Holidays in Corsica.

In this article, Pat describes what happened to her while she was in Corsica. She has recovered now and hope to visit this lovely island again in the near future.

My first article which was about St Gervais gave me a taste for writing that's why I've decided to write more in English and share my various experiences.This essay is about my holiday in Corsica . I stayed near Bastia for two weeks. I'm going to tell you about a special event which occured at the beginning of my stay.That day, the weather was sunny but there was a strong wind. Several German tourists had fixed a post in the sand to keep their sun umbrella upright.

I was about 10 meters from them, lying down and sunbathing and reading a very interesting book about crusades seen by Arabs by Maalouf Yamin. Suddenly an awful pain made me scream. My hat, sunglasses, book were suddenly scattered everywhere around me. I was trying to stand up when I saw the sun umbrella running on the beach. I realized right away that it had just hit my cervical spine. I crouched immediately, put my fists in the sand and tried to relieve the pain. I heard someone talking in the far distance but the person was close to me. I was almost knocked out!! I could neither move nor speak. Finally, after a few minutes I pulled myself together and an old German man close to me asked me if I wanted to go and see a doctor or get back home.

My boyfriend, who was reading a newspaper on the terrace of our bungalow, realized immediately that something serious had happened seeing that I was held up by the old man. I told him what had happened and he hurried towards the fridge to get some ice and fill a towel to put it on the nape of my neck for about an hour.

At 12.30, in France, chemists' shops are closed. I was not feeling well so I decided to lie down. I had an awful headache but eventually went to sleep. When I woke up at 4.00pm my boyfriend had gone to the chemist's to buy some homoeopathic medecine that I needed. But despite lots of tablets I was still suffering a lot.

In the evening, I had to go and see a doctor. After having looked at me for about an hour, the handsome and young doctor ( fortunately for me! ) gave me a prescription for a cervical collar and x-rays.The following day, I got up early to get the top of my spine x-rayed in Ghisonaccia ( near Bastia). When we arrived in front of the medical centre the door was closed. The cleaner told me that I should have gone to Porto Vecchio which was an hour-drive from Ghisonaccia! I got into my car again. On the way to Porto Vecchio I stopped at the chemist's, the one I wanted to get some medecine from, but was closed the day before.

A part of the road to Porto-Vecchio is beautiful, especially around Porto Vecchio with little coves and inlets of fine sandy beaches. Finally I arrived in Porto Vecchio's clinic. There, a secretary checked my name, my "s�curit� sociale" number and my prescription, then she asked me to wait for a few minutes in the waiting room.

A few minutes later, I was called by a nurse and followed her to the X-ray room. The radiologist asked me to take off my shirt, earrings, sun glasses and hat and I stepped forward. Now, he started taking X-rays. After that, I put my clothes on and while I was waiting the radiologist was writing the report. Fifteen minutes later, she told me that there wasn't anything wrong but back to Paris I should see a chiropractor and she added : " Oh I think you're suffering from a beginning of osteoarthrisis. At that moment I didn't smile and thought: " Oh my god, I'm getting old!! I'm 53 and I feel great. Thanks a lot , Madam" We both laughed and said goodbye.I will remember my stay in Corsica for the rest of my life!

Acknowledgements : Photos provided by Chilaout Photos ( beach & terrace ) , Maody ( beach umbrella ), Marco$ ( Ghisonaccia ) under Creative Commons Licence via Flickr.

More about Corsica, its people, customs and way of life in a future article.