Sunday morning, we arose to the sweet aroma of a fire
somewhere in the mountains. We packed up our villa, had “little lunch” (as the
French would say), said goodbye to our Dutch friends (who had looked up
Giorgio’s band the night before), paid the bill (for a change) and said goodbye
to Madame Richeleux* and Casa Capellini. Next stop: Porto Vecchio.
We would be picking up the highway headed south in a town
called Aleria. A quick look to see if there was anything of interest there
became possibly a top discovery of the trip. First: Aleria is a wine region. WHAT
WHAAAAT!? Sadly, since it was Sunday, and also only 10 a.m., the three or so wineries we tried were
all closed (something we’d learn later was a theme), but we’ll be passing back
through en route to Bastia on Wednesday, so all is not lost.
In BETTER developments, 1.5 km north of Aleria is a Etang de
Diana, a lagoon that is home to Corsica’s finest oysters (and mussels).
Something about the tide makes them extra delicious. So delicious in fact, that
when Napoleon was occupying Italy, he kept his connection to his
homeland…because FYI Napoleon was a Corsican…by having oysters shipped in by
the boatload. We pulled into the recommended restaurant on the Etang, and were
the first seated with our oyster fork in hand when service started at 12 (from
a nice English speaking teenager we’ll call Marie).
Verdict: possibly best oysters I’ve ever had.
As we walked to the car both of us thought maybe we should
use the WC before hitting the road again, but then again…we can wait the hour
until we get to PV. Wrong. We must have stopped at three places to try, and
every one was closed. When we finally did find an open gas station I raced so
quickly past the attendant I somehow missed it when he yelled in Corsican that
the bathroom was out of order. Seemed fine to me!. He was none to happy when I
came out, and thus continues our winning streak with the fine people of
Corsica.
We made it to PV, and Liza finally get her
pee on, about 20 mins later. Our hotel is just around the bend near the city’s
port, and we upgraded from a garden view to a sea view. The kindly hotelier,
Madame Elmer Fudd, sadly informed us we were 45 mins early for check in, so we
decided to make use of the afternoon by hitting the beach.
Lonely Planet called PV’s Palombaggia the finest beach in
Corsica. Having just been to Saleccia, I had my doubts, and in the end…while
Palombaggia was definitely beautiful, Saleccia still wins the day. We lounged
around judging people, I got my snork on, and we ended with some beers on the
beach. Not a bad way to wind down the afternoon.
For the evening we cleaned up and headed into the town
center, which sits high on a hill, as does pretty much everything on this
goddam trip. The restaurant, L’Antigu, had been recommended by two books and
our hotelier, so was hard to argue…and it was fantastic. For starters we had
some egglant with goat cheese and a zucchini beignet in a tomato coulis, and for entrees I had a
filet of pork in a local honey sauce, and Liza had a local fish in a (non-powdery) bouillabaisse sauce. We were so stuffed after those we could hardly think of the fromage and
raspberry parfait we had coming as part of our set menu, and yet SOMEHOW we managed.
Both of us were totally exhausted by the end of dinner, so
we did a quick stroll around the town before heading home. The town center
reminds me a lot of San Fran, in that you find a number of cute places (both to
shop, eat and drink in) tucked down little pedestrian alleys. After only about
ten mins of walking we changed our plans to have dinner here again tomorrow
night along with a bar crawl to get the full PV POV. Hopefully we’ll also meet
some friends with yachts.
And then we ended the night with Bridesmaids...again.
Bottles of wine:
2
Oysters:
18
Hotel bills paid (for a change):
1
New favorite mom (after my own)
Laurie B.
Sunday's cow bet winner:
Liza (with 3)
Sunday's chicken bet winner:
No one (WHO KNEW YOU HAD TO HAVE A CHICKEN BET TOO!?)
Corsican visitors adopting the pirate lifestyle
2
*We’ve decided to just make up names for every person we
meet from henceforth.
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