Grasshopper Island News

The search for our next filming location took us high up the steep mountainside to the picturesque village of Monticello - or Monticellu - as it is in Corsican. We had noted this place name from our conversation with Jean (the owner of Café des Platanes ) and with Hilaire, Toussant and Pierre. They had given us a name: "Jo Jo" and probably a lot more detail which had become lost in translation. They had mentioned these details initially as we spoke at the pier of L'Île-Rousse. Now just an hour or two later, having shown the footage of Place Pascal Pauli , we finished our coffees and reviewed the notes that I had written in my notebook. We needed to visit this new place – Monticello . But how to get there? We thanked our new acquaintances at Café des Platanes for the coffee and for their help with our mission to find our next location and bade them farewell. We had noticed a street sign that advertised the location of a tourist office nearby. We decided to visit and t...

Our next location search took us to Place Pascal Pauli . This is a wonderfully open town square, with a beautiful church, and many cafés and restaurants. Local people played pétanque beneath the shade of the venerable platane trees. A handful of tourists looked on while they enjoyed a coffee, a beer or some ice cream. So it was with great enthusiasm, stemming from our success at the pier, that we scanned the establishments along the southern edge of the square for an ice cream parlour. To our surprise there on the corner close to where we stood was La Glacier. As a reminder - the reason for this interest in finding an ice cream seller was to attempt to identify both the person in the photo and the exact location. Once again without any hesitation Uli made a direct path to the doorway of La Glacier and engaged the gentleman standing there in conversation. “Excuse me sir, I’m sorry but I do not speak French”, in what I would find to be a recurring mantra throughout our expedition! The ...

The pier at  L'Île-Rousse in April 2024 © Grasshopperisland.net So where to start on our quest for filming locations? Luckily some years ago Uli had asked the author of Grasshopper Island - Joy Whitby - if she recalled where the filming had taken place all those years ago. Joy explained how the island of Corsica came to be selected. Frank Muir was a friend of hers and had suggested Corsica as the ideal location. Its sunny climate and the happy fact that he owned a holiday home there was instrumental in bringing the Grasshopper Island production to Corsica. Frank Muir would play the part of rival grasshopper expert Dr. Hopper and the cast and crew would stay in rented accommodation in the locality. Joy was able to recall that Franks home was in a village high above the idyllic French seaside town of L'Île-Rousse. Although she could not recall the exact name of the village, she did remember that the beach scenes took place close to L'Île-Rousse. The s...