Oh Beautiful Corsica! Recollections From Miomo 5-11.
Miomo, just outside of Bastia, is a pretty little village
A couple weeks ago, my girlfriend and I sneaked away to Miomo, Corscia for a short, but superb four day weekend. We boarded a ferry from the port in Nice, and settled in for a pleasant six hour commute. On the way there, we saw several dolphins playing in the wake of the boat, and reveled in the clear, deep blue of the sea.
The Corsican accent is pretty pronounced, and was at first, difficult to understand. It is a mix of Italian and French accents with a strange emphasis on certain vowels. I am funny with accents, I was told that by the end of our four days, I had begun to pick up the accent when I spoke. That was fine with me. I really grew to like the accent and the people by the time we left.
We stayed at the hotel : l’Ariana in Miomo, and the staff there were wonderful! I don’t usually call out places to stay in my posts, but the staff and the people were a cut above. They were incredibly accommodating and friendly. We passed quite a bit of time with the staff, just chatting, swapping stories and asking questions. If you are looking for great hotel in the area, this is the one. Just try to get a room with a view of the sea. I should also note the hotel itself was great too – featuring a pool, a wonderful bar overlooking the sea, and a pretty good restaurant to boot.
The water was exceptionally clear
I should also call out the little pizzeria down the street too (there is only one, you can’t miss it). The owner there was super nice to us when we arrived after close. He made us two pizzas to go, and packed up a bottle of Rosé, and even borrowed us two glasses so we could picnic on the beach. Thanks for the wonderful service and thoughtfulness! Oh, and the pizzas were great too. I highly recommend the “Miomaise”.
The absolute highlight of the trip was the boat trip back. We saw lots of rare animals and fish, including at least six or seven Mola Mola, or Poisson Lune. We saw more dolphins very close to Nice, a squid, and several whales. One whale surfaced several times very near to the ship, and we got to see it closer than I have ever seen before. It was incredible.
On to the photos. The water was cool and clear. The waters in the area aren’t very deep, so you have to get pretty far from shore in order to do any diving. Shooting conditions were pretty wonderful overall, but I didn’t really find much in the way of subject matter. There were a lot of fish, but they were pretty timid, and I just didn’t find a lot of little critters to shoot. I was hoping for some interesting nudibranch, or flabelline, or shrimp or something, but I searched in vain. We saw lots of things, just nothing terribly unusual. I took advantage of the clear waters to do some live action shots and had some success. I continued to utilize my simulated HDR technique to bring out the detail in the water. You can see the rays of light playing in many of the shots below.
Weekend Shots, TF1, Oeuf Au Plat, Wide Angle Issues, and More…
TF1 Cameraman shooting the CIPA this weekend
Well, this is going to be my last post for a bit. I might pop on to link to the CIPA TV appearance if it gets online, but no photos for a few weeks since I will be “state-side” until mid-sept.
TV appearance you ask? There was a news crew that came out for one of the major French TV stations (TF1) on Saturday to film the CIPA (my diving club). I assume there were mostly there to catch Guillaume, but they were shooting the whole club, so I think I’ve got a good shot to make my French national TV debut in the near future. I have no idea when the piece is going to air, but I will post it when I get it.
Other than that, the weekend was a good mix of awesomeness and frustration. I had a great couple of outings this weekend, with lots of stuff to shoot, but I had some issues with my new replacement Fantasea BigEye G Series lens that made me miss a lot of shots. I chipped my old one (which I NEVER had a single issue with), and I had to pony up to get it replaced since I found it an incredible tool. To make a long story short, my new one came, and it seems to have either some errant moisture inside it, or some sort of subtle chemical stain on the inside of the glass that likes to ruin photos. It is not fogging that I am having a problem with. Moderate fogging I could probably deal with; it is a definite defect that really sucks. I have reached out to Fantasea technical support to get it resolved, and I will keep you all posted as to how it goes. [Update: I posted an email to support, and they responded within a few hours on a Sunday, which is a good sign. They asked for a receipt, and a photo of the defect, which I promptly supplied.]
“Méduse œuf au plat”, or egg jellyfish
Last but not least, after having seen my first “Méduse œuf au plat”, or egg jellyfish a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon at least seven that I counted earlier today. When it rains it pours I guess. As of a few weeks ago, I had never seen one, but now I’ve seen at least eight in the last few weeks. I wasn’t too pleased with my shots from last time, and while not perfect, I am quite a bit happier with the ones I got today.
Enjoy, and I’ll be back with more shots in late Sept.
Weekend 8-1-2010 Critter Shots
Méduse œuf au plat, or egg jellyfish
Here is the second batch of shots from last weekend. There are a few shots of macro critters, plus a “Méduse œuf au plat”, or egg jellyfish. It was the first one I had ever seen in person, and even thought it was a very small one, I am happy to have seen it. The mini crabs are the exact same ones I shot the week before. I just wasn’t thrilled with the results, so I went back and tried a few new techniques for getting them shot better. I think I succeeded, but I’ll let you be the judge.
Jellyfish Invasion (Seriously)
Rainbow Tail Jellyfish
Last weekend I mentioned that there were a lot of hermit crabs out, and kind of cried wolf on the invasion part, but this weekend the REAL invasion started with beaucoup jellyfish arriving near Cap D’Ail. I probably saw several hundred just this afternoon; more than I’ve ever seen in one day.
Needless to say, there weren’t a ton of people in the water. Fortunately for me, I like jellyfish (when they are not stinging me). I jumped right in and got some really fun shots. I actually got a shot of rainbow colors in the tail of one jellyfish. Very, very cool.
Also, I went on my first scuba dive of 2010 this weekend. There are a few shots from that mixed in (not many). Among those shots were a chapon (a variety of scorpionfish), some soft coral, a crenilabre (the very colorful tropical-looking fish) that I have never seen, and a nudibranch that is very particular to this area, called a “doris dalmatien” (dalmation is dalmation in french). It’s got black spots just like the dog, hence the name.
Odds and Ends From Last Summer’s Adventures in Nice, France
I was playing around the other night, and I ended up throwing together a video compilation of odds and ends from various adventures in and out and near the Mediterranean last summer. It’s about 5 mins long, and I thought it was kind of fun. There is nothing spectacular, but you can see some free diving clips, and some of the local flora and fauna in and out of the water. Plus, toward the end, you can see some birds dive-bombing for fish in the sea. That was a pretty amazing spectacle. Enjoy!
Port-Cros
Gorgeous and colorful Girelles can be seen at Port-Cros
We spent the last weekend in Port-Cros, which is about 2 hours west of Nice by car. Port-Cros is an Island that features a National Park off the coat near Hyères and Toulon. It is unique in that it features a 600 meter protected maritime zone around the island. The fish and aquatic life are remarkably preserved here, making for excellent snorkeling and diving.
The water was warm (at least in July), even though the lady at the port ticket office in Hyères warned us that the water was terribly cold off shore. You have to take a boat from Hyères to the island (get to the docks early if you want a good seat on the boat!), which takes about an hour. Tickets can be had for about 25 Euros per person.
Once you reach the island, you will have to do some hiking, unless you want to rent a boat. If you have your boating license you can rent, a 25 cc engine boat for something like 140-150 Euros for a half day. If you have no license, you can rent a 6cc boat for about the same. There is also a guy there that has a clear-bottomed boat that runs tours around the bay for around 15 Euros.
Port Cros had several different varieties of Jellyfish when we were there.
We hoofed it to the closest beach, which is called “Plage de la Palud”. It takes about 40 minutes to hike to the spot. If you move real fast (at almost a run), it’s doable in a little over 20. There is some climbing involved, but if you are used to hiking, it is not too bad. The highest altitude is 194 meters on the entire island, or around 600 feet. Decent shoes are recommended, since the path is a bit rough in places, but I did it in flip flops. There are 2 other accessible beaches on the island, but we didn’t make those, since they are quite a bit farther out.
Once at Plage de la Palud, you can find a protected, roped-off area, free from boat traffic to snorkel in. This area is really the jewel of the surrounding area, as there are lots of fish and critters to see. Interestingly, there is a Marine Discovery Hike through the area that has underwater signs with listings and pictures of different fish and plants to help you identify what you are seeing. I found this extremely helpful. Also note that at the port in Port-Cros, you can get waterproofed cards that will guide you through the Marine Discovery Hike.
The last boat back to Hyères leaves at 5:30 pm, so don’t miss it! If you miss it, you have to take a water taxi, which you’ll have to shell out more than 200 Euros for! We made sure we were back an hour early, and we enjoyed a couple drinks and some ice cream at the shops and cafes at the port, which was excellent to cool down and rehydrate at the end of the long day in the sun.
Dorade Royale photographed in Port-Royale
If you go, be sure to bring a good supply of suntan lotion, as there is not much shade, and a beach umbrella would help too. We rigged up a little lean-to using towels and sticks, and that helped a lot.
Oh, and an extra tip, since Hyères lies on what they call in french the “Presqu‘île de Giens“, which is basically a peninsula with a broad land mass connected by a very thin strip of land, be sure to plan for extra time when leaving. Traffic backs up pretty quick (5000 cars go through on busy days) around leaving time, and you might be in for a wait, especially during the high season. One good tip we got that saved us a lot of time was that there are two roads that traverse the narrow strip in and out. The westernmost road is less traveled, and therefore gets less backed up. It was still backed up for us, but the other way looked to be FAR worse.
That’s it, if you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it.
Site Updates, Dolphins, Criminal Jellyfish, and So Forth.
Jellyfish (or Meduse in French) taken while skin diving in St. Jean Cap-Ferrat. This is the culprit of the alleged assault.
I’ve been a busy boy since my first post. I got my new site tweaked and (almost) ready to go. There are a lot of things beyond setting up the site I had to take care of, setting up website tracking analytics, converting my WordPress feed to a Feedburner feed for easier syndication, setting up and configuring my flickr feed (which I still need to format and finish), and getting my ads rolling. I am about done. Of course I want to fix up my picture pages, and make a few tweaks here and there, but things are generally in place. Google already picked me up (which is awesome in less than a week), I come up third for the search term “snorkeling in cote d’azur“ I should be getting more content up in the next week. I’ve got a lot of ideas for articles and content, but I can only write one at a time. Some of my ideas include: An interactive map of the area with lists of spots to go to with GPS locations, and loads of pictures with marine life identifications. I would like to write articles on; Snorkeling basics, Skin Diving, Underwater Photography Basics, Snorkeling equipment, what to know about the Mediterranean Sea, getting around and more…
Speaking of content, I mentioned in my first post that I had been stung by my first jellyfish. Well, I have included a photo of the perpetrator, and if any of you should see him (he fled the scene), I want to know because justice needs to be served!
Another thing that I forgot to mention regarding my trip to St. Jean Cap-Ferrat last week, was that just before we arrived, less than 30 minutes before, I guess a group of dolphins passed, which is a none-too-common occurrence around here. I guess we missed the boat on that one.
Missing the Boat, Dolphins passed us by
That’s it for today. I’ll have more later this week.
Rolled out of bed this morning and…
Me, snorkeling near Cap de Nice
So I woke up this morning with no ambitions at all. The only things I were considering at the time were POSSIBLY cleaning up the house just a bit, and MAYBE going snorkeling in Nice, France, where I live. Then I got to thinking… I have a few spots that I go to pretty regularly, and I wanted to try something a bit new. Well, one thing led to another, and next thing I know I was registering a new domain name and setting up a new site! You see, I’ve learned everything I know about snorkeling and diving in Nice and the Côte d’Azur from personal and anecdotal experience. I could never really find good information in English online, so I just decided to compile and share it myself.
Azure-snorkeling is just my latest brain child, and I have a lot if ideas ideas on where it will go, but no real precise idea of exactly where it will end up. At this point, I do know that I want to put up a whole bunch of pics, lots information about snorkeling in Nice, some maps of where to go, and lots of info about the flora and fauna, but that’s about it for now, I’m still trying to figure out a solid plan.
This project is now about 14 hours old, and it’s started taking a life of it’s own already. Stay tuned, there will be lots more to come.
Oh yeah, and just in case I look back at this first post some years later in a nostalgic mood, I’d like to remind myself that today was the day I got my first jellyfish sting. 
