2667 Strada di Pinareddu, Corse-du-Sud
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In Corsica, land is seldom sold. It passes from parents to children, and in time it may belong to a small crowd of cousins. Selling it would take a family reunion and a very patient notary. No region of France has more of this undivided land. The Carli family has held its estate above the bay of Pinarellu for generations, and rather than sell, they built a hotel on it. They called it Les Regalia, after the grandparents' house.
The family is still very much in the building. Two of the suites carry the grandparents' names, and the restaurant, Alba, is named after the youngest granddaughter. The Carlis have worked in Corsican hospitality for four generations. There is no group behind the hotel, and no brand manual to follow. The house they built looks resolutely modern, all floor-to-ceiling glass and clean lines. The materials tell another story. The stone was quarried on the island and the wood is recycled, so even the new walls have a past.
Pines and olive trees surround the hotel, with patches of maquis in between, and the gardens are watered with rainwater collected on site. Below lies a bay of almost improbable turquoise, with a Genoese tower on its islet like an ornament placed for the view. A path runs down through a protected nature reserve to the beach at Pinarellu, where loungers are set aside for the hotel. The climb back up is left to a golf buggy.
There are only twenty-four rooms, so other guests are seldom more than a distant splash. All of them come with a balcony, and those looking straight out to sea are the pick. The best suites add glass-walled terraces and sculptural baths for a long soak. In the heated pool, the loungers stand in the shallow water itself, so sunbathing and swimming no longer have to be done in turns.
The bar takes some finding. L'Oliveraie is tucked into the olive grove, and towards sunset guests wander over for a glass of Corsican wine while the cicadas wind down. Under the family's own trees, a drink starts to resemble an invitation. Dinner follows at Alba, on a terrace looking down over the bay. The kitchen works with produce from the island's farms and waters, and even the bottled water on the table is local.
The spa is a small one, more a pleasant extra than a reason to come. Breakfast is booked separately, and dinner at Alba is ambitious in every sense. The calm has its interruptions, too. Music sometimes plays by the water, and children are welcome, so the pool is not always the quietest spot on the estate. Anything further than the village means getting into the car.
In Corsica, family land is supposed to stay in the family. The Carlis have kept it there and opened the gate anyway, and these days the cousins have plenty of company.
Second life
The oak on the hotel's terraces comes from the floors of old railway wagons, and the herringbone doors are clad in wood salvaged from mountain shelters and farms.
Below the hotel the gulf of Pinarellu opens towards a wooded islet with a Genoese tower on its crown. The beach is reached on a footpath through a protected nature reserve, or by golf cart, and sunbeds on the hotel's section of sand can be reserved. The water stays shallow a long way out, which helps with small children.
The heated outdoor pool runs along a deck of wood and island stone, with timber cabanas at one end. Its loungers stand in the shallow water itself, and the pool adds massage jets and a hot tub. Lunch from Alba is served beside it as well as on the terrace, so a pool day does not have to end at noon.
By day Alba's tables look down over the gulf; in the evening the kitchen comes into view, open and lit by a fireplace. Jean-Philippe Vecco cooks French food with Corsican accents, and the Flavours & Legends tasting menu runs to five or seven courses. The cellar leans on island grapes: Vermentino, Sciacarello and Nielluccio.
The two suites carry the names Suzanne and Antoinette. Each measures 65 m², with a 17 m² terrace behind glass facing the gulf, and sleeps four on a sofa bed in the same room. The bathrooms pair a Philippe Starck bath with a rain shower. The Violette junior suite, 49 m², looks more over the maquis than the sea.
At a glance
Where
2667 Strada di Pinareddu, 20144 Sainte-Lucie-de-Porto-Vecchio, commune of Zonza, Corse-du-Sud; on the heights above the seaside village of Pinarellu and its gulf, facing a wooded islet with a Genoese tower; Porto-Vecchio ferry port 19 km, Figari airport 39 km, Bastia 114 km, Ajaccio 161 km
Why this one
The heated pool's shallows are furnished.
About 10 m², even in the smallest.
Or on foot through a nature reserve.
The Edit Notes
The 21 rooms come in three groups of seven, and their sizes overlap, so what really separates them is the outlook from the 10 m² terrace. Garden rooms face the Mediterranean planting around the hotel. Sea & Mountain rooms take in the maquis-covered hills with the gulf beyond. Sea View rooms look straight out over the bay of Pinarellu and add a sofa bed. For the islet and its tower in front of the bed, the Sea View rooms or the two suites are the ones to ask for.
Pinarellu beach lies below the hotel, reached on a footpath through a protected nature reserve or by golf cart. The hotel keeps a section of the beach and its sunbeds are reserved through reception, so it is worth arranging the morning before walking down. The water stays shallow far from the shore. Dogs are accepted only at the hotel's discretion and are not allowed on the beach, at the pool or in the spa, which is worth knowing before bringing one.
Children are welcome, the suites sleep four, and the hotel's conditions ask that children be supervised and keep the place quiet. The Carli family has run the U Paesolu estate next door since the late 1960s, and Les Regalia guests have access to its 13 hectares: a large pool with a cascade, a paddling pool under a mushroom fountain, a pétanque court and the restaurant La Baie de Pinarello. Small children usually do better there, which also keeps the Regalia pool calmer.
Within the hotel, Alba is the one restaurant, and it changes character through the day: a short lunch menu on the terrace or by the pool, a Saturday brunch for which booking is recommended, and in the evening a tasting menu with legends told at the table. A dinner reservation belongs with the room booking. For anything else the nearest choice is La Baie de Pinarello next door; beyond the village, a car is needed, and Porto-Vecchio lies about half an hour away.
The price question
The money buys a small, new hotel with a family behind it, a terrace with every room and a bay below that needs no improving. It does not buy many restaurants, a large spa or a walk into town: dinner is at Alba or next door, and the rest of south Corsica starts with the car. The real comparison is a villa near Porto-Vecchio, with this hotel's service and the beach path thrown in.
Book it for four or five nights of beach, pool and dinners at Alba, with a Sea View room or a suite. Travellers who want a choice of restaurants in walking distance, or a stay built around the spa, are better placed in Porto-Vecchio or Bonifacio.
Dominique Colonna
A contemporary hotel of local stone and wood in the Restonica valley just outside Corte, with a garden running down to the river, a heated pool and around thirty rooms.
Hôtel Sainte-Victoire
Fifteen rooms in a small modern hotel at Vauvenargues, beneath the northern face of Mont Sainte-Victoire, with a rooftop bar and a south-facing pool.
The Extra Edit
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