Envelope / Develope

After a memorable drive to reach Col du Prato, I was looking for a board sign telling me the starting point for one of the nice peaks of Corsica. There are in fact two starting points: one is a parking lot before the small village, on the right side, bordering a sheep ground. There is a path crossing the sheep ground and joining a gravel road. The real path starts across the church, besides a restaurant. It is marked with an orange band. Following the road, pay close attention because it splits at some point and you have to follow the right side. I followed the left side and managed to wander for 3 kilometers before correcting my mistake. The good part of the hike has a slow slope and is mostly through a forest, keeping you a cool temperature and shade. You may encounter cows or pigs or goats or sheep herds. It is not a strenuous hike with the exception of the last 30 minutes. Pay attention to the orange band, the path is well marked. Although we passed close to a few streams (...

Another Corte trip,  having with the intention to combine it with a dip in the waters of Tavignano stream. Searching the internet about the entry point for Tavignano gorges will give you mixed starting points. At the end of the citadel, close to the parking lot, there is begining of the trail. As always, I had a hard time to find it and started very close to the stream, following a path used by the locals to enjoy the pools along the gorge. At some point we were forced to climb up and join the marked path. It was a steep ascent and only seeing other people on the normal path gave me confidence we corrected a wrong starting location. The funny thing is that many tourists like us were doing the same mistake and "suffered" an abrupt ascent at some moment.    One of the problems was that we needed time to be at the starting point and I did not want to wake up Emma very early, still. We always managed to be at the beginning of the trail before 11 am, and all days were in 3...

We  were stationed in Lucciana, one hour south of Bastia and all our hikes were around Corte, another 50 minutes south west. Both lakes - Melu and Capitellu - are famous due to the Restonica gorges, people are coming to enjoy the small pools along the stream.  I searched for Restonica gorge and the car's navigation system just had it as POI.  The first shock, off Corte town, was the small road leading to Restonica gorges, were you have to carefully drive and negotiate the curbs with incoming traffic. There is one lane and a half and from place to place spaces where to cars can pass along each other. I haven't yet met obnoxious drivers in Corsica, all of them are trying to accommodate to the road conditions. Once we have reached the paying parking lot, the signs were showing one hour and forty-five minutes for lake Melu. I hiked in many countries, but this trail was busy like a side-walk to supermarket. The last part of the hike to reach the platform of the lake Melu...

We traveled many times by train in Italy and didn't have trepidations. In getting to Bastia (in Corsica) we took the train to Livorno and then the ferry from Livorno to Bastia. The only unknown was getting from the train station to the Moby ferry port entrance in Livorno. Many people are not traveling using a car and I googled intensively to find my options - how can you reach the ferry terminal from the train station in Livorno? But before that, a few impressions from the train trip. Italians are using trains a lot and the system is very well organized. You can buy tickets online and present them to the train controller. I bought second class tickets during the week and the compartment was packed. The train passed through Cinque Terre, Spezia and a few places with colored beaches. Liguria's beaches still have the color of 50-60s Italian movies. Small patches of sand with colorful umbrella and chaise-longs. Brown bodies layered as sardines and capturing sun with the believe ...

Mes projets de voyage ne se font pas du jour au lendemain, simplement parce que je veux me détendre ou décompresser. La plupart du temps, je vois des endroits dans des documentaires ou des films ou je lis à leur sujet, puis je commence à dessiner un plan. Quand une graine est plantée, je récupère des informations et j'essaie de comprendre s'il ne reste plus que mon impulsion à me rendre sur place: si elles ont des endroits incroyables à photographier ou des paysages aux caractéristiques uniques, mieux c'est. Aujourd'hui, je dévoilerai mon plan de visite en Corse. Je suis un grand fan de TV5, la chaîne de télévision française qui au fil des ans m'a présenté de nombreux endroits incroyables à travers leurs documentaires: Thalassa, Des racines et des ailes, Passez moi les jumelles. Dans l'un des documentaires, une jeune guide ( Magali Vermeglio ) a été filmée lors d'une randonnée au GR20 et à la beauté du paysage et à la rugosité des sommets moi a commenc...

Photo by Gabriel B, My travels plans are not happening overnight, just because I want to relax or decompress. Most of the time I see places first in documentaries or movies or read about them and then I start to sketch a plan. When a seed is planted I dig information and try to understand if there is more than my impulse of getting to the place: if they have incredible places to photograph or scenery with unique characteristics, the better. Today I will unfold my plan to visit Corsica. I am a big fan of TV5, the French broadcasting channel which over the years introduced me to many amazing places through their documentaries - Thalassa, Des racines et des ailes, Passez moi les jumelles. In one of the documentaries, a young tour guide lady ( Magali Vermeglio ) was filmed while hiking GR20 and the beauty of the landscape and the roughness of the peaks just gotten me started. The only problem is that we are a family of two - dad and daughter (8 years old). Can we manage GR20, to...