Corsica - Part 2

Macinaggio to St Florent. We rode over the same pass we had gone on the previous day but turned South this time along the West coast. We stayed at Hotel Tettola which was right on the beach and also had a pool. Very nice! Most of the hotels on the trip were on the water and we went swimming most days after biking. The Mediterranean sea was very clean around Corsica. You could see down further than you could swim down (20 foot visibility?). The water was warm (~75) so very nice swimming.
Sometimes it was hard to make forward progress on the bikes since the scenery was always changing and we stopped a lot to take in the views. Great day with a lot of balcony roads along the Mediterranean.

Sunrise Macinaggio

St Florent to Ile Rousse. We stayed at the Hotel La Pietra which was one of the nicer hotels on the trip. We stayed there two nights. On the Mediterranean out on a point. Good swimming and nice pool also. Ile Rousse was a nice town and easy walk from the hotel. Had nice dinners in town and also at the hotel on the second night.

Hotel in St Florent in AM

Olive trees

Ile Rousse - very big ferry

Ocean access at hotel

Out of focus lobster

Doug and Steve "dancing"

Corsica - Part 1

Trip to Corsica with bicycles as the mode of transportation on the island. The trip was set up by a company called Bcyclet. They provided the plan (bike routes) and transferred the luggage from one place to another. We traveled to a different town each day with the exception of a 2 day stay in one town. There were 8 people on bicycles and two on motorcycles. The motorcycles stayed at the same towns but took longer routes to get there and traveled more into the interior of the island. Janet, Paul, Doug, Barb, Katie, Danny, Kathy, Steve, Anders, Ken went on the trip. A little info on the island from Wikipedia:

Corsica (/ˈkɔːrsɪkə/; French: Corse [kɔʁs]; Corsica in Corsican and Italian, pronounced [ˈkorsiga] and [ˈkɔrsika] respectively) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is located southeast of the French mainland and west of the Italian Peninsula, with the nearest land mass being the Italian island of Sardinia to the immediate south. A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island.

While being part of Metropolitan France, Corsica is also designated as a territorial collectivity (collectivité territoriale) by law. As a territorial collectivity, Corsica enjoys a greater degree of autonomy than other French regions; for example, the Corsican Assembly is able to exercise limited executive powers.

It is 183 kilometres (114 mi) long at longest, 83 kilometres (52 mi) wide at widest, has 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) of coastline, more than 200 beaches, and is very mountainous, with Monte Cinto as the highest peak at 2,706 metres (8,878 ft) and around 120 other summits of more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). Mountains comprise two-thirds of the island, forming a single chain. Forests make up 20% of the island.

About 3,500 km² (1,400 sq mi) of the total surface area of 8,680 km² (3,350 sq mi) is dedicated to nature reserves (Parc naturel régional de Corse), mainly in the interior.^[16] Corsica contains the GR20, one of Europe's most notable hiking trails.

After a long trip: Montreal->Paris->Corsica we arrived and spent the first day in the town of Bastia recovering and setting up our rental bikes. Stayed at Hotel Port Toga.

The plan for the first day was riding North along the east coast from Bastia to Macinaggio. We extended the trip some by going up and down a pass (col) that took us to the West coast. We then rode North along the west coast and around to Macinaggio. A few nice down hills on this ride. We stayed at Hotel Marina De Oro in Macinaggio.

Victory! Although we were just starting out.

First flat tire

Doug with Corsica police in hot pursuit

Top of pass

There were a lot of these small church type buildings