Countess Lisl's beach house

"I have champagne and oysters in the fridge. Why not come in for a bite?"
In For Your Eyes Only, Bond picks up Countess Lisl von Schlaf at the Corfu casino. They spend the night in her beach house after three bottles of champagne in front of the fireplace. In the morning, they take a walk along the beach before Loque interrupts them in a beach buggy. Lisl gets killed but Bond is saved by Colombo's men in last minute.

Western Corfu has a rather rough coastline but occasionally you can find some sandy beaches. Probably the longest beach in Corfu, Issos beach in Agios Georgios, is located in the south western part of the island and is the place of Lisl's untimely demise.

The Countess' beach house was built for the film and did not exist. Today however, there is a beach bar around the same place where I can imagine the beach house once stood. The bar is about the same size and there is a small road that leads up to it. I don't think it is completely unimaginable that the bar is built around the same spot.

Countess Lisl's beach house, constructed for the film.

Unfortunately, Corfu has changed from a tranquil jet-set island to a rather cheap vacation destination and at least the southern part of the beach is packed with tourists during the high season. You can also see that a lot of new hotels have been built south of the beach since 1981.

I can imagine that visiting this beach very early in the morning would be magical. A good idea is probably to avoid Corfu from June through August. The best time to go to Corfu is September, when the island has a nice temperature and fewer tourists. The olives are harvested from October.

Kristatos' men are coming up from behind the sand dunes in their beach buggies, trying to kill Bond. Unfortunately Lisl ends up in front of Loque, who shows no mercy. It is a hard location to scout since the dunes obviously have changed shape over the 30+ years that have passed...

"Goodbye Countess."

Countess Lisl is played by Cassandra Harris, who at the time was married to Pierce Brosnan. Pierce visited the set on one occasion during filming, and allegedly Cubby got the idea then, that he would make a good Bond in the future. Harris also appeared in several episodes of Remington Steele together with her husband. Sadly, Cassandra Harris got cancer in 1987 and died four years later, ten years after her appearance in For Your Eyes Only.