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Great Continental Railway Journeys Season 9 Episode 4
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00:01I'm embarking on a new series of railway journeys, exploring Europe's most
00:08beautiful and historic regions. Oh, we're about to set off.
00:14From Belgium. Oh, I'm loving this.
00:20To Hungary. Oh, this is amazing. And the islands of Sardinia.
00:29Fantastic. And Corsica.
00:33Ha-ha! I'll enjoy nature, history, culture and fun in some of Europe's most enchanting places.
00:44I am looking forward to a tremendous railway adventure.
01:03I'm on a spectacular railway journey in southern Europe, through the dramatic neighbouring
01:10islands of Sardinia and Corsica.
01:13So far, amongst the medieval towns, the glorious pristine coastline and the lush interior of
01:20Sardinia, I've uncovered distinctive traditions and layers of history.
01:27Now I'm leaving its shores to cross to Corsica.
01:37I often travel to places where I've been before, and much more rarely set foot somewhere for
01:45the first time. That was the case with Sardinia, and it was full of brilliant, astonishing surprises.
01:52Now, as I approach Corsica, somewhere I've also never been, the site of the town of Bonifacio,
01:59perched on these stratified, strikingly white cliffs, offers every hope of new island adventure.
02:09Lying at the heart of an ancient web of Mediterranean sea trade routes, Sardinia and Corsica have been
02:16occupied by many civilisations, from Greeks and Romans to Moors and Genoese.
02:22Today, there are territories within, respectively, Italy and France.
02:26I'll travel northwards through the wild and rugged landscape for which Corsica is famed.
02:33I'll use the railway network linking three coastal cities, as I wind my way through the peaks
02:40and gorges of the Mediterranean's most mountainous island.
03:01I'm sailing into the port at Bonifacio.
03:12As we've rounded the cliffs into this steep-sided natural harbour, the views have just become
03:19more and more spectacular. This really is, to me, one of the great arrivals in port.
03:29Corsica is just seven miles from Sardinia, but its identity is quite distinct.
03:36La belle France.
03:43Corsica has been a French territory since it was seeded by the Republic of Genoa in 1768.
03:50It's the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean, with dramatic coastlines and a terrain of spiky peaks.
03:58The scrubland that characterises the landscape is known as maquis, and the aromatic shrubs
04:03and herbs have earned Corsica the nickname the scented isle.
04:08The island has a population of around 347,000, and about half of them live in the two main cities
04:15of Bastille and Ajaccio.
04:20Since 1811, Ajaccio has been the capital, and there I begin my expedition.
04:29The architecture is Italian, but these cafes and restaurants have a very French accent.
04:36It's a winning combination.
04:38And surrounded by the shimmering Mediterranean, it's absolutely wonderful.
04:44Tourism is a vital part of the economy, and many come to Ajaccio to visit the birthplace of one of
04:51history's greatest military commanders, Napoleon Bonaparte.
04:55I'm meeting local guide Catherine Lehmann to find out about the Corsican roots of the French Emperor.
05:02Catherine, what a pleasure.
05:04Nice to meeting you.
05:06Catherine, here is an enormous monument to Napoleon Bonaparte.
05:10I imagine then that the city and the island are very proud of him.
05:14We do admire how intelligent he was, but proud, I'm not sure.
05:19Actually, we don't have that much feeling for Napoleon.
05:21This monument is not that old. It's from the year 1938.
05:25At the time, there was another threat here on Corsica, and this threat was Benito Mussolini.
05:30When we heard the news that Mussolini wanted to control Corsica, when we understood what really fascism was,
05:37we all decided that we didn't want to be Italian.
05:40So we inaugurated this big monument, and we all claimed that we all love France and that we all love
05:46Napoleon.
05:47Yeah, that's a very interesting and actually very, very moving story.
05:51Could you tell me, please, about Napoleon's birth, about his family?
05:55As you can read here, he was born in 1769, 15th of August, and he was born in this area
06:01which is called the Genoese area.
06:03So at the very beginning, Ajaccio was not exactly a Corsican town, but a Genoese town.
06:08And in this Genoese area could only live Italian families.
06:12So in the background, this Bonaparte family at the very beginning was not exactly a Corsican family, but an Italian
06:18family.
06:21After Corsica passed from Genoese to French control, Napoleon's father became the representative to the court of King Louis XVI.
06:29As a reward for his support, he was ennobled by France, gaining a status that allowed the young Napoleon to
06:36attend military school on the French mainland.
06:40Et voilà.
06:41Et voilà, et voilà.
06:42The young Napoleon, very young Napoleon, goes to a military school in France.
06:48What sort of a student was he?
06:49He was excellent. He was skipping classes, he was a bit isolated sometimes, but he was excellent.
06:54He was above all very, very talented with mathematics.
06:57When did he first begin to show military ability?
07:01As he was living here in Ajaccio.
07:03We have different stories that were repeated through the times, that there was two teams of kids in Ajaccio.
07:09Those from the poor Corsican district, who were badly fed, but very strong.
07:13And the kids from the Genoese area, whose parents were pretty rich.
07:19And those two hated one another, and regularly they were organised some battles and they would fight one against another.
07:24And Napoleon was the general of the richer kids?
07:27I guess Napoleon realised that they were not as strong as the Corsican one, so he has to be strategic.
07:32Yeah. Following the French Revolution, Napoleon climbs the ranks.
07:36And at the beginning of the revolution, it was a bit complicated for Napoleon, because he went to the military
07:41school. He was a noble.
07:43So he didn't know exactly which position to take. And finally, after, how do you call that, a brainstorming, he
07:51decided to join Robespierre.
07:53A great revolutionary leader.
07:54Yeah.
07:56Napoleon secured decisive victories, and his prowess in military strategy saw him rise to the rank of general at the
08:03age of just 24.
08:05In 1799, as leader of the French Republic, he set about expanding French domination by waging war across Europe and
08:14beyond, eventually crowning himself Emperor of the French in 1804.
08:20When you look at all of Napoleon's career, do you see that his Corsican origins were an influence throughout his
08:28life?
08:28Yes, for sure. You have to live here to understand it. We don't raise the kids here as we raise
08:35the kids in Menon, France.
08:37For instance, most of the people live now in Ajaxiou, but on a weekend, we head back up to the
08:43village, and up there, kids are allowed to do anything.
08:46They'll jump from a bridge in the river, they're going to play like Tarzan, they're going to borrow the gun
08:51of the family, they might see a wild boar, they have to shoot the wild boar down.
08:55When you do something dangerous, you have to anticipate, in order to not make a mistake, and we believe it's
09:02also part of the education.
09:04It's sort of feeling of freedom, so for sure, this was also in the construction of Napoleon.
09:11How absolutely fascinating.
09:20Reminders of Napoleon are found all across Ajaxiou, and in the city's fresh museum is a very large and intriguing
09:28bronze head.
09:30We have discovered this head about 17 years ago, and we were wondering where it could come from.
09:35You know, now we have new tools, and we could analyze this bronze, and we decided to compare it to
09:42another statue that is very famous in Paris, the statue that dominates the courtyard of the Invalidum Dome.
09:48As we analyzed this bronze, we realized that actually, the statue in Paris has a wrong head.
09:56We knew that the statue was at one point thrown in the Seine River, and as they took the statue
10:03out of the water, the head was broken.
10:06So they made a new head, and this one ended up here in Ajaxiou.
10:10So, this is the genuine bronze head.
10:12Oh, remarkable.
10:22In Ajaxiou, the Bonaparte family is all around us.
10:27In this chapel, Napoleon's parents and uncle are buried.
10:32The French Revolutionary period was incredibly violent, and all classes were caught up in that, including those who attempted to
10:40rule.
10:41King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Georges Danton, Miss Emilia and Robespierre were all guillotined.
10:49Jean-Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath.
10:53Napoleon lived through it all and died of natural causes.
10:58It was only his statue that lost its head.
11:23This morning, I'm up early and heading to Ajaxiou's daily market.
11:34I like to go to markets because they give you a crash course in the place where you've arrived.
11:40Produce tells you about landscape, landscape tells you about people.
11:45Food is a love affair until you learn about the passions of the people.
11:50You're welcome to the people who're on the planet.
11:52You're wondering where they are.
11:58Hi, ma'am.
11:58Hi.
11:59Thanks.
12:01You look good.
12:02Very good, very good.
12:05Where are all your lovely herbs from?
12:09Where are the herbs from?
12:10From the wild?
12:11From the wild.
12:12Yeah, up in the hills?
12:13up in the mountains.
12:14In the forest.
12:16From the forest.
12:17I make the powder.
12:18The powder of the bandit.
12:20Do you know the bandit?
12:21No.
12:21It's the criminal who escapes.
12:23Oh, yes.
12:24He goes into the maquis.
12:25Yes, yes.
12:25And he eats what he finds.
12:27So the bandit would take it with him.
12:30And you do all that.
12:31It's me who does that.
12:32She makes all of these.
12:34Madame, really, I want to be a bandit.
12:38This really makes me want to be a bandit.
12:41Thank you, madame.
12:42Merci, avec plaisir.
12:43Formidable.
12:44Thank you very much.
12:45Vous êtes gentil.
12:46You are welcome.
12:51The culture of a place is expressed in food,
12:55legends and music.
12:57In Corsica, you can delight in a very special vocal tradition.
13:01Polyphony is a form of singing where there are a number of voices,
13:05each following its own line, but in harmony.
13:09Examples in Britain go back to the 13th century.
13:12I remember seeing one at school,
13:14summer is a coming in.
13:16The style that's developed in Corsica is peculiar to the island.
13:20And I shall be interested to see how it links with its history
13:24and its sense of identity.
13:26For your passion,
13:32give us the forgiveness.
13:40For your passion,
13:49give us the forgiveness.
13:53For your passion,
14:05give us the forgiveness.
14:05Thank you, Monsieur.
14:06Je suis enchanté.
14:08Frederic.
14:08I'm Michael.
14:09Nice to meet you.
14:10It's lovely to meet you.
14:12Frederic, this is sung in parts.
14:15Tell me about the three principal voices.
14:18Which are they?
14:19So, it's an exception to Corsican polyphony
14:22because we have four parts in this kind of tradition.
14:26We have top voice,
14:27in Corsican language,
14:29a terza,
14:30a tenor.
14:31Right.
14:31Daci il perdono.
14:38Bravo.
14:39What next?
14:40Then you have a second,
14:42a baritone,
14:44middle voice.
14:45Per la vostra passion,
14:50daci il perdono.
14:57Then you have this specific third voice
15:00we have in this fourth part singing.
15:03Per la vostra passion,
15:09daci il perdono.
15:15Glorious.
15:16But now we have one part left and three gentlemen.
15:20Yes.
15:20This is a particularity of Corsican polyphony.
15:22The bass is very often shared by multiple voices.
15:26Per la vostra passion,
15:33daci il perdono.
15:43Extremely moving.
15:44I feel that through my body.
15:47Led by Frederic Vesperini,
15:49the Spartimo ensemble has been performing for over 15 years.
15:55That was a wonderful sound.
15:57I enjoyed that so much,
15:58and in this beautiful church as well.
16:00How versatile is this form?
16:03I mean, can you sing sacred and non-sacred?
16:06Can you sing modern music with this form?
16:08Yes.
16:08Once you start to sing Corsican polyphony,
16:11you are able to sing sacred, secular, contemporary, modern, folk songs.
16:18But the same root is here.
16:22Strong voice, deep heart, and ornamentations.
16:26So it's always connected.
16:28Can women sing Corsican polyphony?
16:31Yes, they do.
16:32And they did.
16:33Due to the way Corsican society was many, many centuries ago,
16:39they have their specific repertoire.
16:42Because men were together, women were together.
16:45So it's not a mixed repertoire,
16:48but they have a lot of specific songs.
16:51This lovely traditional polyphony,
16:53does it mean something special to you as a Corsican?
16:56Yes, it's our identity.
16:58We can connect with the feeling of freedom.
17:01We fight.
17:02We always fought for freedom.
17:04And when we sing, we have a kind of freedom.
17:06We are not acquired with a score to follow.
17:11And each voice has its own freedom
17:15when it's time to add ornamentations, movements, timing.
17:20So freedom is very important part of Corsican polyphony.
17:24Will you very kindly sing me a second song?
17:26I cannot let you go outside Corsica
17:29without listening to
17:31And the words in English are
17:35God save the Queen.
17:37You don't have a queen?
17:39We have the Queen Mary in each church.
17:43Ah, the Virgin Mary.
17:44Yes, in each church.
17:46And it is our Corsican anthem since 1735.
17:52So, spartimo.
17:53God save the Queen.
17:54Thank you very much.
17:56Let's go.
17:57Thank you, your Yer Why we sing her.
18:03God save the Queen,
18:09Your Grace andμηaux Farm.
18:42For the next leg of my journey,
18:43I'm taking a train, departing from Jacques Seur's railway station,
18:47built in 1888, when the railway across the island
18:50finally reached the capital.
19:06Farewell, Jacques Seur.
19:07I really enjoyed my time here.
19:09My last view is off the pretty port,
19:11and, of course, the mountains behind.
19:16I'm travelling on the line that links Ajaccio with Bastille and Calvi,
19:21the two coastal towns in the north of Corsica.
19:23My next stop will be in Vitsavona, in the centre of the island.
19:37This rattly railway in Corsica is known affectionately in the Corsican language as Utrinikelu,
19:43which means the little train, and it took some building.
19:48There are 32 tunnels on the network and 52 bridges and viaducts, some of them very spectacular.
19:53We are lucky to have this because, in the 1960s, Paris proposed closing the railways on Corsica.
20:01But you don't mess with the Corsicans.
20:03There was a vigorous protest.
20:06And, as so often, the Corsicans won, and so we have the railway today.
20:10And some people say it's one of the most beautiful train rides in the world.
20:13I'm here to judge.
20:20The railway winds through Corsica's dramatic scenery
20:23and attract locals, tourists and fellow railway enthusiasts.
20:30Hello.
20:31How are you enjoying your rail journey?
20:33It's glorious, isn't it?
20:35Much anticipated.
20:37Much anticipated?
20:38I planned the holiday. I found the train journey first and then worked our tour around it.
20:46So, yeah, it's very special.
20:49Are you as enthusiastic or have you been dragged along?
20:51Not quite as enthusiastic but, nevertheless, I still enjoy them very much.
20:55The joke I've heard is that this is the TGV that would normally be a train grand vitesse.
21:01But in this case, it's the train with great vibrations.
21:05Well, it's certainly living up to that.
21:09On this snaking, bumpy route with its one-metre gauge track,
21:14the train goes at a steady pace, making this journey just over an hour long.
21:19And before we arrive in Viet Savona, we encounter one of the line's great engineering feats.
21:27We are now approaching the most remarkable tunnel on the entire route.
21:31It is the Viet Savona tunnel.
21:33It's four kilometres long and, quite unusually, it's straight as a die.
21:39From the moment you enter, you can see the distant light at the end of the tunnel.
21:46That was nine.
22:02It's the house of truth...
22:03I'm going to see the sun in the rain.
22:03He's taking away the rain.
22:03It's all right.
22:04The days of death and death, you're all right.
22:07It's all right.
22:08It's the way you are.
22:08Jam is great.
22:08We're at the beleza of the house.
22:08All right.
22:09We have all right.
22:10We can see the buildings now.
22:20Viet Savona Station is in the middle of the island
22:23and in the heart of Corsica's wilderness.
22:26The forests and scrublands surrounding Viet Savona
22:29make for stunning scenery.
22:31But in the hot summer months,
22:33this dense vegetation can become fuel for wildfires.
22:38Here in Corsica, new technologies are being applied
22:41to help fight the blazes.
22:43I'm meeting Michael Pellissier,
22:45chief of the fire service in the northern section.
22:48Hello, Michael. I'm Michael.
22:50Hello. Nice to meet you.
22:51Great to meet you.
22:53Michael, help me to understand the size of the problem
22:56that you have in Corsica.
22:59For example, in one year, how many forest fires might you have?
23:03On a good year, we can have maybe 200, 300 fires,
23:09including small ones.
23:11In a bad year, it can be catastrophic.
23:14Like we had in 2017 and 2018,
23:18we had strong fires in the entire region of Corsica.
23:22Regarding the landscape, it was catastrophic, yes.
23:27The forest goes all the way up the side of the mountains,
23:29impenetrable by road.
23:31This must be a big challenge.
23:32Yes, it's a big challenge for the forest.
23:34We have only two solutions.
23:36One is an expensive one, is to use a helicopter.
23:40And the second is this technology with drones.
23:44Now, more and more we use drones.
23:47The main point of this solution,
23:49you can identify precisely where you want to go.
23:54And you're not looking everywhere
23:56and you waste a lot of time.
23:58Yeah, we call it looking for a needle in a haystack.
24:00And now it's a precision tool.
24:04The use of drones provides the fire teams
24:06with an advantageous aerial view of a forest fire.
24:10And a research team from the University of Corsica
24:12is seeking to apply technology to still greater effect.
24:16It's headed up by Professor Lucille Rossi.
24:19Hello, Lucille.
24:21Hello, Michael.
24:22I see you're very, very busy here.
24:24Today is an experiment day.
24:26We are with the five foreigners of the South Corsica
24:29and the forester of the collectivity of Corsica.
24:33And we are experimenting with a prototype of tool
24:37that is able to locate the hot spots
24:42that remain incandescent after a fire.
24:45There are no more flames or no more smoke,
24:48but the fire is still on the ground.
24:51So lying there in the undergrowth,
24:53you have ash, you have embers,
24:56and maybe they're okay,
24:58but there may be a little bit of wind comes along.
25:00They light up again.
25:02Yeah.
25:02And the forest fire takes off.
25:03And your drone and your programs will detect them.
25:07Yeah, we detect, in fact,
25:08the potential re-inition point.
25:11So it looks like the activity is becoming more intense.
25:15Cans filled with charcoal are lit
25:17and carefully positioned throughout the forest
25:20to simulate these hot spots.
25:22The drone is then launched to locate them
25:25with its thermal camera.
25:32It's a very sizable drone,
25:34pretty heavy-duty drone.
25:39And we're getting the images from the drone here.
25:47So even out here in the open air,
25:48the screen gives us a very clear image
25:51of what the drone is seeing.
25:52The software that you developed, Lucille,
25:55would detect very, very high temperatures,
25:57and that's what they would be looking for.
25:58With the tool we developed,
26:00we use the temperature,
26:02which is radiometric information.
26:05We compute the corresponding GPS point,
26:08which corresponds to a pixel in an image.
26:21Once the drones have scanned the forest for hot spots,
26:24the information is processed and analysed by the team.
26:30Hello, Frederic.
26:32Hello.
26:32Sir, what are we looking at here now?
26:35OK, so we copy the thermal images of the drone
26:38on the laptop.
26:40Yeah.
26:40We have three hot spots.
26:42Indeed we do.
26:43183 degrees.
26:45Yes.
26:46So now the GPS coordinates will be sent
26:48to the firefighters on the ground.
26:50Somehow they have to get themselves in there,
26:52but at least in this haystack,
26:55you have told them where the needles are.
26:57That's correct.
27:02It's hoped that the work being done here
27:04will help to save the Corsican wilderness
27:06and provide a model for communities
27:09far beyond the island's shores.
27:21Polyphonic singing delights the ear
27:24of the visitor to this island
27:26and stirs the breasts of Corsicans
27:28because it's part of their national identity.
27:32Early in his career,
27:34Napoleon Bonaparte was moved by Corsican nationalism,
27:37but his ambition soon outgrew this small isle
27:41as he set out to conquer Europe and beyond.
27:45Once he was emperor of the French,
27:47war spread from country to country,
27:50leaping like a forest fire
27:52until all of the continent was ablaze.
27:57Next time.
28:00Ha-ha!
28:02It's wonderful to be able to see a viaduct like this,
28:05but actually to come and stand here is very special.
28:08In this region, Castanica, the land of chestnut,
28:12people do not suffer from hunger back in the century
28:15because they can rely on the chestnut.
28:18It's a total history of invasions and occupations,
28:22so it has strengthened the character of the locals.
28:24They have a culture of resisting
28:27and defending their island.
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