Calvi is the new St Tropez. I actually don't know really because I haven't even thought about going to the old one. However, I do know what people mean. The space is amazingly stylish, it possibly has the best sandy beach on the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France and Italy combined. The several nightclubs are laid back with no touts. The police wear crisp, ironed uniforms and eat ice-creams as they walk. The food in the cafes is good, cheap, French and it is about unhurried, family life even late into the evening. I like families. I think that summer outdoor eating should include children, dogs and staff that know that they are beautiful and treat you with the confidence that that instils.

I also like eating under flowing Magnolia trees in the warm dark.

Which brings me to the Hotel Magnolia. The hotel above is lovely and thoroughly recommended but the restaurant in the walled courtyard, under the fairy lights and the huge flowering tree is what perfect dining is all about. Yes, the waterfront of the port has more buzz but once the last mega-ferry has left the port to go back over the sea to Nice, Calvi looks inwards a bit and street dining isn't everything.

The food really is lovely at the Hotel Magnolia in a proper Corsican/French way. Vegetarians can work their way around the menu, but it is about meats from the mountains, fish from the sea and warm, fresh tomatoes. The wines of Corsica are not refined, but you are drinking them outside, with crisp linen and not in some Michelin starred place on a wet evening in a great, stone city.

For the four of us (we were sleeping on a 42 foot yacht that night) we were going to enjoy the food, and keep the wine under control. The pate was excellent (although, as James Bond noted of caviar, you get enough of the precious stuff but you can never get enough toast!). The scallops were absolutely amazing. The Corsicans have access to some very good bivalves.

Main courses varied between lightly fried whole fish, a pork chop and a rack of minted, roasted lamb. Nothing was over complicated. Possibly the most interesting thing was that the circuit breaker for the restaurant kept tripping, resetting the music. Even in the dark the food tasted of what the things were.

Desert was fresh strawberries held between sheets of sweetened puff pastry with whipped cream. Simple and superb.

Getting There: Sail into the Calvi old port, tie up and head upwards into the old town

Who should eat there: lovely people only

Dining Style: outdoor good French provincial Corsican food

Price: Allow £30pp

Quality: Very good

Would I go Back: When in Calvi...

Phoenician Trader

07.03.11 Front Page

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