A Place For Holiday And To Live Is Corsica

Corsica is 'a French island basking in the Italian sun', but the island has a singular character that is entirely its own. This beautiful, wild playground is the ultimate combination destination - physical exertion in the elements by day, French wine and cuisine by evening. Corsica is proud, wild, defiantly independent and just a touch old-fashioned. It is in many ways a separate nation to the rest of France. In fact, the island has been French for only 200 of its 4000-year history, and the island's unique culture, music and language have survived intact despite a couple of centuries of French rule. You can get to Corsica french property for sale by plane from most French airports, using one of the island's four main airports at Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi and Figari (near Bonifacio). It takes about 6.5 hours to make the crossing by boat from Marseille, Nice or Toulon, arriving at Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi, île Rousse, Porto Vecchio or Propriano. There are also the high speed ferries (NGV - Navire à Grande Vitesse) that run from Nice to Calvi in 2.5 hours, or to Bastia in 3.5 hours. No matter which method of travel you use to reach Corsica, once there you will enjoy a vacation totally different from any other. Although Corsica is still ruled by France, one can hardly deny the Italian atmosphere the island exhales. The island is, except for a few cities on the coasts, such as Ajaccio and Bastia , not densely populated. As a result, Corsica still exists of vast areas of unspoiled scenery. Hence why its inhabitants (about a quarter of a million) call it the Island of Beauty to which you can probably only agree when you see the versatile character composed of lakes and snow-capped mountains. Corsica is an island of mountains, where walking and hiking have been a way of life for centuries. (These days younger islanders have added mountain biking to the regimen.) With more than 20 mountains over 6,000 feet high and scores of glacial lakes, this is a landscape meant to be seen one step at a time, notably on a number of Mare a Mare ('sea to sea') trails. Geographically closer to Italy than France, Corsica is really its own world, holding onto cultural values property for sale in france rare in the modern Mediterranean. Country fairs and festivals here tend to celebrate food (notably the artisan cheeses) and traditional music (ethereal polyphonic chants), while the old quarters of Bonifacio, a fortressed city on the southern coast overlooking the island of Sardinia, are a vivid window to Corsican past. The best beaches can be found at Calvi in the north west of Corsica. From a distance, one can spot the port town's citadel that can be reached by following the winding alleys. The markets, restaurants and hotels are concentrated around the Basse Ville. Calvi is attracting more beach lovers every year and is slowly turning into one of those popular holiday resorts. For a truly unique vacation and destination Corsica is unsurpassed.