Ajaccio

Napoleon's birthplace, the Musée Fesch and the Parata on an Ajaccio day

One day covers Ajaccio's sights. Start at the Marcatu covered market and Place Foch, visit Maison Bonaparte and the cathedral where Napoleon was baptised, give the Musée Fesch two hours, swim at Saint-François beach and finish at sunset on the Pointe de la Parata, 12 km west, facing the Sanguinaires islands.

Morning. Start at the covered market by the harbour, the Marcatu, where farmers sell brocciu, coppa and clementines in season, then cross Place Foch, where Napoleon stands in a toga above four marble lions. Turn into the old town for Maison Bonaparte, the family house where he was born, and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption around the corner, where he was baptised. Both take about an hour together.

Afternoon. After lunch in Rue du Roi de Rome, give the Musée Fesch at least two hours: the Italian paintings the cardinal collected run from early Sienese gold grounds to Titian and Botticelli, and the Imperial Chapel next door holds Bonaparte family tombs. Later, walk along the seafront past the walls of the Genoese citadel to the small Saint-François beach for a swim.

Evening. Take the bus or drive the Route des Sanguinaires 12 km west to the Pointe de la Parata. A short path climbs to a Genoese tower facing the Sanguinaires islands, which turn red as the sun sets behind them.

Next day. Catch the early train to Bocognano for coffee and a mountain walk, or hire a car for the standing stones of Filitosa, roughly an hour south. In summer, a boat excursion north to the Scandola reserve and Girolata fills a whole day.

Figatellu, brocciu and Corsican wine from Ajaccio

Ajaccio food is Corsican mountain food: chestnut-fed charcuterie such as coppa, lonzu and prisuttu, brocciu cheese, figatellu sausage from December to spring, wild boar stew and chestnut pulenda. Start at the covered market near the ferry port, and drink Ajaccio AOC wine made largely from the sciaccarellu grape.

Corsican food is mountain food first: pigs fattened on chestnuts and acorns, sheep and goat cheese, and chestnut flour where other regions use wheat. The covered market near the ferry port is the place to start. Stallholders let you taste coppa, lonzu (cured pork fillet) and prisuttu, the island's ham. From December to spring look for figatellu, a smoked liver sausage grilled over a wood fire, and in any season fresh brocciu, a ewe's whey cheese that turns up in omelettes, cannelloni and the lemony cheesecake called fiadone.

Restaurants in the old town, notably along Rue du Roi de Rome, serve civet de sanglier (wild boar stew), veal with olives and pulenda, a chestnut-flour polenta. Fish is better in the harbour restaurants and on the Sanguinaires road. Bakeries sell canistrelli, dry biscuits flavoured with white wine, anise or lemon, which travel well.

Ajaccio has its own wine appellation, built largely on the sciaccarellu grape, which gives pale, peppery reds and fragrant rosés; look for Ajaccio AOC on the label. Chestnut beer from the island's breweries and a glass of Cap Corse aperitif complete the picture. The Irish and English pubs near the port add nothing; the wine bars in the old town are a better use of an evening.

Ajaccio's seasons and the Napoleon festival on 15 August

June and September are the best months for Ajaccio, with highs of 26°C and a sea still warm in September. July and August average 29°C and are the most crowded, 15 August brings several days of Napoleon's birthday celebrations, and November is the wettest month at about 112 mm.

Ajaccio's summers are long and dry. July and August average 29°C with lows around 18°C, and July gets only about 9 mm of rain, so the town is at its most crowded when the island is also at its hottest and the maquis on the hills is a fire risk. June and September bring highs of 26°C, a sea still warm from summer in September, and mountain trails around Vizzavona open without the August crush.

Autumn turns abruptly. October brings around 86 mm of rain and November about 112 mm, the wettest month, usually in heavy storms off the Mediterranean. Winter on the coast is mild, with highs near 14°C, but many beach restaurants and summer flights stop, and snow can close the passes inland.

The big date is 15 August, Napoleon's birthday, when the town celebrates its son over several days with costumed parades, re-enactments and fireworks over the bay. It coincides with the peak of the French holidays, so rooms and ferry spaces are at their scarcest that week. In winter the old town's Christmas market and the figatellu season on restaurant menus give a quieter reason to come, with flights from Paris, Nice and Marseille still running.