An Unplanned Year

We left Andorra as soon as the windscreen was defrosted this morning and drove south to Spain, then east to France.

Most of the day was spent in mountainous regions with the Catalan Pyrenees to our right.

We’re not sure how it is possible, but if seemed as if we were descending almost the entire trip on roads like the one in this photo.

We deviated briefly to visit Évol, a tiny village that is a member of Le plus beaux villages des France. It was very small and very cute.

After leaving there we continued towards Perpignan before noticing a fort on a hill. We decided to stop, thinking we would be visiting an Abbey or something, but it turned out to be a small walled town called Villefranche-de-Conflent. We had the most delicious duck crêpe for lunch and then wandered around.

We visited the ramparts – this was so interesting, they’re perfectly preserved!

It ended up being a really interesting unplanned stop! (FYI you could buy a house with a commercial space for about $120k AUD).

The next day we drove from Perpignan to Toulon in order to catch an overnight ferry to Corsica. Due to timings and avoiding all meals right before potential seasickness, we had a delicious lunch as our main meal when we arrived in Toulon. We then drove to the coast and walked around the Royal Tower and an area of the foreshore.

We scoped out the ferry terminal, killed a bit more time, then it was time to board.

Once on board with the car safely parked in a game of Tetris, we found our cabin, had our daily “holiday beer”, then had pj’s on and were in bed reading as the boat started moving.

We slept well and were up at 530am as instructed to be ready to disembark. Once the car was clear.

Once we were free of the ferry in Ajaccio, we headed into the middle of Corsica, taking the long way to Bonifacio. We drove through a National Park, past snow covered peaks to Aleria on the eastern coast.

We had a hot drink and a bite to eat and continued along the coast to Bonifacio.

We arrived in Bonifacio, really just expecting “random port town” and were stunned by how beautiful it is. There is an almost fully intact citadel that sits atop a huge rocky hill, above the sheltered port. (I’m sure Captain Sandy reverse parked her motor yacht here in one of the Below Deck Med seasons).

We walked through the Citadel and along a coastal path where we could see Sardinia (Italy) along with stunning white cliffs and rocky, clear blue water.

We walked back along a different track, then up into the Citadel again.

Then around the wall of the fortress to the WW2 pillbox additions.

We wandered through a cemetery, which is 100% family mausoleums before heading to the ferry.

From the ferry, after watching some impressive truck manoevering (& Kevin reversing the car the length of the boat interior to park during vehicle loading) we set sail to Sardinia. As we left Bonifacio we passed the Citadel and fortress walls from the other side.

We arrived in Sardinia and drove from Santa Theresa to Sassari on empty country roads, albeit with really scrappy surfaces for about 70% of the trip, at the mandatory 50KM/H!!!! 100km in the countryside has never taken so long to drive!

We arrived after dark so have no idea what the town we are in is like! Will advise in the next instalment.