Corsica - Ajaccio, beaches and mountains

Sailing out of the harbour of Ajaccio made for a beautiful evening. 

Corsica is somewhere I've never really given any thought to prior to this trip. It is famous for being the birth place of Napoleon Bonaparte. We didn't visit his original home but did get to see a couple of the many statues in the town honouring him. 

Ajaccio had a lovely old world charm to it. No fast food chains to be found here. The people were friendly and life for kids included old fashioned pedal cars and wooded toys. 

This French island is also known for its beaches although the one that the local tourist office girl recommended turned out to be a real dud. Maybe it's like much of Europe - once the main tourist season of July / August is over the place shuts down! We took the local bus which only runs once every hour and ten minutes. 

Unlike this poster there was no restaurant open or decks chairs on the beach when we got there!

Just seaweed but the view was still lovely. 

Rocks and beach towels in the little stretch of sand near the beach in the poster above. Temperature was in the 30s this day so Dani and I opted to catch the returning bus, back into town and try some of the highly recommended Proscuitto and cheeses for lunch. 

Meats were always freshly cut. Fortunately not quite as expensive as some of the meats seen earlier in the trip. 

Our gourmet picnic in the park near Napopleon's statue. Delicious! 

It would have been lovely to head up into the mountains but as always time constraints didn't allow. Probably the next best thing was seeing them from the ocean side as we departed port. It was easy to see why Corscica is called the Mountain in the Sea.