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Time Zone: GMT + 1 (GMT + 2 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October).

Currency: Euro (€) = 100 cents or FFr6.60.

Language: French.

Sightseeing: The dazzling white city of Ajaccio runs in a semicircle on the calm bay, and is set against a backdrop of wooded hills. The port area, fringed with palm trees, is filled with yachts and lined with colourful houses. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio in 1769; the Maison Bonaparte houses a selection of related memorabilia and the Salon Napoléonien, located in the Hôtel de Ville is where the Bonaparte family portraits are displayed. Other attractions include the Italian Renaissance paintings in the Musée Fesch, the 16th-century cathedral and the Musée a Bandera, which contains a fine collection of daggers and various exhibitions on bandits. Pointe de la Parata is a tongue of land that offers fine views of the setting sun.

Shopping: Lace, crystal glass, cheeses, coffee, wines, spirits and liqueurs.

Eating Out: Lobster, grilled freshwater fish, meat spiced with herbs and berries, wild boar cooked in pibronata (a flavoursome local sauce), ham from pigs fed on chestnuts, dziminu (a fish soup like bouillabaisse but much hotter and made with peppers and pimentos), capone,(local eels cut up and grilled on a spit over a charcoal fire), prizzutu (a peppered and smoked ham, rather like Italian prosciutto but with chestnut flavourings), figatelli (a snack sausage made of dried and spiced pork with liver, which is placed between slices of a special bread and grilled over a wood fire). Red wine is available in abundance, but white and rosé are also produced on the island.