Corsica is a perfect destination for the hungry hiker, writes Elgy Gillespie, especially if you’re a fan of all things sausage
IN CORSICA everybody hikes: empty nesters, tiny grannies, gay couples in their golden years brandishing hiking sticks, grandfathers with tiny grandsons on their backs and dogs at their heels. They call it le rando, from randonner– to hike.
Let’s recall, wistfully, that five weeks of annual vacation is the norm in France – and if that ever changes the world will end for the French, because vacations are their only religion. Try your worst, Sarkozy.
But after a week of hiking through rosy peaks and dining on Corsican sausage wolfed on crusty bread by mountain pools, my hiking buddy and I threw our picnic knife down.
Enough sausage. Enough, we moaned, of wild-boar saucisson, of donkey sausage, of mule chipolatas, of pork terrines, pâté de campagneand rillettes dehorse. Especially rillettes dehorse. Assez de saucisson.
Why so much sausage? Wild boars and goats, cows and sheep wander Corsica's canyons willy-nilly, grazing on aromatic mountain thyme, marjoram, laurel, lavender, lemon balm, scratchy rosemary and a strong local mint known as maquis. This is how Napoleon said Corsica smelled. If you are what you eat, Corsican pigs are made of maquis herbs, and Corsicans of sausages and maquis.
So we grazed on boar, extra-smoky liver sausages called figatelli, home-made coppaand tenderloin, wild boar ragout, omelettes of brocciu, or rosemary-encrusted goat's cheese, and Fleur de Maquisewe cheese with fig jam.
That’s just snacks – le fooding, as they say in France. It’s washed down with amber Pietra beer, perfumed with local chestnuts, maquis herbs and honey, rough red wines, eau de vie or, failing that, Orezza mineral water – iron-rich and somehow tastier.
If herbs perfume this sausage heaven, topography makes Corsica irresistible for hiking, because of Grande Randonnée 20, a take-no-prisoners hiking trail bisecting it from north to south. It’s the toughest, hottest, dustiest hike in all Europe, taking two or three weeks to complete. Other than the tiny train stop of Vizzavona, it passes no villages as it roller-coasters from sea level to 3,000m along its killer 195km. First mapped by a German, it thrashes up and down the island like a dinosaur tail. Despite this, it’s always crowded, even in winter.
But first, a confession: my hiking buddy and I did not tote 30kg of gear while scaling 1,500m rock faces in 40-degree heat. We hiked rando à liberté-style, with just our sausage, cheese and Orezzo in daypacks and took chunks out of routes around the ancient capital of Corte at whim.
Rando à libertémeans a company takes your bags to the next hostel. We just headed back nightly to the citadel of Corte for boar stew, nightlife and clean sheets on €15 beds in a hotel where we bunked in with 50 gendarmes. As it happened, Corsican liberationists had blown up their barracks in Corte; hence many young trainees at breakfast.
To break ourselves in on day one, we hiked Forêt du Tavignano above the cloud line for 15km towards a bridge over rapids, where Rando Buddy (my godson) tried out modified versions of le canyoning.Translation: plunging into a waterfall to let it pummel your shoulders like a burly masseur. Fifteen more kilometres gets you to the 1,500m-high Refuge de la Sega hostel; we surrendered to sausage baguettes.
The next day, we cooled off in nearby pools. The day after we tried a near-vertical scramble up granite boulders to Cascades des Anglais(English Waterfalls), reached via a tiny train to Vizzavona. The trinighellu, nicknamed Train à Grand Vibration, or TGV, is not to be missed.
The GR20 crosses the East-West Mare a Mare trail here. A steady stream of hikers passes Vizzavona’s crossroad, seduced by its friendly hostel, tiny strawberries, mountain streams and pine-framed views, plus ever-popular chef-stationmaster Rosy at Restaurant de la Gare and his beautiful daughter.
After "canyoning" more waterfalls, we checked out Rosy's prix-fixe €13 lunch: homemade leek tart with pizzetusmoked bacon lardons followed by Haricôts de Soissons, a sausage cassoulet braised slowly with fava beans, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. Vizzavona also offers a side trip to Hotel Monte Del Oro, an historic hotel with a leafy forecourt for aperitifs among laricio pines. Natural air-conditioning drew holidaying naval families here in Victorian times; hence the "Cascades des Anglais". More recently, Dorothy Carrington stayed here, author of the classic Granite Island.
The “supertrain” set off for Corte over Pont de Vecchiu Bridge, built by Gustav Eiffel in the 1880s to ferry naval officers’ wives. We were admiring a plunging gorge when suddenly it stopped dead. A boulder as big as an exercise ball had avalanched just ahead and ripped out our coolant tank. We were in a tight crevasse next to a ravine, wondering if the FLCN (Corsican Liberation Front) were targeting tourism again.
Together, we French, Italian, Spanish, German, Hungarian and American hikers stared down the gorge and awaited a rescue engine, which came fast. Our TGV limped slowly home, leaving us ready for the holy grail of hikes on the next day.
The Val de Restonica is a combination of natural beauty and sheer madness. It winds through pastures overhung by snow, ending in a vertical climb up metal ladders bolted to vertical rocks that lead to the turquoise rooftop cols of Melu and Capitellu. It’s a sacred but crowded pilgrimage to the top; you’re constantly mumbling: “After you, no, I insist.”
So it came as no surprise to Rando Buddy and me to find a quartet of 60-somethings at 1,400m, at the shepherd’s hut or Bergerie de Grotelle, perched above the valley floor. Like us, they were on their way down from the 1,800m-plus Capitellu in search of “fooding” and the shepherd’s local wine.
One Mde Randonneuse had tumbled down and banged her head and leg. She waved us over and passed us a bottle, grinning as the shepherd brought, quelle surprise, sausage and cheese.
A glass or two later we were lured into his stone bergerie, which was lined with round tommes (homemade cheese), dangling sausages, and more bottles than you could shake a hiking stick at. We didn’t protest when he picked up three eggs his chickens had laid outside his back door and proposed a goat’s cheese omelette.
“Tenez, mangez, ça fait du bien” – “It does you good” – rang his musical and toothy Corsican accent. How I loved that omelette, a fresh panful fried up with cheese and sausage and gusto. If you’ve just climbed down from Capitellu, no sight is more welcome. The total blowout of wine, sausage, cheese and omelette: €15.
We conducted a brief survey among Corte’s restaurateurs on the effects of excessively tasty food on local stamina, starting with Xavier Casanova, a globe-trotting chef at U Spanu bistro.
Casanova claims to have only nice customers. “It’s stipulated on my sign outside: only nice ones.” He thinks Corsican food encourages ease and induces calm. If there’s one kind of customer he loves less, it’s diners in a hurry. Parisians in a hurry – non, non, non . . .
“I’ll tell you how Corsicans are. They don’t like to be hurried, they take their time, and fooding is something you have to take time over. They tolerate only the relaxed and they don’t like pressure,” says Casanova, who learned his recipes at his grandmother’s knee in Albertucce, a remote hamlet in Niolo gorge.
Casanova’s grandmother still helps him prepare wild boar. “We’re looking into exporting Corsican sausage,” he adds. “Maybe chestnut beer too. Do you think people like it?”
Next to our gendarmerie-cum-hotel is Anghjula Roetchazani’s spot. A five-foot granny who goes to Lourdes every year, Roetchazani makes goat’s cheese and chestnut doughnuts while refilling coffees and patting our heads. She offered ficelli omelettes, sighing if we made the international sign for “full”.
Roetchazani told us why she never visits Ajaccio, the island’s main port. “It’s not Corsica, it’s all ties, empty pockets and Parisians, bah! We prefer Corte.” Parisians and Ajacciens are the worst for hurrying, she says.
On our last day we found a car (Eurocar, €85 per day) and drove to Albertucce and Casanova’s cousin’s Bar des Amis. The road winds through piglets, chestnuts and La Scala de Santa Regina gorge to the gorgeous red rocks of the coast. It was our last night, and we got back late.
At a cafe off the avenue Porette, we asked for bouillabaisse, a traditional Corsican soup of monkfish, conger eel, John Dory and rockfish. It took forever, but when it came it was a delicate petal pink, velvety, on shellfish stock, laced with spices, and served with melba crisps garnished with parmesan and pepper pistou. I have never tasted better.
Next to us, a fat Parisian man was wolfing down every crustacean in the joint while complaining about the wait.Deep in our sausage-and-cheese-clogged hearts, we knew it was worthwhile. We stubbornly refused to hurry.
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go
Where to stay
Hôtel du Nord et de L’Europe. 22 Cours Paoli, Corte, 00-33-495-460068, www.hoteldunord-corte.com. This hotel is at the heart of things, near the university.
Hotel HR (6 Allée du 9 Septembre, Corte, 00-33-495-451111, www.hotel-hr.com. This is basic but clean with bargain rates starting at €29 for single, double, triple rooms or studios, some occasional trainee gendarmes, and lovely Belgian Tim on the desk.
Consult Booking.com for information and Corte-tourisme.com for more suggestions. is very hot – you might want to opt for a room with air-conditioning.
Hotel du Monte del Oro. Route Nationale 193, Foce, Vizzavona, 00-33-495-472106, www.monte-oro.com. This venerable hotel offers single and double rooms with romance, umbrella pine trees, and views. The food’s alluring too, so check out their diningroom menu.
Hotel I Laricci. Hameau de Vizzavona, 00-3-495-472112. This hotel offers 12 single and double rooms and three six-bed dormitories. It accepts credit cards.
Rosy’s Resto Refuge de la Gare. Col de Vizzavona, 00-33- 495-472220. Here you will find a restaurant and two six-bed dormitories and the best place to eat.
Casa Alta. Vizzavona, 00-33-675-271311. A charming bed and breakfast at the northern end of Vizzavona.
There is free camping near the railway station in Vizzavona.
Where to eat
U Spanu. 4 avenue Luciani, Corte, 00-33-495-460296, u-spanu@coramail.com. Visit Xavier Casanova and try his speciality: wild boar stew or Ragoût de Sanglier. The restaurant is near Corte’s main square.
Chez Brigitte. Behind Bar Bips, 14 Cours Paoli, Corte. Insist on hearing the full menu of 40 luscious desserts, including chestnut layer cake and Corsican cheesecake. Be sure to try Brigitte’s brocchiu (ewe’s whey pudding).
For breakfast, Anghula Roetchazani’s brocchiu beignets are at 4 avenue du 9 Septembre, near Corte’s railway station, not far from the Eurocar rental office.
Where to go
The Scala de Santa Regina. En route to Albertucce, this back mountain road winds around ravines and passes before eventually bringing you to the charming village of Evisa and from there to the sea.
The Les Calanches rocks. These red and orange granite outcroppings are on the famous coastal road from Porto to Cargèse, an hour northwest of Ajaccio on D81 to Calvi. Cargèse is worth a closer look, thanks to its strong Greek links.
Ajaccio. The port town is more sophisticated than bustling, vivid Bastia.
Don’t miss Napoleon’s birthplace, a fascinating place to browse (rue Saint-Charles, 00-33-495-214389).
The Fesch Museum. 50-52 Rue Cardinal Fesch, www.musee-fesch.com.
Ajaccio Cathedral. Rue Forcioli Conti, 00-33-495-210767. This ancient building is never locked.
Beaches. The Corsican capital also has many sandy beaches, fine dining options, a good fish market and high- and low-end shopping options.
Hiking tips
For rando à liberte-style hiking, where your bags travel ahead to the next comfy bed, try Vagabondages (www.vagabondages.com, 00-33-495-786519) or Grande Angle (www.grandangle.fr, 00-33476-952300).
Buy walking sticks. You might think they’re geezer-like but you’ll change your mind when you are half-way up Restonica.
On the rails
For one of the greatest train rides of your life, take the Bastia route on the “trinighellu” to the citadel and Vizzavona (www.corsica.net/ corsica/uk/venir/move/fer.htm). From Corte, this tiny train winds around crags and past ravines and over Eiffel’s bridge to Vizzavona for €10.80. It’s an unforgettable ride.
Go there
Air France flies to Marseille from Shannon and Dublin (www.airfrance.com); KLM (www.klm.com) flies from Cork and Dublin to Marseille; Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies from Dublin to Marseille. Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus. com) will fly to Marseille from May 19th.
Book an overnight ferry from Marseille to Corsica (www.aferry.to) and be sure to reserve a bunk bed.