Gallimaufry Set: Corsica

We spent two days in Ajaccio before heading out on the ferry to Toulon and beyond. Our main purpose was to view the 14^th July celebrations, although we also wanted to have a look around.

Ajaccio is the capital of the south west province of Corsica, and stands at the head of the Gulf d’Ajaccio and on the mouth of the Prunelli River. It has been around in its current incarnation since it was founded in 1492 by the Genoese, but the area has been inhabited since pre-historic times as is clear in the evidence of many monuments around the coast.

The town is famous for being the birth place of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Bonaparte family has left its mark on the city with statues, roads and squares all bearing the B word as their name. As is the case across France, this is more due to the work of Napoleon III than anyone else and there is a feeling that NB was not entirely true to his Corsican roots.

Paying Homage to the Emperor

The other Bonapartian legacy was left by Napoleon’s uncle, Cardinal Fesch, who – in spite of devoting his life to the church – managed to accumulate more than 16,000 paintings while in Italy on official duties, and in the end bequeathed them to the state of Corsica for the pleasure of its later tourists.

We felt we had Ajaccio covered but we went on a guided tour of the city organised by Office de Tourism, and found a passionate and verbose young man who told us about “Red Gold”. The tour covered the history of the trade in red coral which underpinned the economy of the city for much of the last four hundred years. In fact, by the 1700s around 75% of the population of Ajaccio was employed directly by the coral industry. There were 250 boats collecting coral, and the industry had been operating since Roman times. In the 16^th century, the coral was harvested by divers who broke off coral pieces in relatively shallow water. However, over time, the resource was depleted and the divers had to dive deeper and deeper. The result was that divers frequently suffered from the bends and died at a young age. Only 5% of the population made it to the age of 60, which indicates how dangerous the industry was for its participants.

As the resource was further depleted and left only coral too deep for divers to harvest, the approach to coral collection changed. The innovation of the Croix St Andre – a cross in an x shape on the end of a heavy anchor – allowed collection of coral from the deeper reefs. The Cross operated by simply dragging along the coral and catching onto the branches, breaking them off and carrying them to the surface. While the tool was effective at breaking the coral, the capture was less effective and only 30% of the broken coral reached the surface. What is remarkable is that this methodology continued until its eventual banning in 1996 – a wasteful and unsustainable industry abusing a limited resource, just to make jewelery.

Napoleon helped out the coral industry in his home town by encouraging his wife, the Empress Josephine, to wear a piece of coral jewellery as part of her official jewels – this had the desired fashion impact and improved the profitability if not the sustainability of the Ajaccio coral miners.

Elsewhere in Ajaccio, we visited the French Submarine Hunter the Montcalm which was just back from Afghanistan and Libya (blockading the ports, not chasing ships of the desert). Unfortunately, we could not decipher the signal flags, even with Google.