Calvi

We caught the train in Corte and travelled down to Calvi, after being slightly dubious about the Avis rental guy in Corte. We are still not sure if we got the train timetables right because there seemed to be more trains arriving than what were scheduled on the timetables, but no matter. It is one of those things that makes us shrug and say “maybe that is the Corsican way”.

Renting a car was actually quite a mission. Finding a place to start with, then finding an open place (high season is definitely over), then finding a place that would let us drop off the car in Ajaccio. After a few hiccups it ended up being beautifully straightforward. We couldn’t find Avis on the internet in Calvi, and thought we would have to go out to the airport but there was a place just behind the information centre. Mission accomplished. Then we had to go buy a map and some icecream.

Like most of the larger towns in Corsica, Calvi has a citadel, which is up high, but has nice views. Here I am eating a sucre crepe. Where would we be without the sandwicheries and the creperies? They are NZs equivalent of pie and chips, an "on the go" snack food. The nutella crepe is the most popular. I used to get into a right mess trying to eat it but have since learnt not to start from the middle.

Daniel's head poking out of a watch tower on the citadel wall.

Pretty views! (on the citadel wall). The water is so clear it made me envious of the snorklers below

And because the water looked so inviting we had to take a dip, despite the sun nearly setting at this point (we were on the only spot of beach with any sun). There is no algae, and the sand is coarse and settles quickly, and there is no wave action, which means you can look down through the water and see the botom despite being out of your depth. I kept dunking myself by accident because I looked down and saw the sand, and expected to be able to stand on it.