8 Corsica— Dinners to Remember

Dinners to Remember

Although every meal was 4 or 5 star, there were two that are most memorable.

Fabi had her birthday on May 9. We went to l’Ospedale which is about 2-3 km from Cartavalonu. It’s a real village with restaurants, some small stores, a church, a fountain, an Air BnB, and hairpin turns on 3 levels. 

We went to a restaurant called “Chez Paul Poli.” I think the name has something to do with the owner, or a previous owner, of the restaurant. The man who is running it now is very friendly, is married to a Brazilian woman, speaks 7 languages, and….yes!…he’s a cousin!

We had a table with a view…

After we ordered, the cousin came with a special present for Fabi. It was really from Francis and was jewelry….a necklace, bracelet and earrings. Take a look.

Our first course was a charcuterie board…

All of the items on the menu were Italian sounding so I ordered something with pasta. It was quite good in spite of the tomatoes.

Then there was the dessert which was a kind of Brocciu —a kind of local cheese. This dessert was more like cheesecake. Yum!

Oh, one last thing…When I met the “cousin” (darn! I can’t remember his name), we had the usual conversation that one has when one first meets someone… where I’m from, why I’m in Corsica, this and that. I realized after talking to this guy that it was the first time that I had a conversation in French without thinking about it. I just talked. Wow! A revelation. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with most of my conversations thereafter.

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The second memorable dinner was a couple of days before I left. We were invited to have dinner with some neighbors, Jean Pascal and Barbara in Cartavalonu. Surprisingly, these are NOT cousins. However, another neighbor, a man named Noël was also there. He IS a cousin…on Francis’s grandmother’s side. 

Noel—Barbara—Fabienne—MaryLou

This couple is very friendly and lively so we had a good time. Barbara had recently broken her arm so Jean Pascal was the chief cook and did everything with others’ help. I guess I should say the chief barbecue-er. This was one of those meals that just went on and on with course after course. 

The first course was the aperitif—wine and almonds. Then we were instructed to take a crouton from a bowl, rub it with garlic and put it in another bowl. After dropping in as many croutons as you want, throw in a bit of grated cheese from another bowl.

Then, Francis served up a most delicious fish soup into the bowls. 

After this was finished, Jean Pascal fired up the grill and cooked up some mussels. He poured spices and beer on them. They were good. I tore them apart with my hands and sucked out the innards. Yum!

Then Jean Pascal grilled up the next course. This was the main course. 

He first put several lobsters on the grill. Then he spread out what he called the “salad of the sea” which included different kinds of fish and vegetables. He added spices and a most delicious sauce. He added rice to the plate.

The next course was cheese— chèvre (aka goat). The baguette was passed around and I ripped off a hunk and I dug in.

The almost last course was dessert which was a pear tart. To-die-for!

The very last bit was coffee—in one of those teeny tiny espresso cups. (Sorry no pic here.)

The after-dinner conversation included how Jean Pascal managed to find the house he was living in. It seems that several years ago, some Russians were renting the house from the owner who lives in Porto Vecchio. The Russians moved out. (Why would Russians want to live in little Cartavalonu?) The owner didn’t know they had moved out. At first it was a dilemma because how are you going to rent a house in a village in the mountains without even a boulangerie to buy bread! Well, Jean Pascal somehow knew that the Russians had moved out so he went to the owner and offered to rent it. Voila! He and his wife had a domicile. He fixed it up a bit—put in a new back entrance and a back terrace that has a view. The owner was glad for the improvements and paid for part of them. So now they’ve lived in this house for about 7 years and have become good friends with Francis and Fabienne. In fact, he let Francis borrow his van so that he could get off the mountain without making arrangements with Fabi who had the car, because of me.

As an aside, his house abuts against another house. Francis told me that once a year a large family goes to this next-door house, prepares and eats a big meal and leaves. Village life is soooo interesting.

Here’s a photo of Jean Pascal and Barbara’s house. Notice their gray Porsche parked next to it. Another tale I’m sure.

That’s it for dinners…..