This page is to give you an idea how Corsica looks like, you will find some informations, pictures and links to other WEB pages about Corsica. I hope you will find some interest in this and that it will give you the mood to visit our wonderful island.
The best way to learn about this island is to come and discover it by yourself...
To discover Corsica, to find out its secrets, it is necessary to walk across it, to take in its sinuous roads, its footpaths, to drink at its sources, to stop on its high plateaux. The paradox of the island bursts with its 360 villages dispersed out of 8 681 km². Cities, rich monuments of Roman art among the most beautiful of Europe, baroque churches, towers of Genovan style, prestigious citadels, bridges and mills; humans and nature have been rivals of ingenuity over the centuries in Corsica. Here, the mountains and the sea stand out in contrast. The sun often meets the snow-covered mountain summits. The air which you breathe there is that of eternal and beautiful Corsica.
A Masterpiece of Nature rose up from the Sea by Jérôme Camilly Journalist-writer.
Some praise it to the skies, others discredit it. Corsica favours immoderation, confrontation and sometimes drama. Its history resembles its geography and it is the same for those who were born there : Granite, secrets,turbulent, incomprehensible.
Came from the mists of time, a saying obsesses me : "A land without a language is a land without order". We have one ourselves, and such a one but also disorder on top of that.
ome civilisations, some invaders took over this privileged land. The most visible signs remain genovese. Here it is impossible to dispose of the history.
Do not believe nothing of this hotchpotch of ideas. Erase all. Form your own opinion.
You will discover that Corsica is better than what is said of it, better than its legend. Isles are paradox, and this one is not an exception, it cultivates the contradiction as a master. Isles are part of continent but Corsica remains resolutely aside.
The real Corsica is not the coasts which are surrounded by the - peaceful - genovese towers but inside. The inlets, the bays, the endless beaches have the charms of elsewhere, but the authenticity is inside, where the chestnut groves extend to where the mountains stand, and in the villages that cling to the land to not become deserted.
To think that laughs have rebounded off the granite walls of these houses which are now abandoned. Sounds of silence......
The lot of these isles is not so enviable, most of them have a harsh skin.
But that isle for four seasons is a patchwork of green.
The temperature is most of the time mild, where springtime and wintertime, temper one another and the mildness endures.
Cinarca, Balagne, Agriates, Cap corse, Castagniccia, Casinca, Fiumorbo, mentally flying over these regions, clockwise, landscapes pass by separated through the middle by the mountains' ridge.
Whoever wants to reduce Corsica to a postcard, creates the wrong picture in their mind.
The often harsh, biting, cold spells, combined with oppressive heats, have made the mountain severe and the winter jostles the foaming blue sea, sending away the islanders to their confines.
The isle suits who have an open soul.
It is impossible to see all, even if you refer to the star symbol guide which shows you the outstanding beauty spots. It is indeed impossible to see all..
However become absorbed in Corte, this metaphor of power, and push on as far as Tralonca. Look far, far out to see from the Capo Rosso. Once you get to Corsican Cape, this marine footbridge links you to a place where you could meditate like the old wise men, that are sitting on the law walls, who like philosophy because it is the pleasure of thinking.
See Centuri, see Sant'Antonino in the Balagne where the olive groves grow and Bonifacio, the place where the land ends..., and Sartene, Porto-Vecchio, Girolata, the scattered Norman chapels, the prominent spires of Bavella, and the unspoilt beach of Arone, near Piana...
I stop there my survey, I would have to make an anthology to explore this imaginary museum of which I carry each stone, each tree with me.
Travel this isle to every corner, throughout the lenght and breadth...
It is true, I agree that you have to deserve it, Corsica, to fight against winding roads, the path of goats, the sheer cliffs, with drops which attract you, but once you have got to the end of the way, respect it, for it remains almost intact.
It is because many of its inhabitants who fought and who still fight to protect it, to keep this masterpiece of nature, which rose up from the Mediterranean and which wears a name which resembles it : Corsica .
The Corsican flag
There is a legend (or a real story?) concerning the Moor's head. It is said that at the time of the kingdom of Corsica, a negro saved the king from being assassinated. As reward, the king ordered that the "tortil" (the white thing) on the head of the Moor was not to cover his eyes anymore but to be worn above them. It was then said that Corsica had at last opened its eyes.
The flag of Corsica in use from the 14th century was based on the arms of the period when the Catalan King Jaume II was king of Corsica - Jaume II used a design of his territory of Aragon. It was used for the national rebellions of 1732-1736 and 1755-1766, but not by King Theodor.
Corsica was annexed to France en 1766 and the national flag was prohibited in 1768. A new revolt used the white flag with a black Moor's head. In the 19th century it was used as a regional flag, and in the 20th century it was adopted by the nationalist movement. Against a background of separatist unrest the French government has recognised the use of the flag and granted autonomy in recent years.
Corsican language
Corsica has it's own language, here are the first five articles of the declaration of human rights translated in Corsican.
Dichjarazioni Univirsali Di I Diritti Di L’Omu
Articulu prima :
Nascinu tutti l’omi libari è pari di dignità è di diritti. Pussedinu a raghjoni è a cuscenza è li tocca ad agiscia trà elli di modu fraternu.
Articulu 2 :
Di tutti i diritti è i libertà scritti in issa dichjarazioni, si ni pò ghjuvà ugnunu, senza sfarenza varuna di razza, di culori, di sessu, di lingua, di rilighjoni, d’upinioni, pulitica o altra ch’ella sia, d’urighjini naziunali o suciali, di ricchezza, di nascita o di qualunqua altra situazioni. Mancu si farà nisuna sfarenza partendu da u statutu puliticu, ghjuridicu o internaziunali di u paesi o u tarrotoriu duva ella campa a parsona, ch’ellu sia indipindenti issu paesi o tarritoriu, o puri cunfidatu ad una antra nazioni, privu d’autunumia o cù un puteri limitatu in calchì modu.
Articulu 3 :
Hà dirittu ogni parsona à a vita, à a libertà è à a sicurezza.
Articulu 4 :
In la schiavitù o in la sirvitù ùn sarà tinutu nimu ; sò pruibiti a schiavitù è u cumerciu di i schiavi in qualunqua forma.
Articulu 5 :
Un’sarà tinutu nimu, nè sottumissu à castichi o azzioni crudeli, inumani o vili.
Some pictures
Click on them to visit my gallery.
