Castagniccia (France)

During a visit to Corsica, I travelled across Castagniccia's roads.

I left from Ponte Leccia, onto Morosaglia, birthplace of Pascal Paoli and then the Prato pass.

The villages are all perched on the slopes of the mountain. The houses are covered with lauze roof tiles (made from schist) and they're mostly grey, packed in tightly against each other. Often a church points its spire to the sky as if to point out the village.

I stopped in Piedicroce and went for a beer. Corsicans were playing belote and this bar was really a friendly place for meeting up and sharing. The barman in this hamlet was also the delicatessen butcher and I left with homemade wild boar pâté, sausage and "lonzo", this delicious Corsican speciality.

I wanted to go to the springs at Orezza, but it was a bank holiday and I wasn't able to visit the site of this renowned iron-bearing water.