L’église Sainte-Julie de Nonza
Driving down the west coast of Corsica is slow. Twisty two-lane roads clinging on hillsides keep cars’ steering wheels spinning. Add in an occasional “goat jam” and you best not expect to make it to the next stop quickly. Not that you’d want to. Traveling in this area Corsica is more about the journey than the destination. The drive down Corsica’s rugged and wild west coast is not something that is soon forgotten.
Scattered along the route are numerous small old villages consisting of a scattered jumble of buildings organized as the terrain dictates. These are not good economic times for many small villages in the France. And this area of Corsica is no exception. Many of the villages we passed were clearly struggling to stay alive. Is this their last generation? Will these villages be ghost towns in twenty years? We hope not, but time does not seem to be on their side.
A goat jam
A rare vehicle works its way down Corsica’s western coast in November 2016.
In spite of the economic circumstances, or perhaps because of them, there remain photogenic communes along the road. Every now and then a turn in the road reveals a picturesque village like Nonza.
As we approached Nonza we saw the pastel tangerine colored church, L’église Sainte-Julie de Nonza, standing out among the village’s drab gray buildings. It beckoned us to stop. Thus we gave our rental car’s steering wheel a break and paused long enough to get our dog Gigi out of the car and to take a few pictures of Nonza. With a little exploration we discovered that it was possible to wander and up a nearby hill for a better vantage point of the church and the gray sand beach nearby.
The beach below Nonza
Those seeking solitude would find Nonza a good place to stop for a quiet night. But with a prepaid room booked ahead we need to continue on down the road. Next time through, we’ll plan on stopping in Nonza. We say that a lot about many of the places we encounter.
Lunch at an attractive spot along the road: To eat here you park in the road.
Dogs and cats
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