Yet only 60% of islanders can now hold a conversation in Corsican, against 80% in 1977.
Other potential trouble-makers include Basque and Corsican separatists, never averse to a bomb or two.
One has that trademark Californian drawl, the other was always trying to cover up his native Corsican accent.
Before the end of the year, the SS Corsican Prince docked at Alexandria.
The U.S. should take a look at how the French dealt with Algerian and Corsican terrorists during the 1980s and 1990s.
Has Mr Spinetta, a wisecracking Corsican who became Air France's boss three years ago, discovered a managerial secret others have missed?
Today, 85% of primary-school children are taught at least partly in Corsican.
At a time when even the Scots and Welsh in Britain have won themselves self-rule of a sort, Corsican nationalists resent their relative impotence.
Two centuries later, however, the little Corsican may have a point.
He worked actively for the CIA for 15 years, destabilising European labour unions by using anything Corsican mobsters, plagues of cockroaches and setting up his front companies.
Campaign group No Oulton Turbine said 342 mature trees, including oak, ash, sweet chestnut, rowan and Corsican pines, covering three-quarters of an acre, had been felled.
You can luxuriate in Murtoli's seaside spa, with its Corsican-made Realia products, or go fishing, horseback riding, or hunting (for wild boar and small game, in season).
French opposition parties are accusing police of burning the restaurant in order to blame it on Corsican nationalist groups, who are waging a violent campaign for independence.
BBC: News | Europe | French parliament debates Corsica scandal
Traditional Corsican charcuterie is abundant all over the island and its distinct flavour comes from the chestnut heavy diet of the free ranging pigs that roam the island.
As Corsicans considered proposals made by Lionel Jospin, the French prime minister, to devolve power to the island, two moderate Corsican nationalists were shot dead in broad daylight.
Every tint, from black African to swarthy Corsican, is represented.
Libations are thoughtfully curated with options such as a tasty Corsican beer made from chestnuts and a lovely red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz from Bangalore (La Reserve Grover).
FORBES: Best Places To Dine In London During The Olympic Games
The second was the recent refusal by President Jacques Chirac to change the French constitution to give recognition to regional languages such as Corsican, a dialect closer to Italian than French.
The Corsican problem has been intractable for governments over the decades, so the voters, if not his political opponents, may well give Mr Jospin the benefit of the doubt on that score.
Yet now, believe it or not, a pathetically bungled act of arson at an illegally built restaurant on a Corsican beach is threatening to blow his government off course and ruin its well-fostered reputation for integrity and candour.
Opinion pollsters say that France's re-elected president, Jacques Chirac , and his alliance of the mainstream right, gained ground after the president stalked out of a football stadium when the Marseillaise, France's national anthem, was booed by supporters of a Corsican team.
应用推荐