Cycling through les Calanche above Porto, Corsica.
Cycling through les Calanche above Porto, Corsica.
After missing a year (we moved house and just couldn't fit it in), my wife Carol and I were back in France in 2003 - the 15th cycle trip there. Inspired by the ageless Norman Ford, the 80+ year old Welsh born Texan who does annual strenuous solo European tours, we decided to try the mountainous Mediterranean island of Corsica. Norm, 20 years my senior, had done it 3 years before so we thought if he could, we could. We decided to go in June, before the really hot weather arrived. That strategy didn't work - we spent 3 weeks in 35°C/95°F temperatures. I had brought our old faithful touring bikes to the shop for a pre-trip tune-up and the guy called me and said that both these old steeds had some serious aging problems. It was time to put them out to pasture. We looked at replacing them with bikes of equal quality but I was 63 years old and Carol was 61. I didn't think it would be prudent to invest $2000 (Canadian) each for new bikes. So we dialled back our selection and bought two new hybrids at about half the price with some decent components and some serious hill-climbing capabilities: 11 to 34 9-speed cassettes and 44-32-22 chain rings. However, having now experienced the patchy uneven pavement in some regions of Corsica, I'm tempted to recommend a mountain bike (with road tires) instead of a road bike. As usual, we travelled unsupported (except for my VISA card), staying in hotels and eating our evening meals in restaurants. On the days we cycled we averaged just over 60 km of cycling and we did just over 1100 km for the trip. If you've ever seen Corsica, you'll find that impressive. As always, I am not very good about reining myself in when I'm writing these trip logs. Bear with me. There's good stuff included. You just have to be patient and look carefully. There are occasional references to euros. At the time of the trip 1 euro was about $1.60 Canadian and about $1.10 US.
The attached map shows our route on the island.
Part 2: Ajaccio to St. Florent