In the Maquis

There is a particular kind of darkness that only exists when you are sleeping outside. Wild camping is prohibited in Corsica -- and this episode starts there, with why the rules exist and what they actually mean in practice. The distinction between camping and bivouacking, where the tolerance zones are, what the fire culture of the island demands from anyone who wants to sleep close to the maquis....

The trail begins in the village and immediately forgets about it. This episode is the GR20 itself -- from the first brutal stage out of Calenzana to the descent into Conca two weeks later. The northern section in full: the granite world above two thousand meters, the Cirque de la Solitude diversion via the Bocca Minuta, the mouflon on the high cols, and what Vizzavona feels like after nine days on...

There is a trail in Corsica that begins at the edge of a village and ends, one hundred and eighty kilometers later, at the door of another one. The GR20 is consistently ranked among the most difficult long-distance trails in Europe. Every year roughly ten thousand people attempt it. Roughly half finish. This episode is everything that happens before Calenzana -- the fitness preparation most people...

The road narrows without warning. And the pig on the road has right of way. Vanlife in Corsica means narrow mountain passes, long-horned cattle with no interest in moving, and the particular reward of being in a vehicle small enough to follow the tracks that lead to the quiet bays. This episode covers what moving through Corsica by van actually looks like -- the D81 coast road in afternoon light,...

The sea is flat before anyone else is awake. The Corsican coast underwater is one of the most extraordinary marine environments in the Mediterranean -- and one of the least known to the visitors who spend their summers above it. This episode goes into the water: the ancient posidonia meadows that are among the oldest living organisms on earth, the Lavezzi islands marine reserve at the southern tip...

Some people visit wild places. Others let them in. In the Maquis is a podcast about moving through wild places -- on rock, in water, on the road. Scripted stories from Corsica, Morocco, Scandinavia and beyond that teach you something before you go and stay with you after. Surfing the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Freediving the marine reserves of Corsica. Crossing the GR20. Living on the road between...

The ferries arrive full in August. But receiving is not the same as welcoming. Corsica does not perform for its visitors. It has spent centuries resisting occupation, annexation, and the logic of efficiency -- and that resistance has shaped an island unlike anywhere else in the Mediterranean. This episode is an introduction to what Corsica actually is: its history from the Genoese watchtowers to t...