Today in Sartene

So last night the stalwart 16 were mini-bussed in, in 3 batches to partake of dinner here at the Bartaccia Hotel, bussed back again afterwards and then arrived on a bigger bus at 11 am today (we 12 at the Bartaccia really have the better end of the deal!). We set off to Sartene, a pretty Corsican small town about 20 minutes away. This went ok, until on approach to the town, the coach, driven by Vero (short for Veronica) and later known as “Vero the Hero”, attempted to enter the town on the road where the oncoming traffic had priority, there were parked cars on both sides of the road and the oncoming traffic didn’t see why they shouldn’t continue to keep coming! A stalemate ensued. The French don’t do compromise and Vero made it clear she wasn’t backing up. Eventually a police car arrived but they just wanted to get past us, which they did, and then abandoned the situation! By this time there were at least 15 cars facing the bus in a line but Vero was not giving up. She yanked on the handbrake, jumped down into the road and ran to the back of the line facing, stopping at each car and telling them to back up. There was much gesticulation from nearby drivers and quite an audience gathered to watch how events would unfold. A couple of policewomen then arrived, it started to rain but eventually everyone managed to back up or divert down a side street whilst Vero (the Hero by this time) animatedly shouting in French, got us through! This earned her a rousing chorus of “Simply the Best” from the bus and we all got off.
Claire gave us 4 hours then to explore the town which I have to say was at least 2 hours too long. Typically Corsican with narrow streets, lots of steep steps, a few churches and lots of restaurants but most people struggled to fill their time on this improvised trip, especially as we all know we should have been in Neptune’s Cave over in Sardinia at this point. The weather was most peculiar, a cold wind, cloud then sun and quite hot if you managed to find a sheltered spot. Ted and I partook of a refreshment at a delightful patisserie and explored as much as we could before getting a few provisions from the local supermarket for the onward journey tomorrow. Everyone was ready to return to the meeting point at 4pm and the bus (with a new driver) had approached from the correct direction. Then, hilariously, with much pipping as we were all getting on, Vero, driving the School Bus this time, overtook our bus madly waving-you couldn’t write it…..!
PS I took a video but it exceeded 2 mins so blog wouldn’t accept it.Read more