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Old 05-04-2016, 04:03 PM
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Default My trip to Corsica

I arrived by ferry this morning In Ajaccio around 6:30. I walked down Rue Fesch on the way to my hotel and it looks like there have been some changes in certain locations.

I'm staying at the Albion hotel which is run by the daughter of Chez Paulo and in case there's anyone who doesn't know, Chez Paulo is the Face Book name of the woman who runs a restaurant there that is named "Chez Paulo" (House of Paulo). Her daughter Is a very nice young lady who gave me a warm greeting after finding out who I was. Around noon time, I went down to the Chez Paulo restaurant where I met the owner and had lunch. She showed me around the restaurant. She showed me some pictures she had on the wall of Alizee at the Marie-Do event and there was another picture when she was 17 I think she said.

My French is very limited and so is her English so she wasn't able to answer many of the questions I had for her. I tried to ask her if she saw a lot of Alizee when she was growing up and she didn't understand, but she did say she knew her mother and she made a gesture of circling her face and I wasn't sure what it meant except maybe she was saying she's a beautiful woman???

She also said Alizee is in France (mainland), so I'm guessing what ever Jo mentioned the other day has something to do with what's going on there. I wonder when she'll get back? My odds of bumping in to her were slim enough if she was here, but at least it was a remote possibility.

She mentioned Alizee was married which I thought kind of funny. I'm sure she's not married yet. I think she meant good as married and was mentioning the fact because she thought I might have some romantic interests in that direction which amused me.

So despite the language gap, it was a very nice meeting. I had a good meal and will dine there again.

I had plans to take a train to Bastia, but I may take a boat to Bonifacio instead. There also an early evening cruise that goes out to the Blood Islands which sounds like an opportunity for some good pictures.

After getting back from lunch, I saw Jo had posted a picture of a tall ship which I had photographed too, just before lunch. So I "may" have just missed him.

On my last day, I plan on renting a car and doing some local touring before catching the ferry that night.
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Old 05-04-2016, 07:31 PM
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Nice to hear you're having a good time! I saw that Chez Paulo posted it on Facebook as well.

Well, chance of bumping in Alizee is undoubtedly nonzero.
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Old 05-05-2016, 08:46 AM
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Im so jealous... I looked up chez paulo on facebook, and it looks like such a welcoming place! May i ask what food they serve there?
Looking forward to some more updates
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Old 05-05-2016, 12:43 PM
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I had Escolape Normade which is veal covered in a mushroom sauce which was very good. I took pictures of the outside menus which I'll post when I get caught up.
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Old 05-05-2016, 11:43 PM
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I had to revise my revised schedule yesterday. They had an Italian tall ship in port that I had mentioned it looked like me and Jo photographed it possibly within a short time of one another. A guy I work with was with the naval military police in Palermo and the told me via FB that's its a training vessel for NCOs.

I went out to the Blood Islands. I had gone out there by bus to the place where you can see the islands back a few years ago, but never thought I'd ever make it out to the islands. They have a nature reserve on the last island and they built a pier there where tour ships go. Funny part was, our ship was a failry big ship. There was a boat in front of it, that got hemmed in because we were behind it. We were there for over an hour and because we were taking up the back of the pier, none of the many smaller tour boats that came along, couldn't dock. They need a better system.

Some of you are familiar with an old grave yard that's a tourist attraction here. Of course there's something else interesting in the area. I took several pictures and videos, but I won't post it here. I'll share them via the drive soon.

Unfortunately with this small new 2 in 1 computer I bought, it takes forever to try and upload pictures to photobucket and many times fails, so I'll have to find a better way to post pictures in here.

Last edited by Scruffydog777; 05-06-2016 at 12:04 AM..
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Old 05-06-2016, 07:14 PM
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I took a train up to Bastia which is on the north east coast of Corsica. It's a long 4 hour ride on a herky jerky train with about 30 stops along the way. Bastia is a nice city, but they have a long island I guess you call it that runs parallel to the water front where the cruise and ferry ships dock and it destroys a lot of the potential charm of this place.

I took numerous pictures there including inside some churches and a whole bunch along the way. I hope they come out good.

I arrived back a little before 7 and finally figured out the schedule of this place. As opposed to my visit in the winter a few years ago when they roll up the side walks at 6pm. Now the schedule is the shops close at 7pm and that's when the restaurants start serving dinner. Makes perfect sense for those who live here.

So I stopped by the shop Ray had mentioned in another thread, but all my camera batteries were dead from that last trip and they were about to close so after just walking inside to confirm I had the scene of the crime, I decided to leave and come back probably Sunday. I figured what I would say to her is I saw a picture of her shop on FB in the USA and I just had to come here. Then telling her the picture was posted by Alizee. But I'm sure as seems to be the norm here, communicating will be difficult.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go on a 12 hour boat trip along the north west coast. I don't know if I can make it after that train trip.

Last edited by Scruffydog777; 05-06-2016 at 07:16 PM..
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Old 05-07-2016, 03:56 PM
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I had bought a ticket a couple of days ago for a boat ride up along the west coast. After yesterday's long ride, that was the last thing I wanted to do. So I forced myself to get out of bed at an early hour and said well I'll at least go down there and try and sell the ticket. But after showering, I felt a lot better about the situation and decided to go through with it and it turned out to be a long day, but a pleasant one with lots of great photos.

I got back to my hotel around 7 pm. After first meeting with Chez Paulo , I thought I don't want to wear out my welcome, so I won't go back till sunday. But tonight I thought, if I don't come back till sunday, maybe they'll take that the wrong way. So I went back tonight. When I walked in, I talked to this guy I hadn't seen the first night. He set me up with a table and was incredibly nice to me during the meal. When I was done, he offered me a drink on him. It was in about a 2 or 3 ounce shot glass. It tasted strongly of lemon and in itself was very strong.

So after receiving the bill, I asked if he knew who I was and he said his mother had told him about me the other day.His name was Jean Martiste I believe. So I took a picture of him and shook his hand and went on my way. Another great experiece.
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Old 05-08-2016, 11:01 AM
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I went to a mass in Ajaccio this morning in the same catherdral where Annily was baptised. I asked a church official if it was okay to take pictures, pointing at my camera. He wagged his finger no. This is the same day as the ceremony celebrating the liberation of France and there were several military officials in the church. I often find in my travels that in churches, you usually find a priest who speaks English well......not here. The priest I tried to talk to called what may have been a nun over who did speak some English, but it was time wasted.

After the mass, I went to Charles de Gaulle square where they had ceremony I was talking about. It was a nice ceremony.

In the past 3 days, on each day a large cruise ship showed up and the streets quickly crowded, but they left the same day. I was surprised that things today seemed to completely dry up.

Only a very few restaurants opened and of course the souvenier shops. I had hoped to have lunch at Chez Paulo's, but they too were closed. It's a good thing I went yesterday. I got a letter on FB from Chez Paulo about my visit and I thanked her for her hospitality.

So it was kind of a depressing day because I had hoped to just walk up and down the streets of Ajaccio among the throngs, but there were none.

I did have lunch on Rue Fesch, watching the locals walk by, but unfortunately not the right locals.

Tomorrow I will catch a 7 pm ferry to the mainland and then take a train to Brussels. I hope to rent a car in the morning, then drive up to the chateau that was built from stones from a former Paris palace. I also hope to drive out towards the Blood Islands. I was thinking about having lunch at Chez Paulo's again, but she more or less said good by on FB, so I'm not sure if I should now. I'll probably see if I can get a car in the morning and if I get back in time, I probably will stop there.

One other note, I had stopped in a souvenier shop and bought a couple of things. At the register, on the shelf there, they had a bunch of cds of Corsican music. I asked the girl behind the counter if this was all Corsican music. She understood that and said yes. I said well do you have any music by the Corsican singer Alizee? Well she brought down some cds sand started showing me the songs on them. It was obvious, she didn't know who I was talking about. So she called a pretty young woman from the back room and I told her about which Corsican singer I was looking for and she explained in French to the first woman and then she yellls out "Alizay!!!!". We all had a good laugh, but of course, they had none of Alizee's music.
It never ceases to amaze me that all over France, no matter how many pronounciations of a certain word you try even if it's not about Alizee, they can't figure it out in a million years, even if you pronounce it dead on, unless they know the context of what you are talking about to begin with..
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Old 05-09-2016, 09:47 PM
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Sounds like it was a really fun trip. I would have loved to have gone on that one. I speak a reasonably good French (albeit with a Belgium dialect) and would have enjoyed talking with the owner of chez Paulo.
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Old 05-10-2016, 07:45 AM
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Dave,
Congratulations on a wonderful trip! I have not been able to get onto a computer to come here in awhile, so this was exciting to read about your trip.
I hope all is well with you.
Stephen
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