Features

France - Ajaccio - how Corsica helped win the war

by Mike Levy

Corsica's capital city is best known for its Napoleon, its sweepingly gorgeous bay and its wonderful diving - but it can also claim to be the first French town to be liberated in WWII. The first signs are there as you land as the newly designated Napoleon Bonaparte Airport in Ajaccio. The tiny airport was a military landing strip in the 1940s and it was here that General De Gaulle, leader of the Free French, first stepped foot on liberated soil back in 1943. Corsica was ahead of D-Day by nine months. Ajaccio itself had been liberated from Mussolini's fascists on the 9th September 1943 - a contingent of Free French forces arriving by submarine, and a stoic band of Corsican resistance fighters battled with the Italian forces and secured surrender (the memorial celebration banner is pictured). This then, was the first town in France to be freed from Axis forces. It provided a valuable bridgehead for the Allied invasion of the Nazi-collaborating Vichy government in the south of France.

The memorial to General De Gaulle's first footsteps is easily missed as you arrive at Ajaccio airport. It's actually on the way to the car hire sheds over the road from the arrivals hall. If, by the way, you have hired a car to get around this stunningly beautiful island, be prepared for long queues (or be first to get off your plane). If you are stuck in the Hertz, Avis, Europcar etc. line, go and have a peep at the memorial. What happened here was a significant turning point in the course of the Second World War.

Ajaccio itself (which can also be reached by No. 8 shuttle bus from the airport - just turn right as you come out of the building - is well worth a visit. Its bustling heart with its windy narrow streets, handsome squares and busy harbour add to the appeal of a town that is somewhat ambivalent about its most famous son. Napoleon Bonaparte was born here and his natal house still stands as a national museum. It is worth a short visit (get there before the cruise liner crowds arrive) though you won't see much that is authentically Napoleon's. He left the house as a boy and rarely came back to his native isle. As you will learn from the audio guide (included in the entry fee but you have to ask for it) - Napoleon did not side with the Corsican nationalists (who at one time turned to Britain for support - and for a short time, the island was ruled from London). There is still a strongly Corsican nationalist sentiment in the island and Napoleon is still perceived by many to have batted for the wrong side.

Apart from the birthplace museum - a few other Napoleonic sites are dotted around Ajaccio. You must head off to the Place de Gaulle (about five minutes from the museum) to see the hideously over-the-top statue of the Emperor erected by his nephew Napoleon III. The mighty Napoleon is seated on a charger and his surrounded by his four brothers, each of whom was granted a kingship by the puffed up dictator. Round the back of the statue, just under the horse's arse someone has sprayed a Corsican nationalist sign - so you can see what some locals think of the great man.

Ajaccio is the jumping off place for a daily ferry that takes you over the wide bay to the little town of Porticcio. There's nothing special here apart from a string of good seafood restaurants and miles of sandy beaches bordering on crystal clear blue seas. The whole area is awash with diving schools and boat trips to more distant attractions such as the uninhabited Sanguine islands. If you have a car (being France, public buses are almost non existent), I recommend a drive into Corsica's stunningly beautiful mountains. This isn't difficult as the whole island is virtually a mountain range. Just outside Porticcio, a giddy-making D road snakes its way high above Ajaccio's bay to the dead-quiet mountain village of Coti-Chiavari.

Here you will get a breathtaking vista of the mountains and blue sea below, its church which seems to be suspended on the edge of a sheer cliff, an excellent pizza restaurant perched on a natural balcony and the memorial to a local lad - an underground fighter who was caught by the Fascists and brutally tortured, but refused to betray his comrades. He committed suicide in Ajaccio's grim citadel. His little memorial bust looks out over that great bay and reminds us that Corsica is as much about history as it is about wonderful holidaymaking.