose the mussels with french fries (i wanted the sardines but they did not have). The pizza was a little bit disappointing, not a lot of topping, but then again...maybe not the best choice. The mussels were very nice and a large portion. We decided to share a little bit and in fact we went half and half.....

Pizza

Mussels with french fries

For dessert Kim chose ice-cream (chocolate and vanilla) and the very flavoursome, a good ice-cream while i went for th chestnut flan....definitely could taste the chestnut....and i did enjoy it....i will share the pic only in my chestnut blog....hahaha....we also accompanied all this with a local red wine and afterwards kim also enjoyed a cigar....a great way to spend our last evening in Corsica. Tomorrow we would explore some mountain villages around Bastia and Brando di Erbalinga and then our ferry would depart at 2pm which means getting on around 12:30pm....so for now...cheers from me....we chat soon.....last leg of Corsica domani.

 

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