Published on: 13 March 2017  | Last updated: 25 December 2019

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Distances
Porto to Cargèse	32 kms
Cargèse to Porticcio	59 kms

Porto to Cargèse (Carghjese)

From the bridge, the road starts to climb again, towards Piana. The climb is fairly gentle with an average gradient by my calcu­lation of almost exactly five per cent. This section of road is slightly busier than the D81 further north.

There’s a shady little picnic spot under the trees as you reach about the 370m mark. You then come to a bend in the road with a rock formation called the Tête du Chien which does indeed look like the head of a dog. A little further on, there’s a sign telling you that you are now entering the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site of the Calanches de Piana.

Inevitably, this is a popular tourist attraction, and even in April I saw half a dozen tourist buses, just be patient, everybody takes it slowly. Enjoy.

There are very few lorries that use this route, although one I saw a couple of truck drivers in training who are having to do this route: I guess is that is tough a test as a learner lorry driver can have. 

The Calanches de Piana really are something truly special, that rightly justifies being called spectacular and stunning. The narrow and tortuous corniche road clings to the cliff face, threading its way through red granite rocks gouged by the wind and rain info fantastic shapes. 

The Calanches are at their most beautiful in the afternoon, and, if you can make the timings work for you, a great option would be to climb up to the Calanches in the late afternoon/early evening and then stay the night in Piana.

Piana

As you leave the Calanches behind the road starts to descend gently towards Piana.There are still some fabulous views to enjoy of the coast looking out over the Capo Rosso. Coming into Piana there’s a sign on your right-hand side proclaiming it one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France (most beautiful villages in France). Unfortunately, someone has decided to use the sign for target practice, which probably wasn’t quite the message that was intended.

If you pull over in the parking area opposite the hotel Capo Rosso you can see the road that leads all the way down to the beach at Arone —this is reckoned to be one of the very best beaches in Corsica. There’s a campsite (the Camping Plage d’Arone and a residence (Residence Marine d’Arone). If you don’t mind the climb back up.

Look out on your right-hand side for the splen­didly old-school and faded Hôtel Roches Rouges.

Piana deserves the title of one of the most beautiful villages in France. Normally places that are part of associ­ations of the prettiest villages, a little bit too posh for their own good. But Piana retains an authentic feel. It’s defin­itely worth taking a few minutes to walk through the old village: it’s nothing spectacular, but very much has the feel of a living Corsican village.

There is a short climb out of Piana, and then the road begins a long descent down to almost a sea-level. The road swings the inland, making a big arc before turning back towards the sea and Cargèse. It’s a lovely a great cruising descent. The high drama of the Calanches is behind you —which is probably a bit of a good thing, as you can concen­trate riding rather than the scenery. Keep following the D81 signs for Carghjese (Cargèse) and Ajaccio.

Cargèse

As the road goes through Cargèse you can catch glimpses of the two churches and the small port. The two churches are the most visible evidence of the village’s unique history: one is Greek Orthodox and the other Roman Catholic. For four decades, until he retired in 2005, the village priest would conduct services in the Latin and Greek rites on alternate Sundays.

The village was founded by Greek-speaking settlers whose families had originally come from Crete in the seven­teenth century after its conquest by the Ottoman Empire. They had been granted land by the Genovese who then ruled the island. The settlers agreed to pledge loyalty to Genova and to recognise the spiritual authority of the Pope but were allowed to continue practising the Greek rite.

The local Corsicans resented the Greek colonists occupying land that they considered to be right­fully theirs and this led to bitter and long-lasting conflicts between the two communities. The settlers were loyal to the Genovese, and then to the French, while their neigh­bours were in armed rebellion against them. At one point, the settlers were forced to abandon the original village and move to Ajaccio. Present-day Cargèse was founded when the French took control of the island in the 18th century.

The Greek-speaking community was reduced by successive waves of emigration and by gradual assim­il­ation. The last Greek speaker in Cargèse died in 1976 — three hundred years after the arrival of the original settlers. 

The Golfe de Sagone

From Cargèse the road takes you down into Sagone on around the Golfe de Sagone. It’s an attractive, scenic road that inevitably it suffers in comparison with the section of the route further north. I like this stretch of coast: it’s compar­at­ively undeveloped and unspoilt, and an enjoyable ride even though compared with the Calanches it is relat­ively ordinary.

Sagone is a fairly low-key seaside resort with a big sandy beach, a couple of hotels and a bar-tabac. There’s also a campsite 1.5 kilometres out of town. 

There are some great sandy beaches along the way, but watch out for the plage dangereuse (dangerous beach) warning signs on some of the beaches.

The road climbs towards the Bocca di San Bastiano (altitude 404m), leaving the Golfe de Sagone behind.

As you climb there are some nice views back over the coast. At the Bocca di San Bastianu (altitude 404m) there is a memorial that commem­orates the first balloon flight across the Mediterranean between Corsica and the Continent. There’s also a chapel dedicated to Saint Sebastian and a small picnic table, with views back over the mountains of northern Corsica.

The Golfe d’Ajaccio

There’s quite a fast descent down into the periphery of Ajaccio. Note though that in places the road surface is a little rough. As you get closer to Ajaccio the road got busier, it is also wider than the road north of Cargèse and traffic is more fast-moving.

The D81, like all good things, comes to an end. For the D81 the end is at a traffic-clogged round­about on the fringes of Ajaccio. There’s a junction here with the T20 (the former N194 route nationale). In one direction it heads for Ajaccio Mezzavia and in the other towards the airport. There’s also a D-road that leads into Ajaccio itself. My original plan had been to head into Ajaccio but, as both altern­atives looked equally horrible, I decided to take the shorter route and follow the T20) in the direction of the airport.

A bit further on you can turn off onto a D road that leads through Ajaccio’s industrial/commercial hinterland. This option is shorter, but has no other redeeming features — although it does go past the Ajaccio branch of Decathlon where you can get things like gas canisters, and replace­ments for any gear you may have forgotten, left behind or lost. 

The D-road rejoins the N194/T20. The road is pretty horrible, but at least there’s a decent shoulder. After a couple of kilometres, you come to another round­about. You need to go almost all the way all around the round­about and pick up the N196/T40 (signs for Propriano, Coti-Chiavari and Bonifacio). The road is still pretty fast-moving but as it’s a dual carriageway there’s plenty of space for passing cars.

After a couple of kilometres and what feels like an age, you come to a set of No-Bikes signs. Just follow the round blue bike signs for the quieter altern­ative to the main road. The altern­ative route follows the right-hand side of the main road before dipping under it and then following the left-hand side. You then come to another round­about where you rejoin the N196/T40 but fortu­nately only for a short way before you turn off at yet another round­about and take the D55 into Porticcio.

The D55 takes you along the southern shore of the Golfe d’Ajaccio. This section of coast is still part of the periphery of Ajaccio, and the coastal strip between the road and the sea has been almost entirely given over to villa devel­op­ments and glimpses of the sea are very real pretty rare. The road does seem to get quieter the further you get from Porticcio and Ajaccio, and the glimpses of the sea more frequent.

The Plage du Mare e Sole and next door Plage de Verghia are the nicest along this stretch of coast. The signs warn that Baignade non-surveillée (no lifeguard) but there are no danger signs. From this point on you feel like you have finally escaped the urban sprawl of Ajaccio.

At Verghia the D55 makes a sharp right heading inland. Follow the signs for Coti-Chiavari. There’s a definite change of pace and perspective as the road climbs into the forest of Coti-Chiavari. The forest is crisscrossed with dirt roads and tracks, making it one of the few places in Corsica that’s really suitable for mountain biking (in many other areas the footpaths are simply too steep.).

About a third of the way to the top of the climb you come to the ruins of the old prison, the big windowless building that you can see on your right-hand side was used to store hay. After the busy road through Ajaccio and Porticcio, the climb is bliss­fully quiet.

The road climbs to a little over 500m attitude and then descends to the village of Coti-Chiavari itself. There’s a water fountain on the left-hand side as you head down towards the village, but there are signs warning that the water isn’t safe to drink.

Coti-Chiavari is a smashing little village of stone-built houses looking out to sea. The views are superb.

Unfortunately, while on the climb up to Coti-Chiavari large sections of the road have been resur­faced, on the way down the road has defin­itely seen better days — although on the whole, it’s not bad. It’s a lovely descent and on a clear day, you should be able to see all the way across the Golfe d’Ajaccio to the Îles des Sanguinaires.

At the fork in the road after Acqua Doria stays on the D155 following the signs for Propriano (Prupria). There’s a short climb from here. When you get to the top there’s a viewpoint with a view over the Capo di Muru. 

The Golfe de Valinco

As you go over the rise, you leave behind the Golfe d’Ajaccio and head towards the Golfe de Valinco. The road, lined with gorse, lavender, rock roses, and other wildflowers. The road descends gently down, following the contours of the land. This part of the coast is very undeveloped, with the occasional house linked to the road by a dirt track. The rest is coastal maquis. As you descend you can look out over the Baie de Cupalbia and the Plage de Cupalbia.

The road descends to a bridge over a river, before levelling out. Keep following the signs for Propriano and Serra di Ferro. The road bends right and heads towards the sea, passing through the attractive village of Serra di Ferro. Around the bend in the road is the tiny village church with its bells. Beside the bells is a notice (in French of course) saying that ‘it is strictly forbidden to ring the bells of the church just for fun’.

There’s then a lovely fast, cruising descent that takes you down to sea-level. At the junction turn right if you want to go to Porto Pollo (Porti Proddi). Or turn left if you want to continue to Propriano

Options

I must admit that I have been wondering whether there is a better altern­ative to this route, avoiding Ajaccio. I think there might be. I’ve checked it out on Google Streetview and it looks OK, but I haven’t ridden it, so use to Google Streetview to check it out and make up your own mind. Here’s a map showing the two routes (the altern­ative is shown in darker blue). I have included gpx tracks for the altern­ative in the gps download package.

  Map:  Corsica-altern­ative-show map in overlay    |    Corsica-altern­ative-show map in new window 

Articles in this series

• Corsica Coast: introduction
• Corsica Coast: Part 1: Cap Corse
• Corsica Coast: Part 2: The north-west coast from Saint-Florent to Porto
• Corsica Coast: Part 3: The Calanches de Piana and Cargèse
• Corsica Coast: Part 4: The south-west coast: Campomoro and Bonifacio