1936 On the Continent

it remains, considering its accessibility, one of the most backward spots in Europe from the point of view of luxurious accommodation for travellers.
    There is something too in the idea that the Corsicans are ruffians and murderers. On points of honour they are only too ready to shoot, and once the murderer has taken to the “maquis”—the Corsican bush—he takes a lot of finding. In some cases, as anyone who has read the papers fairly recently will know, some of these chance murderers were able to live thirty years in that wild inland bush without ever being found by the police. There have been real bandits too, who held up people, postmen, and others, and shot them if they were not quick enough in getting their pocket-books out. But the gangster-bandit notion has been grossly exaggerated, and in any case the recent clean-up effected by the French police has pretty well cleared the island of that kind of pest. So you needn’t be afraid of going to Corsica from that point of view any more than of going to Normandy or Paris.
    There is only one point on which any stranger has to be careful, and that is not to do anything the Corsican regards as an insult to himself and his family. To put it more concretely, don’t call him a dirty dog in a language he can understand, and above all don’t wink at his wife or daughter. The wifeand daughter won’t appreciate it, and you may merely find yourself in the unpleasant position of being the unwilling cause of sending an otherwise harmless citizen into hiding in the “maquis” for the rest of his life.
What to See
    Well, now that you have screwed up your courage to come to Corsica, and feel a bit more reassured about your pocket-book and your wife’s jewels, what should you see? I warn you that there is a great deal to see, and that the best way of seeing it, if you can manage it, is to see it on foot. No! I forgot. There is an even better way of getting to know it, recommended by Napoleon himself. “The best way of knowing Corsica,” he would say, “is to be born there.” But everyone has not the same luck as he had, so you will have to put up with walking or riding in a car, whichever suits you best.
    Corsica is the third most important island in the Mediterranean, after Sicily and Sardinia, with about 300,000 inhabitants. It has a lovely climate, both in summer and in winter, but I would advise you to go there in spring, when it is not yet blazing hot, and when the roads have become passable on the heights and the snow has melted.
    If you want what is called “confort moderne,” I should stay if I were you at the Grand Hôtel or the Hôtel des Etrangers in Ajaccio, the Cyrnos or the Grand Hôtel de France in Bastia, and in the Hôtel de l’Europe in Ile Rousse. Prices are moderate everywhere.
    Even if you don’t carry a guide-book, you are almost bound to go to Ajaccio first and then to the house on the Place Lactitia, where was born on August 15th, 1769, the most famous of Corsica’s children—Napoleon.
Ajaccio
    The whole town of Ajaccio is just crammed with souvenirs of Napoleon: street-names, museums, statues, and all. You will land from the ship on the Quai Napoleon, extending on the right into the Boulevard du Roi Jerome(Napoleon’s brother), and opposite the Quai Napoleon stands a white marble statue of the First Consul.
    On the right, again, is the Hôtel de Ville with the Musée Napoleon on the first floor.
    Continuing your visit of the town, you will find yourself going along the Avenue du Premier Consul, with the Rue Napoleon and the Place Lactitia on the right.
    In the cathedral you will be obliged to look at the marble font in which Napoleon was baptised, and a little farther along on the Place du Diamant, the biggest square in Ajaccio, rises the equestrian statue of Napoleon and of his four brothers looking out seawards.
    In Cardinal Fesch’s Palace there is the Imperial Chapel where the remains of the Bonaparte family lie.
    Even the busiest street in Ajaccio, turning off the Place du Diamant, is called the Cours Napoleon.
    If by that time you are not yet tired of Napoleon and determined to take the first opportunity of slipping off to Bastia where no person of such outstanding fame was born, your guide, in addition to feeding you with a number of very doubtfully authentic personal tales about Napoleon, will certainly lead you off to the Grotte de Casone, where the Corsicans say Napoleon used to come and work as a child.
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