Leaving the cows and the dust of Galéria, it took us another day of mountain driving to travel south down the west coast of Corsica to reach the capital Ajaccio.
First we crossed the peak of Palmarella at a healthy 405 metres, half the height of Kosciusko.
The peak offered great views of the Gulf of Porto and the mountains ahead of us.
Even at this height the temperature was still a wilting 33°.
An hour and 27 km later we wound our way down to the ancient harbour town of Porto.
Porto is a tourist hot-spot with its UNESCO listed fortifications and lighthouse.
Between Porto and Piana, which is one of the 'Most Beautiful Villages of France', we came across Les Calanques.
A calanque is a narrow, steep-walled inlet that is developed in limestone, dolomite, or other carbonate strata and found in many places along the Mediterranean coast.
The horizontal line in the photo above is the road, extensively propped up and very narrow.
Once the calanque nears the water it becomes sheer cliffs plunging in to the sea. But we are not able to see that from here.
Rugged.
Theres the road again. Not a white post or safety rail in sight although there is a low rock wall - but only in places.
We managed to get our car off the road to get these photos. The road is barely two cars wide and in places the cars crawl past each other. This is why we averaged about 30 km per hour along much of this coastal area.
Finally crawled into Ajaccio the capital and main port, in time for tea.
But alas it was Monday. Most restaurants in France are closed on Monday. That meant that the local pizza shop near the hotel was closed. That also meant that if we took the car out to go further afield to find a restaurant, we would loose our parking place. Parking places are like gold - once you have one you are disinclined to give it up. So we ate at the hotel. It was appalling - everything frozen, thawed and microwaved.
Never mind, there is always tomorrow and we are off to chase down a restaurant in the hills, featured in Yotam Ottolenghi's 'Mediterranean Island Feast - Corsica'.
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