Day Nine: A Restonica Day

Tuesday is a rest day, we don't have to pack and move on. Our room faces east and we blearily admired the sunrise over the hills at about 05:40 before gong back to bed. Still, we made an early start about 9 am . We enjoyed an all you can eat but not much choice breakfast in the Hotel. Popular with walking parties and escorted cycle groups. We have the luxury of riding without luggage today. No cyclist visiting Corte would want to miss the Gorges of the Restonica. It is considered one of the most beautiful roads in Corsica. We were really looking forward to the ride, especially on e-bikes - the climb up the Restonica is pretty challenging if memory serves right. Nowadays, you can only travel 10km by road but a short there and back suited us fine.

We set off early about 9.30 to try and avoid the worst of the heat and the traffic. We rolled down and out of Corte and followed the signs to the D623 and up into the Restonica. It's a winding narrow road with passing places with wonderful views at every turn. A wild beautiful valley, the clear blue torrent flowing over white polished rocks. Pines and mountains all around. We took our time, with lots of photo stops.

Cyclists and walkers only allowed after a check point. We were glad to be out of traffic since the road gets really narrow, steep and alarmingly vertiginous!. After 10km we reached the end of the road. The Cafe Cesar has closed - and the bridge that crosses the Gorge had completely collapsed in the storms. A gang of men were wondering about disconsolately, no wonder, the bridge will take some fixing. So - 10K up was followed by 10K down and we were back in Corte by lunch time.

We ate at L'annexe, by the fountain on the Rampe Sainte-Croix i.e. it was up a flight of stairs with a fine terrace where we found some shade. The tartare of beef and chicken pasta was fine, but uninspiring, the food looked good but our choices were perhaps not the best on offer.

One thing that has changed, whether it's the 10 years age or the heat, no great desire to explore the town, partly because as soon as you leave the main street you're looking at an awful lot of stair climbing ! Back at the hotel we looked at maps and planned the last four days of our tour. Tomorrow we head for Aleria down near the coast and after that up and along the hill villages of the La Castagniccia. Rather than make the difficult ride through the heavy traffic and suburbs of Bastia, we decided to take two nights on the beach at Morani Plage.

That evening we walked back to the Place Paoli and ate at the U Valentino. We had a menu Corse - charcuterie, omelette and corsican cheese, plus a Salad Berger. Really enjoyable and excellent value.