Calvi-Ponte Leccia-Propriano

So here we now are at the Bartuccia Hotel, Propriano. A full day of travelling, first by coach to Ponte Leccia then most of us by train to the capital and the coach again to Propriano, arriving at 6pm. I say “most of us” as (due to the sardine experience on the short train ride of the previous day plus a dire report of an unusable toilet on said train due to its occupation by a drunk, from the previous tour last week) we were given the choice of staying on the coach for the whole way. As this is a “great train journey”Ted and I elected for the train option and with elbows at the ready managed to secure seats in the very front row, slightly claustrophobic as we were staring at the back of the driver’s cab but the view from the window was ok.
We were treated to a two and a half hour trip through the lush and verdant scenery of Corsica’s mountainous interior and passed over Gustave Eiffel’s 1890 viaduct over the Vecchio Canyon. Our destination, Ajaccio, is the capital of Corsica, a smart port city, home to about one-fifth of the population and the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte whose statue we visited after being reunited with the coach and other half of our group.
Onward then for another two hours to our final destination at Propriano through further mountainous terrain and following many hairpin bends!
Set meal tonight for the whole group which was most enjoyable and marred only by a young waiter (whose first day it was!) accidentally dropping Ted’s bottle of beer down the Tour Manager’s back….. 😬Read more