Pictures of this voyage can be seen at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/107923363810248771461/Corsica2015
https://picasaweb.google.com/107923363810248771461
My wife Monique and I spent a great week with our friends Claire and Keith Norman at their summer residence in Napoule near Cannes. On one of the days there we headed to the town of Vintemillia, Italy for the weekly market which was fun. On getting back on the train to head to Monaco and home, the rail station was populated by migrants who were trying to get into France and who were being blocked by the French police.
We stopped in Monaco for a lunch with a former colleague of mine from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group, Bernard Pasquier. Bernard retired from the IFC. He continues to sit on the boards of several banks representing IFC and he is also a member of the Monaco parliament as he is a Monaco citizen. Bernard was full of stories about Monaco. He was very pleased when Monique showed him pictures of her receiving Princess Grace and Prince Ranier and family on their arrival in Montreal for the 1967 Expo. Monique was the official greeter in the mayor's office at the time. Bernard asked for copies of the picture as he wanted to show them to th current prince with whom he meets regularly. We sent him copies with a request that he set up a meeting with the prince next year. We shall see.
After a great week in Napoule, we flew to Bastia, Corsica. The island of Corsica is some 140 miles due south of Nice and the flight was uneventful although it was a propeller plane which is not Monique's favorite mode of travel.
On arrival in Bastia airport, we picked up our rental car and headed south to the hotel I had reserved, Marine Lavolle about 40 miles south. It turned out to be a nice small hotel with some 15 rooms right on the beach on the Eastern coast. Neither of us had been to Corsica so this was a voyage of discovery.
The history of Corsica is woven with tragic events which still have an influence on the Corsicans. The island, see below, was badly managed for a long time by Genoa. They built fortresses at various points of the island to administer the island and to fend off maurading pirates.
In 1755, the Corsicans declared their independence from Genoa and wrote up a republican constitution. That was the first written republican constitution and is said to have inspired the writing of the US constitution. The island continued as an republic until 1768, when Genoa secretly sold the island to France. Pretty cheeky, considering Corsica had declared itself independent. This event was the first to trigger huge resentment amongst the Corsicans against the French. In 1793, Corsica became a part of the British empire until 1796, when the brits left and the French reappeared.
In World War 2, the french established the rule that every man had to serve in the French army army unless he had 6 children. In France, the rule was only 3 children. The result was that of a population of 300,000 some 50,000 men were sent to the front. There they were often required to be the front troops resulting in more than 50% of the Corsican being killed. This caused a huge inbalance in the Corsican population and resulted in women assuming many of the male roles.
Corsican tradition saw that males inherited the farming lands in the high mountains where there was no malaria and females received the low lying lands which were useless because of malaria. After the war, the Brits did massive aerial spraying which erradicated the malaria-carrying mosquitoes and thus made the ladies the owners of now valuable farming and tourism properties.
In 1962, France pulled out of Algeria causing some 1 million non Algerians, mainly French to abandon the country. Some 800,000 very angry Pieds Noirs (for the military boots they wore) arrived in France feeling they had been betrayed by France. Most had been born in Algeria, some families had even been there for 3 generations. France had to absorb these refugees and some 18,000 were settled in Corsica and were given almost 90% of the arable land, again without consulting the local populations. This caused a movement against French presence which at one point became violent with bombings and killings. The FNLC was a separist movement which is still alive but not well in Corsica. One sees spray painted signs with FNLC here and there. Until recent years, the French did not allow the local language, Corsu, to be spoken. Today, it is widely spoken but is not thriving as many prefer to use French. Efforts are made to keep the language alive and as a badge of honor as a Corsican.
The isand now lives mainly from tourism and undergoes an invasion of French tourists in the summer months which sees the island population going from around 300,000 to almost 2 million! Apparently, this also strains relationships as the tourists often look down on local Corsicans as the French can do so well no matter where they are.
As a result of this history, the Corsicans are a proud people. Their most famous son was Napoleon Bonaparte who was born in Ajaccio in southern Corsica. They are a friendly bunch although it is hard for an outsider to distinguish a Corsican from a "continental" as all visitors from France are known.
When we checked into our hotel, we found a flyer with Keyserlingk written on it. Monique thought it was a message for me but in fact it was a flyer of my cousin Albrecht Keyserlingk. Albrecht has an essential oil extraction operation in Corsica and we had agreed with him to meet while we were in Corsica. Also on the front desk counter was a small display showing 10 products of Albrecht along with the name of his company, Keyserlingk et Filles.
After checking in to our mini-suite with a bed room and living room overlooking the med and the beach, we took our car to the next village of San Nicolau to get some provisions such as wine and water. We noticed a sign on the street showing directions to the Keyserlingk farm so we headed there. We arrived at the farm around 4PM to find Albrecht and his assistant who greeted us warmly. We had last seen Albrecht in Berlin the year before at the Keyserlingk family reunion wearing a tie and a suit. This day he was in his working outfit of sandals, and an old straw hat. He then proceeded to give us a 2 hour tour of his operations and gardens, telling us what the properties were of the many plants growiing in his gardens. Essential oils are used in a wide variety of applications from perfumes, to cosmetics to aroma therapy. We accepted his invitation to dinner 2 days later and he agreed to pick us up at our hotel.
The next day we headed south to visit the city of Bonafacio which is on the southern tip of the island at about 80 miles distance. The road was fairly flat as it follows the east coast but it still is a 3 hour drive. Bonafacio has an amazing natural harbor and a huge walled city on the cliffs overlooking the harbor. We had a light lunch and headed out for a boat tour of the coast outside the harbor. It is made up of high cliffs and numerous caverns which are only accessible from the sea. In one cavern, there is an opening which is amazing close to the outline of the map of Corsica, which can be seen in the pictures of this trip.
We decided that there was little point to staying overnight at Bonafacio so we headed back to our hotel where we had dinner at a beach restaurant next door.
The next day we headed into the hills to Cervione. These villages throughout Corsica sit at altitude for 2 reasons. The first is to get away from Mosquitoes which used to carry Malaria. The second is to be as far away from the sea as possiblle to avoid being attacked by pirates who roamed the med throughout history. Cervione is such a town.
After a pleasant lunch on a terace where we were almost the only patrons, we headed back to the hotel in time to hit the beach. The beaches were fine but the water was cold and somewhat milky. There was a pool at the hotel and I used every day we were there.
We met up with Albrecht again for dinner on the third day. He showed up with hair slicked back, shaven and he even had a jacket on. Monique was impressed. We had a nice dinner with his woman partner at a restaurant on the beach called Chez Terese.
The following days, we headed south west heading for Ajaccio where we had agreed to meet up with another cousin, Kouka Schirinski-Schikmatoff. I had met Kouka several years earlier in Paris but she had since then divorced her husband and had moved to Corsica. Ajaccio is again about 90 miles from St Nicolau but now one is dealing with serious mountain roads which are narrow and steep. This trip took us 4 hours and we had decided to stay overnight in order to see Kouka at dinner. We had booked into an inn called Cheval Blanc and had some difficulty finding it.Monique jumped out of the car in the street of the inn and inquired of the locals who pointed her to a pizza restaurant where she found the inn owner. She showed us up to our room (25 stairs up, counted by Monique). It was a small room but nicely furnished with a little balcony on to a courtyard. The location was right in the middle of the old town and around the corner from Napoleon Bonaparte's birthplace which is now a museum.
The next day we did the Bonaparte museum and also jumped on a small trolley car which drove us through the town and out to the lighthouses of Ajaccio. It was a clear day and one could see Sardenia, the Italian island south of Corsica. There are beautiful beaches in Ajaccio and it has attracted a lot of rich and famous people. In the evening, we went to Kouka's house and had a pleasant dinner in her garden. We had met Kouka's sister Irina in Paris and again in Berlin last year and it was nice to see Kouka again. She told Monique the story of how her mother had come from the Ukraine after the war and had struggled to feed and educate the 3 girls. We enjoyed the evening and the simple garden with candles hanging from the trees.
The following day, we headed back to San Nicolau but we took our time going through small villages and stopping to take in the wonderful views from high up in the mountains.
On our last evening in Corsica, we were invited to diner by Albrecht at the family house on the beach about 10 kms north of San Nicolau. The dinner was an informal BBQ type of dinner on the terrace of the big house. 2 daughters, Sophia and Olivia as well as Albrecht's son Max were there along with friends making a loud and friendly dinner which we enjoyed. It was fun getting to know the younger generation. Albrecht was particularly proud as these 2 daughters (he has 4) had decided to work in the farm. Olivia, who is a grade school teacher in Berlin will run the restaurant on the farm and Sophia is being groomed to take over management. A third daughter, Bianca is now working for a large German cometics company in marketing and may also join the family business. On the farm, there is a store which sells products to tourists who come on busses too visit and tour the farm. It is a small operation but one which produces high value products and has developed a good name in the trade. The climate in Corsica allows almost everything to grow and what is not available is imported as raw material. After a pleasant evening, we said our adieux and headed back to our hotel for our last night on the island.
The next morning we got our flight back to Nice where we met up with the Normans. That evening they invited us and the Russian owner of the flat and her partner to a wonderful dinner in the village.
The next morning we boarded our flight back to Montreal, after a great visit.
