Happy Fourth of July, America! While you’re enjoying the parades, fireworks, and concerts, we’re docked instead in Corsica, the French island that is the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. An interesting contrast.
As I said, Corsica is a French department, but its 350,000 citizens have an Italian heritage and a decidedly independent streak, and the island has a semi-autonomous status. We’re docked in Ajaccio, the capital and largest city (73,000), where it’s all Napoleon all the time. His ancestral home, Maison Bonaparte, is a museum, and we passed it partway through our walking tour this morning. Fact: the Bonapartes arrived in Corsica from Genoa in 1514, just 22 years after Ajaccio was founded. Napoleon’s ancestor was an archer in the Genoese army.
Moving on, after yesterday’s unusual clouds and cooler temperatures, it was back to more typical heat and sunshine this morning. Sunscreen, sunglasses, and a hat are essential if you visit the Mediterranean in the summer. Fortunately, Corsica is often windy, and today a nice, cool breeze was blowing in off the Mediterranean, making for a very pleasant morning.
We began the day with a bus ride west along the pretty coastline to Parata Point, where we stopped to take some photos and enjoy the scenery. In addition to a more modern lighthouse, there’s a stone watchtower dating all the way back to when Genoa controlled the island. A couple sailboats out on the water made the scene complete, and the breeze was delightful.
Next the bus took us to Place d’Austerlitz, a large open plaza dominated by a huge monument to Napoleon and what was perhaps his greatest military victory. The Place (plaza) isn’t even paved, just dirt under foot, and there’s nothing else there, but what a monument. Napoleon’s achievements are scrolled, Star Wars style, up a granite slope to where the great man stands in classic pose atop a granite pyramid. Here’s a fact I’ll bet you didn’t know. The French took control of Corsica from the Genoese just two months before Napoleon was born. If he had been born just three months earlier he would have been considered Genoese, not French, and history might have been very different.
After a suitable period of admiration, selfies, and looking for anything else to photograph, we boarded the bus for the last time and headed back to the city. Upon arrival downtown we began the walking portion of the tour with a stop at the Ajaccio Cathedral, officially the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Ajaccio. The exterior of the Cathedral is more modest than most we’ve seen lately, and the facade could use some refreshing, but the interior is spectacular. Check out my exterior and interior photos below and you’ll see what I mean.
A stroll down some lovely old streets led us to Maison Bonaparte, the aforementioned birthplace of Napoleon. The line to get in and see the museum was long, and the fee to get in wasn’t included in the cost of our tour, but if we hadn’t yet had our fill of Napoleon we certainly could have gone back afterwards.
We didn’t, yet we weren’t done with Bonaparte anyway. Our tour next took us to a majestic statue of Napoleon dressed as a Roman emperor. The statue is just back in place after a year of restoration, and it certainly looks, well, suitably Napoleonic. That is to say the man himself would probably approve, especially of the lions at the statue’s base. Tourism is 35 percent of Corsica’s economy, and the Corsicans are certainly showing off their asset.
Our walking tour concluded shortly thereafter with a visit to the Ajaccio fish market, which was just a few blocks from the ship. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables were also on display, as well as local products like Corsican wines and honey.
We passed on making any purchases and were back on the ship just after noon, happy with our morning excursion and happy to call it an early day. We’re in the midst of eighteen straight port days before our next sea day, so an occasional easy day like today is really helpful in getting enough rest and keeping up with other miscellaneous things like doing this blog.
We’re in Cannes and Nice the next two days, but plan to skip the cities and get out into the countryside to explore Provence. I’ll be back with full reports, assuming I can keep up, so stay tuned.
Parata Point. The lighthouse and stone Genoese watchtower are visible in the background. Pretty as a postcard.
Closeup of the Genoese watchtower.
There was a nice breeze, and I really enjoyed the scenery.
Cactus flowers. I took this near the parking lot at Parata Point.
The grand tribute to Napoleon at Place d’Austerlitz. I should have struck up a Napoleonic pose, but didn’t think of it at the time.
Closeup of the statue at the top. Very Napoleonic.
Back in downtown Ajaccio, this is the exterior of the Ajaccio Cathedral. Looks a little worn and in need of some TLC. Napoleon was baptized here.
In contrast, the interior is breathtaking.
Inside the Cathedral is a reproduction of a painting by French master Eugène Delacroix, entitled The Triumph of Religion. The original was here but is out for restoration and research. Can’t find any information on if or when it will be returned. Pretty valuable to leave in a lightly protected church.
Ajaccio has its share of charming little streets.
All aboard the tourist train.
Maison Bonaparte, the house where Napoleon was born. Now a museum, this is the line to get in.
I can read enough French to translate: Napoleon was born in this house the 15th of August, 1769.
Even the sidewalk outside the house has a Napoleon plaque embedded in it.
Another delightful little street.
Lots of shops with stuff like this inside.
The Hotel DeVille. I just liked the building.
Napoleon dressed as a Roman emperor standing above four lions in the heart of downtown Ajaccio.
An old fashioned newsstand in downtown Ajaccio.
The fish market, just a few blocks from our ship.
Olives, anyone? They looked delicious.
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