Already earlier I was writing about the super cool views looking down from the city of Bonifacio, which is located on the island of Corsica which is a part of France.
Writing this will already make some people angry I suppose because Corsicans see their island as a separate country and not as a French overseas territory, but that is a whole different story.
But that was not the point here, it was the point about sharing how cool the town of Bonifacio actually is. Located on a gigantic cliff, overlooking the South seas over the 'street of Bonifacio' towards the island of Sardinia, this place has some magical effect on everyone who visits.
As you can see here, the town is literally a fortress city from where the only way to reach it is up. Now initially when I had reached the marina on the small sailing boat overpassing the street of Bonifacio I was totally dead after that trip.
The seas were rough and after reaching the harbor safe all I wanted is to have a cold beer and just drag myself to a French croissant. After all, this is French territory, so all of a sudden the language is French and so is the food and the snacks.
Just take a look up here what kinds of ships are all in the harbor. The ship I came with was so small you can not even see it on this snap on there. But yeah, there are also those kinds of ' Below Deck' kind of super yachts. I mean...watch the episode of 'Below Deck sailing yacht season 4 episode 14 and you will this harbor is a big and bubbling thing.
And yes, this is the view from when you enter the fortress. Pretty cool right?
Heading up!
Heading up towards the town and the old fortress coming from the harbor means breaking a sweat. Not that it is not doable or something, but it really does take some steps to get up there.
There is also a road and a little train going up, but hey... That ain't for us right? We walk and we check the views along the way. And those views were absolutely stunning as you were able to see in my previous blog about the views from here.
Coming closer towards the fortress you can see this is literally a stone walls keeping everything out. I can imagine these guys have stayed independent for year, because breaching this is no joke at all.
But entering the town I was more than surprised to see there is an actual town up here. For some reason I had expected only tourist traps and a miniature Disneyland, but that was not the case at all.
I found an old town with actual housing and normal building and people living there as well.
And sure...it is more developed for tourists to come to here but there are also more than 3000 residents here which makes it an actual town.
Chill spots!
Now don't get me wrong. Especially in the high season cruise ships throw out their anchor here and the town is overrun by tourists at that point, but now in slow season this town could have been anywhere.
Small streets to roam in, a church in the background with a nice bell tower, some small shops to buy stuff. But mostly there are enough bars and terraces and restaurants to have a decent chill sessions and what surprised me the most...
The pricing of these places was actually not even overpriced, which I had expected because of the location of Bonifacio.
Just look at these barrel bars for a place to have a drink at. Ain't these super cute and just like a place you want to hang out?
Small spoiler: I had a drink here and those barrels have a strange sitting because you also have to leave your legs somewhere and there is no room for it. So you are sitting crooked the whole time, but that is a different story. Optics are everything.
After dark
After the sun had set I continued my roaming throughout the old town as now the temperature was super pleasant to walk around in. I can imagine especially in mid summer in these small streets it can come to a total boiling temperature. But especially in the late evening it was super nice to take a good look around.
And what happened later on the evening is that the entire town went empty. The 3000 residents were chilling at home and the tourists departed again and it was totally silent, which was also a bit weird.
Coming towards this other church even felt a bit spooky because it was so silent, nevertheless it looked like a painting.
The most cool thing I saw was in my way back down towards the harbor. In the city was there still is this mechanism that can close the big wooden door towards the city.
I'm not sure if that would still be working nowadays, but I can imagine the medieval situation back then when the city was being stormed.
Doesn't this look cool and that it is nice that it is still preserved?
So yeah, I can recommend visiting this fortress bastille town on the high cliffs of Corsica to anyone. Again, I can also imagine that in high season on a hot summer day this is all a different story.
But in low season in the nights? Wow...this was just a gem!