Voyage to France, Part 2 - Annecy

We got off the train just after sundown on Saturday in the city of Annecy in the Savoie region of the Alps. Our hotel was on the edge of the "old town", which is a pedestrian-only area with old pastel-walled and red-shingled (and sometimes arcaded) buildings, narrow stone-paved streets, and Kodak-moment canals. At night the streets were lit up and decorated for Christmas. Le Château d'Annecy, a medieval castle, loomed over the old town. Maybe the best feature of the town, though, is that is sits beside Lake Annecy - a large, swan-filled lake under majestic mountains with some of the clearest water I've ever seen (even compared to Minnesota and Colorado!). I really loved this town.



On Sunday morning we walked to the old town where a market was taking place. This market was much larger than the one we saw in Grenoble, but it was way more touristy and flea-market-like. We walked through town along the still and reflective canals down to a big park beside Lake Annecy. This park was about as serene as possible: swans swimming near the shore, children playing, couples strolling, and Alpine mountains appearing in the distance out of the morning haze. The water was clear enough to see the bottom of the lake and the paddling feet of the swans. I could have sit [Mason - grammar?] and watched the lake and mountains for hours...even though I squandered half the time taking pictures.



In the afternoon we walked up to le Château d'Annecy [go to Annecy Castle under "castles". It isn’t quite as grand as a fairytale castle, but was still the first European castle I’d seen – so I enjoyed it. There were good views of the city and the lake. Inside the castle were an art museum and a science museum of the Alpine lakes.



We spent some more time at the lake before taking an evening train back to Paris. That was the end of our weekend French Alps adventure. We spent the rest of the week in and around The City of Lights.

See more of my Annecy photos on my PhotoSite page.