Page 284 - Lonely Planet France’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

DETOUR:
PREHISTORIC CORSICA
Start: 7 Zonza
This short but startling loop dives into the heart of ancient Corsica. To create a perfect
weekend, combine it with an overnight stay at the island’s best boutique-farm spa.
From Zonza drive 9km south along the D268 to Levie, unexpected host to the
Musée de l’Alta Rocca (Site Archaéologique Cucuruzzo Capula; %04 85 78 00 78; www.
cg-corsedusud.fr/patrimoine-et-culture/musee-de-levie; av Lieutenant de Peretti, Levie; adult/
child €4/free; h10am-5pm Tue-Sat Oct-May, to 6pm daily Jun-Sep), a local history and
ethnographical museum.
Continue south along the D268 and after 3km turn right onto rte du Pianu (D20),
a narrow lane signposted ‘Cucuruzzu Capula Site Archéologique’. Soon after you
arrive at A Pignata (%04 95 78 41 90; www.apignata.com; rte du Pianu, Levie; d €200-360, ste
€280-400, all incl half-board; hlate Mar-Dec; aWs), a chic mountain retreat where you
can gorge on Alta Rocca mountain views crossed by swirling clouds from a poolside
chaise longue. Fronted by brothers Antoine and Jean-Baptiste, the farmhouse spa with
vegetable garden and pigs (and the most mouth-melting charcuterie) is first-class.
Its 18 rooms are contemporary and its restaurant (menu €40) is the best in southern
Corsica. For heaven on earth, go for the impossibly romantic tree house for two.
Next morning, continue along the same D20 road for five minutes to the Site
Archéologique Cucuruzzu Capula (Site Archaéologique Cucuruzzu Capula; %04 95 78
48 21; Levie; adult/child €4/free; h9.30am-7pm Jun-Sep, to 6pm Apr, May & Oct), 3.7km in all
from the D268. Allow two hours to explore the archaeological site. Enthralling for
kids and adults alike, an evocative 3km interpretive trail takes you on foot between
giant boulders coloured bright green with moss to the Bronze Age castelli (castles)
of Cucuruzzu and Capula. Along the way kids can duck into the earliest natural-
rock shelters used by prehistoric humans (who were small in stature) and poke
around the remaining rooms of a stronghold where, a few centuries later, they would
butcher wild boar, cooked broth, spun wool and fashioned thongs from stretched
animal skins.
PROVENCE & SOUTHEAST FRANCE 25 SOUTHERN SEDUCTION EN CORSE
Backtrack to the D268 and turn left (north) back to Levie and beyond to Zonza.

sparkling turquoise wa­ The Drive » Join rte de place that lures French
ter, long stretches of sand Palombaggia in its anticlockwise A­listers and wealthy
edged with pine trees loop around the peninsula, tourists. Its picturesque
and splendiferous views afterwards joining the busy T10 backstreets, lined with
over the Îles Cerbicale. briefly for its final sprint into restaurant terraces and
Melting into its southern Porto-Vecchio. Spend a pleasant designer shops, has
fringe are the equally hour mooching along at a charm in spades – pre­
relaxed, view-savouring pace.
picture­perfect expanses sided over with grace by
of sand and lapping shal­ the photogenic ruins of
low waters of Plage de la 6 Porto-Vecchio an old Genoese citadel.
Folacca. This irresistible Small and sleepy by
duo is sure to set your Shamelessly seductive day, Porto­Vecchio siz­
heart aflutter. and fashionable, Porto­ zles in season when its
Vecchio is the Corsican party reputation dons its
54 p284 St­Tropez, the kind of dancing shoes and lets

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