Lavezzi Islands

The Lavezzi Islands are a scatter of twenty-three granite islands, islets and reefs in the Strait of Bonifacio, the channel between Corsica and Sardinia. Wind and sea have worn the granite into rounded boulders and smooth domes, and between them lie small coves of clear turquoise water. The archipelago marks the southernmost point of metropolitan France, a reef at its southern edge.

Of the two main islands, Cavallo, about 112 hectares, is the only inhabited one; Lavezzu, about 66 hectares, gives the group its name and carries a lighthouse first lit in 1874. People came here long before: archaeologists have found Neolithic rock shelters, traces of a Roman harbour and the remains of a 7th-century chapel. The best-known event in the islands' history is a tragedy. On the night of 15 to 16 February 1855 the French frigate Sémillante, sailing from Toulon with sailors and soldiers bound for the Crimean War, was driven onto the rocks of Lavezzu in a storm and fog. Everyone aboard, roughly seven hundred people, was lost. The bodies that washed ashore were buried in two small cemeteries on the island, and a stone pyramid on a nearby islet commemorates the wreck.

The archipelago became a nature reserve in 1982 and since 1999 has been part of the Bouches de Bonifacio Nature Reserve; together with Italy's La Maddalena archipelago to the south it now forms an international marine park. Between 255 and 400 pairs of Scopoli's shearwaters nest on Lavezzu each year, and their breeding success has improved since rats were cleared from the island in 2000. The islands have appeared on film too: Brigitte Bardot played the lighthouse keeper's daughter in Manina, la fille sans voiles, shot here in 1952, and Marco Ferreri filmed Liza here with Catherine Deneuve in 1972.

Getting there

The islands lie about 10 km southeast of Bonifacio, at the southern tip of Corsica, and are reached only by sea; shuttle boats from Bonifacio harbour take around twenty minutes. Ajaccio, the island's capital, is about 77 km away. The nearest airport is Figari Sud-Corse (FSC), about 22 km away.