Domaine de Cala Rossa, Corse-du-Sud
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In all the years Toussaint Canarelli ran the Grand Hôtel de Cala Rossa, just north of Porto-Vecchio, there was one thing his guests could not have, and that was a swimming pool by the sea. He had a cove of fine white sand, framed by the reddish rocks that gave the place its name, and saw no reason to compete with it. His children run the hotel now. They have changed a good deal, but they have kept the rule, and a stay here still bends around it.
Canarelli was not a man to be talked out of things. His moods were legendary and his retorts quick, and for three terms he was mayor of Figari, further south, while refusing ever to stand in Lecci, where the hotel lies, so as not to fall out with the people he saw every day. A man that careful with his neighbours was hardly going to let a pool upstage the best neighbour he had: the sea.
His daughters have since let the light in. The rooms under the old arches are pale and calm now, all white walls and rough wood, yet the house has kept the manners of a family home. Albums of old photographs lie in the lobby for anyone curious enough to leaf through them, and a good few of the staff have been here for decades, so familiar faces are greeted rather like cousins.
Without a pool, the day has only one direction. It runs down through the pines to the sand and out along a wooden pontoon into the bay, where kayaks and paddleboards wait for anyone with ambitions beyond a nap. Even the aquagym class is held in the sea when the weather is kind, which gives the fish a front-row seat.
The house keeps one other rule. Once evening comes, shorts are no longer welcome in the public rooms, and the day moves up from the sand to dinner under the pines at La Pinède. The chef, Pascal Cayeux, arrived intending to stay two years and is still cooking the local fish more than twenty years later, a habit the hotel's many regulars will recognise.
Cala Rossa is made for couples and families who would rather swim in a cove than in a basin, and who prefer a lived-in family house to a design statement. Those in search of more privacy can take the cabin on stilts in the trees, whose bathtub looks straight down on the beach. A car is needed, with Porto-Vecchio ten minutes away and the airport at Figari about forty. From January to early April the hotel is closed.
There is a pool at Cala Rossa after all, heated and tucked away indoors in the spa, which is where Toussaint Canarelli evidently felt one belonged. Arguing with him was famously unwise. On the beach at dusk, with the red rocks glowing, it also seems unnecessary.
Second career
Francis, the hotel's pastry chef for four decades, has left the kitchen and now leads guests on hikes through the far south of Corsica.
The gardens run down through umbrella pines to a long beach of fine sand, and a wooden pontoon carries on into the bay. The hotel's boat, Anna, leaves from it every day for trips along the gulf, and snorkelling and first dives for hotel guests start there too. Yoga is held on the pontoon, aquagym in the sea beside it.
Rooms are white and raw silk in colour, with antique pieces the owners brought back from their travels. Size decides the rest: a Standard room is 20 m² with no balcony or terrace, while a Grand Confort is 30 m² with a south-facing terrace, though the pinewood between hotel and beach blocks a direct sea view.
La Pinède works twice a day. At lunch it is a beach bistro on the seaside terraces; at dinner it moves to tables under the old pines, with a longer menu from Pascal Cayeux and Rémi Lonzième that draws on the hotel's organic kitchen garden. From the evening on, men wear long trousers anywhere in the hotel, not only at table.
Bamboo, the hotel's only tree house, stands raised among the pines: one bedroom with a queen-size bed, 37 m² plus a small south-facing terrace. Bedroom and bathroom each have a large pane of one-way glass facing the sea, and the bathroom has a bathtub and a walk-in shower. It sleeps two, with no extra bed possible.
At a glance
Where
Domaine de Cala Rossa, 20137 Lecci de Porto-Vecchio, Corse-du-Sud; on the Cala Rossa peninsula, in the bay of Porto-Vecchio, 7 km north of the town towards Bastia; Figari airport 35 km, Bastia 130 km, Ajaccio 155 km
Why this one
Pines, then sand, then sea.
La Pinède, with its own kitchen garden.
The Bamboo tree house, facing the sea.
The Edit Notes
The categories are frank about it. A Grand Confort room has a south-facing terrace, but the pinewood between the hotel and the beach blocks a direct sea view, and those on the upper floor are reached without a lift. A Standard room has neither balcony nor terrace. The Bamboo tree house, by contrast, has a plain sea view from its terrace, bedroom and bathroom. Anyone who wants the water in sight from bed should book by that criterion, not by size.
La Pinède serves lunch and dinner. U Sognu, the dinner restaurant at the beach bar, opens only from June to September, depends on the weather and closes one evening a week; the official pages name different days, so confirm it before planning a stay around it. I Piattini serves sharing plates in the gardens. Whichever table it is, men are expected in long trousers throughout the hotel from the evening on, so pack accordingly.
The suites are built around children. Ederra has a separate children's room with bunk beds, Scopa has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the Nepita junior suite has bunk beds at the entrance; a Grand Confort takes two adults and one child. The Nucca spa is for adults only and its heated pool is listed as unsuitable for children, so the beach and the pontoon are the place to swim. Parents are asked to keep mealtimes calm.
The hotel lies 7 km north of Porto-Vecchio on the road to Bastia, and Figari airport is 35 km away; a car is useful for anything beyond the bay, and valet parking takes it on arrival. The concierge arranges car hire and helicopter transfers. Guests arriving under sail can moor off the beach, with advance booking recommended. Pets are not accepted, which rules out bringing the dog for the summer.
The price question
A stay here buys the setting and the manner of the house: a sandy beach at the foot of the garden, a pontoon, dinner under the pines and staff who have known guests for decades. It does not buy space or a guaranteed view: the entry rooms are small, the Grand Confort rooms look into the pines rather than at the sea, and the only pool is indoors, for adults.
Book it for a week of swimming from the beach and the pontoon, with dinner at home most nights, ideally in the suites or the tree house. Those who want a pool to lie beside, a sea view from a modest room, or a design statement are better placed elsewhere.
Le Mouflon d'Or
The Canarelli family's second house, in the village of Zonza in the Alta Rocca nature park, in the mountains inland from Porto-Vecchio; also a member of Relais & Châteaux.
Domaine de Murtoli
A private estate in the Ortolo valley near Sartène, with houses spread between the maquis and the sea and its own golf links.
The Extra Edit
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