Just thought it might be a good idea for a little geography here as to where Corsica is exactly. We pretty much sailed directly south overnight from near Genoa, and tonight we'll go north again tonight towards Cannes.
Ajaccio, you may be wondering how to pronounce it like I did. According to today's guide, Carol, phonetically it sounds like "uh-jack-see-oh". Hopefully that makes sense. There has been a trading post on this site since the 2nd century AD although the island itself has signs of population from much earlier. For hundreds of years it was under the rule of the Genoese Republic until 1764 when Corsica with its rebellious citizens was sold to France. During the late 19th century it became a European holiday resort town and many of the grand buildings in old town are from that time period.
Much of the island is covered with thick forest and low brush called maquis. Apparently it's a fairly unique kind of forest as it doesn't get terribly tall, nature's way of keeping trees from toppling on this windy island. In the years of WW2 these forests were the headquarters of the local resistance, the Maquisards, and Ajaccio was the first French city to be liberated from the Nazis in 1943. With it's wild and rugged look Corsica is called “The Isle of Beauty”.
Our first photo stop was just across this old bridge. Most of the road was as narrow as this bridge looks, fairly tricky for the bus driver in some spots.
The gorge runs for about 27 miles through this part of Corsica, with rivers running through it and lakes here and there.
The water of this stream runs down into Lake Tolla.
One side of the stream moved more while the other was more placid.
There were fast and shy lizards running about. There had some colorful markings along with their camouflage.
These pretty yellow flowers are called Immortal. They have sort of a sagey sweet smell that's quite soothing. It's a flower and scent that's used as an essential oil.
We could see Lake Tolla in the distance from here, a reservoir that is as old as I am, meaning it was completed between 1958 and 1960.
Heidi and I took a selfie for our Mom, she likes seeing us together. 🩷
And we needed a photo of Karl and I together here,
as well as one with all six of us. This was our first tour with Wigrens and Millers.
Not sure what these pretty pinkish blossoms were but they were lovely.
The town along the hillside is Tolla itself.
I was taking a photo of these blooms on a spiked bush
when this bee landed on one at just the right angle. I thought it was a pretty cool shot.
Can you see the witch face in this photo?
Driving through the village of Tolla we were able to see some of the older stone construction of the buildings.
Photos out the bus aren't the easiest, Heidi got the village ones for me. The stone here is granite and that's what was used to build homes. Colors could range from gray and beige to ocher and red. These places had a sort of mortar between the irregular stones, others we saw had smaller stones stuffed in the cracks between the larger ones to secure everything in place.
Our last stop was at Le Jardin des Abeilles, or The Garden of the Bees.
As we walked in to the small refreshment stop I passed these various colorful plants and succulents.
They had honeybees here, no surprise thanks to the name, so of course there was honey for sale. There were five different flavors you could try. Three were pretty bitter but the other two were good, but not good enough that I wanted to buy any.
How everyone in this part of the world grows such gorgeous hydrangeas is something I'd like to learn.
We took a walk down to a small stream on the property for a few photos.
It was a nice, peaceful place to listen to the water.
Heidi had me stay put for a photo, as always, my camera is hanging around my neck, ready for snapping a picture.
Waters were cool and clear.
Karl and Mark came down as well to see what was what.
I could have spent more time here, just watching the water go by. Not much I enjoy more than a mountain stream.
Just a quick photo of Heidi and Mark.
The stairs were kind of weird and some were steep but glad we didn't have many of them to climb.
And then it was back to Ajaccio, after making our loop of the Prunelli Gorge. I figure, any day in the mountains is a good day.
Farewell Corsica!
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