Corsica

After our trip on the ferry from Toulon overnight we landed at Adjaccio about half way down the West coast of Corsica, and left almost immediately to head for Bonifacio and then on to Porto Veccio to stay with Dominique’s cousin Sylvie and her husband Jean, a real live Corsican. We stayed with Sylvie and Jean for a wonderful three days and were treated to a guided tour of all the beaches, features and secret places of the South West.

I had never thought of going to Corsica, and we really only decided to come after Sylvie’s son visited us in Sydney, but if you are in France it is worth the trip over. 

Con's Favourite Drink

When Con visits Corsica, this is what he will drink.

Toulon

Our main reason for visiting Toulon was to meet the ferry to travel to Corsica. We also took the opportunity to visit Dominique’s school friend Elizabeth.  We have been here before, but that was in January 2010 and at that time we took a ride across the harbour to look at the French Navy, which has used Toulon as a base for around 500 years.

Toulon from the Ferry.  Plenty of boats

We had a spare day to look around and, without much conviction, chose to visit the Maritime Museum.  What a surprise. It had a wonderful set of models, pictures and artefacts relating to the development and life of the Port and Naval Base at Toulon, ably illustrated by an excellent audio guide in several languages (I chose English this time). I was surprised to find that the most interesting exhibit for me was the series of paintings from the 17^th century illustrating life at the port. The description in the audio guide focused me onto details which I would not have otherwise noticed, even the one time when I was looking at the wrong picture.

The Bastia Ferry, ours was bigger with two extra decks

We left Toulon on the 9pm ferry to Ajaccio, Corsica.  The sister ferry which was headed to Bascia, Corsica at the same time left behind us.  

Some pictures from my new camera, showing the Bascia Ferry and the skyline of Toulon.

Apart from the smokers, Toulon is better in Summer.


Link to some more photos of Tulon

Some Technology Updates

You may have noticed a few things: no recent photos, gaps in the timing, and wondered why? Well all the best laid plans fall apart somewhere along the line. 

First, when I arrived at Paris CDG, I turned on my new toy, the NetComm MyZone credit card sized wireless modem, only to find that I had provided the wrong starting date for the sim card – one day later.  I patiently waited the day, but when I turned it all on again, no signal.  Skip the details, it took five days to make the automatic configuration configure.  Nothing to do with the undocumented reset button.

After mastering this simple technology, things looked set to flow smoothly.  About 40 minutes before the expected arrival of the TDF peloton, I decided to change the memory card in my camera. I did not want to miss any of the action. That is when the new memory card reported an error.  Oh well, just have to make do with the 22 available photos in the old memory card. Changed back to the old memory card. Error as well. The camera has not worked since. 

I bought a new Canon IXUS, so I hope to have some photographic evidence that I am not just sitting in Pymble making this up.