The old Genoese fortress town
of Calvi juts out across a bay, bordered by a semicircle of fine white sand.
Walking here on our first evening, along the boardwalk that runs the length of
the beach, it became clear why this is such a popular tourist destination, with
its fine sand and gently shelving water.
As we walked we passed by
groups of young men in the bars alongside the marina, hair close cropped;
legionnaires off duty maybe. We wandered up through the cobbled streets of the
old town, soaking up the atmosphere and taking in the views across the bay,
with snow capped mountains in the distance.
We stopped on the way down
at Annie Traiteur, an Aladdin’s cave of cured meats and cheeses, to buy locally
produced coppa (cured pork), mature sheep’s cheese and peaches for supper,
complemented by a half bottle of pink Muscat. We also bought brocciu, a soft
sheep’s cheese commonly used in omelettes and cannelloni, both flavoured with
fresh mint.
And if we’d wanted to explore
a little further, running parallel, between the walkway and sand is a narrow
gauge railway, which goes to the exclusive resort of Ile de la Rousse one way,
and into Calvi the other, where one can connect to trains for Ajaccio and
Corte, Corse’s old capital in the centre of the island.
In the morning we decided to
rest by the pool and swim and then walk again into the old town, this time
climbing to the top of the citadel to enjoy the views. The bay is visited by cruise ships on a regular basis, including one you can see in the following picture that was also equipped with masts and sails!
Alas, our sunny idyll wasn’t
to last and on day three the heavens opened and we were deluged with two days
of rain. We opted to sit it out until the skies cleared as we had plans for a
walk up to Occi, an abandoned village northeast of here, with stupendous views
across to the coast.
A special mention before we
sign off from Calvi to our lovely camping neighbours at La Pinède, Nils, Ilka, toddler
Lisa and baby Julie. It was a pleasure to meet you!
J&S
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