Bonifacio

Reading today about the speech of Greece prime minister Alexis Tsipras in which he mentioned the claim on WWII reparations:

“a moral obligation to our people, to history, to all European peoples who fought and gave their blood against Nazism“

I was first drawn to the simile of the 50-year-old movie “The Guns of Navarone“, which portrayed the effort of Allied forces during the WWII to destroy a German fortress in an island in the Aegean Sea.

I then remembered that I had indeed visited the filming location of The Guns of Navarone, far from Greece, in the Southern most village of Corsica: Bonifacio.

I visited Bonifacio by land, sea and air back in 2012, when I travelled with a colleague and his flight instructor to Corsica.

Bonifacio is very beautiful. It has a small and protected bay, few beaches and most of the city stands on the top of the cliffs facing the Mediterranean sea. As you can imagine, due to its location it has a history plenty of battles fought and of having been part of different kingdoms and empires. We first visited the village by boat (~about 1 hour), then took a 1.5-hour walk covering every corner and finally we over flew it the day after before returning back to metropolitan France.

I just wanted to share below some pictures of the nice spots in Bonifacio:

Bonifacio from the bay.

“Napoleon’s hat” cave from the sea.

Film location of “The Guns of Navarone” from the sea (1/2).

Film location of “The Guns of Navarone” from the sea (2/2).

“Stairway of the King of Aragon”, legendarily carved out of the steep cliff face before Bonifacio in a single night during Alfonso V’s siege of the town.

Place where Napoleon stayed.

Place where emperor Charles V stayed.

Approaching Bonifacio by air.

“Napoleon’s hat” cave from the air.

Film location of “The Guns of Navarone” from the air.

“Stairway of the King of Aragon” from the air.