About an hour and a half or so before it was time for our boat tour to depart from the Port of Ajaccio for a sunset cruise in the Bay of Ajaccio, my mother and I went to get a taxi to the port. When we went to a nearby store, because the hotel staff was out at their other property, to get the taxi, we were told that taxi drivers were refusing to drive us to the port because it was a five-minute walk away. This was true, but it is not nearly as helpful as it could have been to us, because the port complex at Ajaccio is pretty sprawling. It is indeed true that there is a port facility that is immediately available to walk to, but the part of the port we were going to was by no means that close. Indeed, it happened to be at the very furthest section of the port, as it curved back towards the main ferry area beside a mixture of pleasure craft, jetskis, and fishing boats.

As it was, we ended up arriving after the walk only about twenty minutes or so before the boat was scheduled to leave, taking off our shoes and socks and climbing into the pontoon boat with a group of French speakers, including someone who appeared to be either the main chick or side chick of the boat’s captain and who was dressed for the occasion in a see-through dress that plunged pretty harshly in the back, and a woman who smoked intermittently while also bringing her two children, who appeared to be either fraternal twins or Irish twins, a boy who appeared too old for the pacifier that was in his mouth, and a little girl who alternated between ferociously bratty and shy. The rest of the group was made of more conventional French tourists enjoying a boat cruise, and when we finally left after the mother and her two children arrived, we found ourselves speeding off along the coast of the Gulf of Ajaccio looking at the development that extends to the west from the main part of the city towards a small set of islands.

Once we got to those islands, we anchored ourselves to one of the other three boats that had arrived there with passengers for the same purpose, as it is quite a common element of business for the local boaters to take passengers on an evening boat cruise with some hiking, if you are so inclined, as well as some snacks and a pleasant time in the water looking at a glorious sunset. We were not inclined to hike–there was a lighthouse that was within visibility, but it was a steep climb, and the former leper colony that we were on was gorgeous in its scrub vegetation and stark hills and mountains rushing down to the sea. It was striking to sit on the island and to look out at the main part of Corsica and to realize that people lived on this land with leprosy and could look out towards their home knowing that their case was incurable and that they would never be able to make it back, while for us, we simply got back on our boat and 25 minutes or so later we were back at the port, where we then walked back to our hotel room.

I should note as well that not only was the island beautiful and not only was it enjoyable to be in the boat, whether it was speeding through the waves or anchored while we watched the sunset and the waves lapped under us, but it was also enjoyable to meet the other people on the trip. We managed to talk quite a bit with a Breton teacher who lived with his wife in Paris and had traveled to the United States and to many of the other places my family has been–he even spent a couple of years teaching in near Martinique, which is a particularly favorite Caribbean island of mine, and an exterior province of France. A trip that combines the pleasures of travel, of being on the water, as well as of both conversation and contemplation is something to appreciate and cherish.