Porto Vecchio, Corsica – 2013 France

Travelogue for May 2013. The Corsica diary continues.

While much of the island is mountainous, the area along the east coast of Corsica is very flat and level, making the N198 a very comfortable and easy drive along the coastline.

From Van Zoraska, we drove south on the N198 for about two hours to the port town of Porto-Vecchio in southwestern Corsica.

It’s not so much the southwest as it is almost the southern tip.

We parked our car at the harbor and had a late lunch here. I don’t remember what I had already…. We must not have eaten much.

By the way, there are Tour de France banners like this all over the city.

As you can see in front of the City Hall.

In fact, the 2013 Tour de France, held this year, started here in Porto Vecchio.

As it was the first time to visit the Tour, and the starting point of the glorious first stage, I felt very excited. (I visited in May, so it was before the event.

The course of this first stage seems to be the N198 that we have just traveled. However, the direction is reversed, that is, the route goes from south to north.

The next stop is the Old Town.

It was a long way from the port, so I took the car again and parallel parked near the old town. I parked in such a place.

The history of Porto Vecchio is very long: the Greeks settled here as far back as B.C., followed by the Romans and the Genoese in the Middle Ages.

By the way, there was a gate called « Genoa Gate » at the entrance of the city.

The old town, which was protected by gates and walls, was not as romantic as the beautiful French villages of the Middle Ages, but there were some quaint sights to be seen throughout the town.