Forest tour
"A journey in time among stone statues" Easy walk 3.30h
From the hotel take the RN 196 towards Propriano then after 3 miles at the crossroads take a right onto the D268: Alta Rocca, towards Levie until San Gavino di Carbini. A pretty little semi-mountain village lined with low walls and gardens.
After the last houses, follow the orange markers. The walk starts at some stone
steps marked on the right-hand corner of the first step leading, after a 20 minute walk, to the Sadise plateau.
In the invigorating air nature exhales its sweetest fragrances: strawberry tree, tree heath, holm oaks.
Beneath the tall Laricio pines, one of France’s tallest and most majestic trees and the emblem of Corsica, one can discover the tracks of wild boars: traces of their hooves and freshly uncovered earth.
Within 15 minutes you will reach the edge of the Sadise stream, lined with glades
and chestnut trees that provide shelter to red-legged partridges.
At the first fork take a left towards Levie. Admire the landscape before you:
the Bavella needles, then at the top of a small slope the incudine massif (2,134m).
The path continues to the Cucciari fountain where you should take a left to reach the Saint Laurent chapel in 20 minutes. The chapel is only open on August 9th to hold the service and celebrate pilgrimage. It was built in 1917 with the stones of the chapel built in the Middle Ages and restored during the 17th century.
At the other side of the path a low stone wall has been built to welcome pilgrims
and is traditionally called "the bishop’s seat". Go to the entrance to pay a proper visit.
Guided tours are possible with a walkman and are available in 4 languages: French, German, English, Italian and written guides are available in French, German, Italian, English, Dutch, Spanish, and Corsican.
The sites are open from the beginning of the Spring until October 31st from 9.30am
to 6pm and in July and August from 9.30am to 8pm. The visit lasts 2 hours. It starts with a
shady path, surrounded in vegetation and between blocks of granite.
This is a pleasant hilly walk among trees and glades.
U Castellu di Cucuruzzu is a prehistoric village perched on the Pianu spur, the Levie plateau looking over the Neu valley. This place is shrouded in mystery. Enormous granite blocks form a two-tiered circular tower.
Inside this Cyclopean construction are loggia for keeping wheat, the wealth of farmers of the Bronze Age, the 2nd millennium before J.C. The Torreans were not sailors, but the first
peasantry to develop in continental France.
Their way of life was essentially based on food production, cereal growing
and breeding 4 species: sheep, goats, pigs, oxen, as well as hunting and fishing.
All around the Castellu, carved in the rock, are cups used for grinding cereal.
This site was occupied during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. It is now classed as a historical site.
The tour continues towards Capula where a menhir at the foot of the wall greets you. This is said to represent a "Paladin", a warrior from Southern Corsica who lived in the acropolis during the Bronze and Iron Ages. If you take the steps of the approach ramp you will have a view of the wall and the light filtering through the holm oaks and perhaps notice traces of grooves that served as a retaining wall for the foundations of the wall below. A wonderful panoramic view opens out from the hillock: the abundant forest spotted with granite rock piles, to the right an enormous sugar loaf, on the ground among the clover are vetch grass, clematis and ruscus resulting from this Mediterranean climate. A mixture of colours and fragrances.
The walk ends at the Saint Laurent chapel and you will return via a path on the right going back to the village of Levie.
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