The flat Lavezzi Islands lie smack in the middle of the Strait of Bonifacio. The archipelago belongs to France, but only one island is inhabited. The rest are part of a sparsely beautiful nature preserve whose smooth, windswept granite rocks can support only small bushes. The French frigate Sémillante went down off the Lavezzi Islands in 1855. Almost 20 years after that famous shipwreck, France built the handsome Lavezzi lighthouse, an official monument that protects vessels in these treacherous waters.
