Could it really be a bear living in my Corsican roof?

In the latest in his series of reflections on ideas of places and pathways, Will Gore lets his imagination – and two small scorpions – get the better of him

Will Gore travels rough terrain in the Calanques (iStock)

Corsica has famously been described as “a mountain in the sea”. Certainly it is a much more rugged place than might be gleaned from pictures of its golden beaches. The interior, dominated by a vast range of granite peaks running from the north-west to the south-east, can feel both remote and faintly dangerous, with a temperamental climate to match the island’s volatile political history. There are few more spectacular venues for an electrical storm.

In the northwestern corner, where cliffs tumble straight into the Mediterranean, are the Calanques de Piana, a Unesco World Heritage Site of extraordinary beauty, especially when the rock burns red at sunset. Such is the terrain – and the protection now given to the area – that there are few places to stay in the Calanques, though such is its appeal to tourists that the road running through is rarely free of bus tours in summer. Still, when you’re staying in the only house there (a converted acorn mill), passing coaches are only a minor irritant.