One very important fact the guidebooks don't tell is that it's very difficult to rent cars in Corsica in the summer because demand greatly exceeds supply, but it's essential to have a car to properly see Corsica. We have rented one for next week through a UK online service but agencies in town say they have nothing available for all of August.
Wednesday night we spent very peacefully at anchor in the bay and were grateful for no disco music, which we had in Calvi every night until 3.00 am.
Thursday was one of those boring but necessary days of cleaning the boat and supermarket shopping. We were able to move into a marina berth in the morning so that gave us access to water to scrub and wash off the salt that encrusted everything. It also meant we could have power without starting the generator so the washing machine/dryer has been spinning away because I haven't yet found any information about a full service laundry. Bad!
The Charles Ornano Marina is not in the heart of the old town but it has great facilities, including a number of pleasant looking restaurants and bars and a boulangerie open from 6.30 am, no doubt for everyone to buy their croissants for breakfast. We enjoyed dinner at Le Floride, selecting a whole fish ( called sar) from the day's catch. It was grilled, filleted at the table and served with a bowl of mixed green vegetables. Sar is a sweet and moist white-fleshed fish but it was large enough to have fed four of us and we had to save room for dessert!
Yesterday we walked the short distance into the main part of town and were very satisfied that we had chosen the more peaceful and cleaner marina. The factor that makes a huge difference to the cleanliness of any area here is whether someone is sweeping up the cigarette butts. It seems that most people visiting or living on Corsica are smokers and, like most smokers, they don't consider cigarette butts to be rubbish. And there obviously is not a street sweeping system in Ajaccio!
We were planning to cook dinner on board last night but it was about 8.00 pm when we returned to the marina so we went to another of the restaurants for excellent grilled entrecotes (porterhouse steak) with chips (first time for weeks) and salad.
Our main task in town had been to find the tourist office to find someone who could speak English and tell us all about the celebrations here this weekend. August 15 is the anniversary of Napolean's birthday so there are many festivities planned. Unfortunately a very strong
wind storm of force 7 (30 knots) is coming so the fireworks have been postponed until tomorrow night.
Today we stayed on the boat waiting for the mistral but our marina is in such a sheltered area that we didn't really feel much of the effect. Once you are down below on Dream Catcher 3 you don't feel the effects of a storm like this anyway. It was another boring but necessary day when I caught up on the ironing (I hate ironing!) and Greg played Ratty and Mole.