L'Île-Rousse

Built on a bay bounded to the north west by the rocky islets of red porphyry which give it its name, and to the south by an immaculate white sand beach, l'Île-Rousse is presented to the tourist in all its beauty, extending westwards from the sea to the hill of the Sémaphore and the col de Fogata.

The old town of Pascal Paoli, le Père de la Patrie (the Father of the Fatherland), is made up of paved streets, almost rectilinear and oriented north-south. From the quays of the commercial port installed on 3 of the 6 small islands, (...)

L'Île-Rousse

Built on a bay bounded to the north west by the rocky islets of red porphyry which give it its name, and to the south by an immaculate white sand beach, l'Île-Rousse is presented to the tourist in all its beauty, extending westwards from the sea to the hill of the Sémaphore and the col de Fogata.

The old town of Pascal Paoli, le Père de la Patrie (the Father of the Fatherland), is made up of paved streets, almost rectilinear and oriented north-south. From the quays of the commercial port installed on 3 of the 6 small islands, the fishing port and the bridges which link the harbour complex to the coast and the market with its twenty one columns, the fortifications and the houses of the old city grew over the years, from 1765 into the first half of the 19th century.

The new town blends harmoniously with the old at the place Paoli, shaded by hundred year old plane trees, where it is good to take the summer air. The old town offers visitors the chance to stroll on the old paving stones, partly restored, along streets with historic names: Pascal Paoli, Napoleon, les freres Arena (Arena brothers), Luois Philippe, Agilla..

Built by Pascal Paoli, equipped by its municipal officials, after 1815 with a blazon decorated with the royal lily of Franceand run for than a half-century by elected Bonapartist officials, l'Île-Rousse is a town with a share in the history of Corsica. Its contradictions make it an attractive and unexpected place for the tourists who come each year to sit down under the plane trees of its beautiful central square.