Cafes of the Vieux Port

The quays of the Vieux Port are lined with cafes and restaurants that offer the best seats in Bastia. Tables spill out onto the cobbled quayside, facing the small fleet of fishing and pleasure boats, with the twin towers of the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste rising above the rooftops. On a warm evening this is about as good as waterfront cafe sitting gets.

The cafes open early for breakfast — coffee, croissant, and a view of the morning's catch being unloaded. They fill again at midday for long lunches of local seafood and wine, and again in the evening for the apéritif hour that extends comfortably into dinner. Pastis is the drink of choice for locals; the tourist will find the Muscat du Cap Corse a better use of the local grape. Several of the cafes also serve simple plates of Corsican charcuterie and cheese, which are worth ordering alongside a glass of Patrimonio rosé.

bars and cafes bar
A story
The cafes along Bastia's Vieux Port occupy the ground floors of the same tall Genoese merchant houses that have faced the harbour for 400 years. The buildings were originally warehouses and counting houses; the ground floors now serve coffee and pastis to a crowd that includes fishermen, ferry workers, local professionals, and tourists — one of the more socially integrated cafe scenes in a French city. The rhythm of the harbour, with its early-morning fish unloading and evening promenade, sets the pace for the cafe day in a way that mainland French cafes rarely manage.