Sartène

— Journey —

1 h 30 from Ajaccio

Sartène — which Prosper Mérimée called "the most Corsican of Corsican towns" — rises in tiers of grey granite above the Rizzanèse valley, a fortress town of vaulted passages and shuttered façades that has guarded its traditions fiercely. FFGR Corsica chauffeurs patrons into the deep south for the Sainte-Lucie Catenacciu procession at Easter, the prehistoric alignments of Cauria — Corsica's Carnac — and the menhir statues of the region's celebrated archaeology. The surrounding hills produce some of the island's most respected reds. Sartène offers the traveller a Corsica untouched by the coast's glamour, austere and unforgettable.