Monthly Archives May 2018

Second account: Corsica will find itself at the centre of the French wars.

1793: The Bonaparte family leaves for Toulon. And there, Napoléon will join a French battalion, with mission to defend the boats in Toulon against the English. They set off searching for somewhere to stay, which will be Corsica. At the same time, Pasquale Paoli asks for protection from the English, against the French.
They will settle in Bastia (for less than two years), the ‘Anglo-Corsican’ period, which meant a territory belonging to the British Empire.
Sir Gilbert Elliot is viceroy in Bastia. His nomination makes Paoli leave for England in 1795. Elliot reigns with Charles André Pozzo di Borgo, his second in command.

1795: Napoléon is in Paris, and gets noticed when he reprimands a royalist insurrection, and he ...

Over time, we’ve had several propositions for preparing and serving our ‘brocciu’, which remains very popular indeed. Here’s another quick little recipe that you can try out some time – as they say ‘variety is the spice of life’, so add this new one to your collection.

Bon appetitu !

Serves 4

Ingredients:

– 6 good sized potatoes
– 6 eggs
– a few leaves of fresh mint
– 200g brocciu (or cream cheese of your choice, if you’ve no alternative)
– pinch of nutmeg
– salt and pepper

Method:

Cook the unpeeled potatoes in the oven. As soon as they are cooked, peel and mash with a fork, adding the chopped mint leaves. Add the crushed brocciu. Blend in the butter, 3 egg yolks, a little nutmeg, salt and pepper. Knead the mixture well. Whip egg-whites to a light mousse, with a pinch of salt...

A shared pleasure, meeting Antoine once again, after having had the opportunity in the past, while participating in a debate relating to democracy and Catalonia, organised by the local television in Corsica. I would like to underline the fact that my intention here was not to direct this interview uniquely in the sense of Antoine’s most recent book ‘Les Invisibles’, but to notably determine the importance and impact it certainly holds, along with his personal views on several subjects which we will unfold, little by little, during our line of conversation.

Born and educated on the island and residing in Bastia, he furthered his studies in Paris at the Sorbonne University, and more specifically in financial press law...

In the region of Vico, and just above the village of Murzo, a strange shaped mountain exists – called the Sposata.

Long ago, in this modest region of the ‘Deux Sorru’, a poor and helpless mother lived with her daughter, Maria, who was as beautiful as the day, but possessing a heart of stone. Whilst looking after their sheep in the mountains, Maria had only one thought in mind; to give up this life of misery – but, how ? It so happened, one day a handsome young man presenting himself to her as the Count of the Cinarca, came upon her way. Rapidly, he fell in love with the beautiful shepherdess, and very soon asked her to marry him – to which she answered positively, without any hesitation.

But, Maria was poor and ashamed of being so; in order to put together a dowry, she had no qualms in com...

As the ‘Fondation Napoléon’ from Paris will be proposing a series of conferences on a regular basis, starting this month of May at the Fesch Museum in Ajaccio, I believe it would be of great interest to inform you beforehand of their wish to provide further knowledge on Napoléon and Corsica – interest shared with pleasure by Philippe Perfettini, historian at the Fesch Museum, with whom I regularly meet in order to supply you with captivating and important historical facts relating to this amazing little island.
A brief retrospective in this respect will not be superfluous.

Having remained in Corsica until 1793, Napoléon leaves to make a career – spending time in Italy and returning to Corsica for the last time in 1799.
Before he dies in 1821, he held a plan to develop Corsica, and as of...