Corsica & French Riviera

Portofino is a fishing village on the Italian Riviera coastline, southeast of Genoa city. Pastel-colored houses, high-end boutiques and seafood restaurants fringe its Piazzetta, a small cobbled square overlooking the harbor, which is lined with super-yachts. A path leads from the Piazzetta to Castello Brown, a 16th-century fortress and museum with art exhibitions and panoramic views of the town and the Ligurian Sea.

Corsica, a mountainous Mediterranean island, presents a mix of stylish coastal towns, dense forest and craggy peaks (Monte Cinto is the highest). Nearly half the island falls within a park whose hiking trails include the challenging GR 20. Its beaches range from busy Pietracorbara to remote Saleccia and Rondinara. It’s been part of France since 1768, but retains a distinct Italian culture.

Ajaccio is the capital of Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean Sea. A port city on the rugged isle’s western coast, it was the birthplace of French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte in 1769. His ancestral home, Maison Bonaparte, is now a museum displaying family heirlooms. The baroque, 16th-century Notre-Dame Cathedral, where Napoléon was baptized, contains paintings by Delacroix and Tintoretto.

Calvi is a town on the northwest coast of Corsica. It’s known for its beaches and crescent-shaped bay. A medieval citadel overlooks the marina from the bay’s western end, and is home to Baroque St-Jean-Baptiste Cathedral and cobbled streets. Restaurants line the harbor on the Quai Landry esplanade. Perched on a high hill a short distance inland, the chapel of Notre-Dame de la Serra has panoramic views of the area

Sanary-sur-Mer is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France. It is located in coastal Provence on the Mediterranean Sea 13 km from Toulon and 49 km from Marseille. It can be reached from Paris by TGV train in less than four hours