Antoine Martin Cocher, our hiking guide with a mustache, stands out in a neon shirt and mirrored sunglasses in the arrivals section of the Figari Airport in southern Corsica. When we reach his pickup truck, Martin-Cocher has us transfer essentials from our suitcases to smaller backpacks. “The September He warns that the weather is pleasant, but you can still see your breath in the night where we are going. We’re about to embark on a few days of trekking along the Mare à Mare, one of the island’s many superb hiking trails. I want to relive the Corsica that I knew as a child on an adventure with Meredith. We plan to first hike and then reunite with the husbands, luggage, and ourselves in a rental villa near the village of Bonifacio.
The island’s most popular (and photographed) destination is the clifftop settlement that was fought over for centuries. Like the rest of Corsica it has endured several epochs. It was ruled by the Greeks and Byzantines. Then the Saracens. Various Germanic tribes. Finally, the French who annexed Corsica in 1769. Since then, Corsica is still trying to rid itself of the occupation. It has maintained and even improved its culture, cuisine and language in the same spirit of protest.
Also driving. “You Corsicans have a knack for driving,” I remark as Antoine flies out of the airport and blithely passes a policeman. A road sign with bullet holes reminds us of Corsica’s long struggle for independence. Antoine notes that the fact we are here, as vacationers and hikers, is partly due to a political ceasefire that was reached in 2014 between National Liberation Front of Corsica (NLFC) and the French Government, which put a halt to decades of conflict. This armistice paved the way for an explosive growth of villa developments This rocky knuckle, which protrudes from the depths of the sea between Italy The following are some examples of how to get started: France.
In this new Corsica that is more vacationer-friendly, I wonder if I’ll recognize the rugged and beautiful backwater of my youth. It was my first walking holiday. Meredith, and I were part of a group who followed the GR20 trail, billed as one of the most difficult in the world. Europe. Across the empty wildlands we trekked—me, inappropriately attired in canvas sneakers and a skort. Even though I had sunstroke and my feet were bloodied, this experience made me obsessed with maps of survey and inspired a desire to go back. It’s exciting to be back, and with Meredith, as well as the knowledgeable Antoine. We’ll pick up a trail, he tells us, above Porto Vecchio on the east coast and follow it for some of its 53 varied miles toward the western shoreline, along ancient shepherd paths and through forests of holm oak, chestnut, beech, and Corsican pine, before reaching the mountain village of Santa-Maria-Figaniella. Then we will spend some time at Casa FortificataThe Thinking Traveller’s high-end villa rental company owns a private retreat. The men will join us in the second Thinking Traveller villa on the beach, amid the herb scented headlands and sybaritic clubs of the southern coastline. Before we can do anything else, however, there is the drive through the rocky backcountry.
Quenza is where the road ends and the mountains begin. The narrow road winds in continuous switchbacks towards the Aiguilles, or the “needles”, which look more like an open mouth set against the horizon. We gratefully exit the car after a dozen hairpin curves and enjoy the last rays of afternoon sunlight. On the Plateau du Coscione, we bounce along padded fields of moss-covered turf and open pools of water known as pozzines. Our feet stomp on pine needles, mint thyme and lemon thyme to scent the trail as we walk through the maquis. Mediterranean. Semi-wild, pigs sniff under the massive granite boulders which define this otherworldly terrain. They are solid, immutable and as big as Henry Moore sculptures. The granite has been hollowed by wind and rain for centuries, creating taffoni. This will be the shelter of the swine that wander tonight. Only a few generations ago, when I last visited Corsica the taffoni housed entire families with their livestock who moved to the highlands in the summer.
