affair, four courses and

affair, four courses and wine – everyone was chatting. The crew asked English speakers beforehand if they’d like to sit with fellow Anglophones – some do, some don’t - and I found myself sitting with a couple from Michigan and a couple from Canada. For the next 7 days the boat was to cruise around the island, which is closer to Italy than France, taking in the main historic cities, off the beaten track villages and beaches, including wine tastings and lunch in gorgeous little family-run traditional restaurants. There is a choice of excursions each day – classic tours take in the major sites and discovery tours take you to more secret and hidden gems, with French and English speaking guides. It’s a brilliant way to see a lot of Corsica while you relax, enjoy the sites and simply soak the atmosphere where joie de vivre meets la dolce vita. Lunch at Figari Ajaccio and Iles Sanguineres We arrived the next morning to brilliant sunshine in Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. There’s plenty to see and do in the rather upmarket and picturesque town and you can’t help but notice the number of bars and shops dedicated to the famous French General! There’s a Napoleon Museum and the fabulous fine arts Fesch museum. Corsicanborn Joseph Fesch was half uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte, a cardinal and archbishop of Lyon. Born in Ajaccio he donated his enormous collection of some 16,000 artworks to museums and the Musée Fesch contains a huge chunk, including works by Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini and Titian amongst others. From here we visited La Parata along the coast of the Iles Sanguineres, a classified Grande Site de France, in time to watch the sun slowly dipping into the sea. Famous French crooner Tino Rossi had a home in this most beautiful area with its pointy islands poking through the top of waves like tiny pyramids. A Genoese tower sits atop a hill, Ajaccio 10 | The Good Life France

one of many built along the coastline to defend the island. Corsica’s history tells a turbulent tale of invasion, rebellion and social upheaval. Conquered by the Greeks in 565BC, ruled by Genoa for hundreds of years, and changing hands between the Italians and French. Corsica is now classified as a region of France with two departments, Corse-de-Sud, and Haute-Corse. What’s immediately apparent is just how lush and flowery Corsica is. Everywhere there are wild lemon, fig and olive trees, cactus plants, lavender and poppies vie for attention. Every verge is covered in greenery and brightly coloured flowers, and the ever present aromatic maquis, a bit like the garrigue of southern France, an undergrowth of herbs bush shrubs which blanket the ground. It was only our first day in Corsica and already I was a little in love with it. Tower of Parata, built 1550, it was one of 90 Genoese towers created to defend the coast of Corsica Iles Sanguineres The Good Life France | 11