Ajaccio, Corsica
Friendly capital of this captivating 'Isle of Beauty', whose rugged coastline and flawless beaches enclose a fragrant maquis-carpeted interior dotted with mellow old hill-towns.
Fought over by Greek, Roman, Vandal, Byzantine and Saracen, Corsica was sold by Genoa to France in 1768 - a fateful day for Europe, for a year later one Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio (his birthplace is now a museum).