Annecy

In the past month I have been doing a much better job of actually seeing the country that I live in instead of jetting off to different ones. This started with the journey to Tours and Chenonceau and continued this past weekend with a trip to Annecy. Annecy is in the eastern part of France and very close to the Swiss border. I thought I was going to take trains there, but ended up taking one train and one bus. I like trains better than busses. On trains there is a lot more space to get up and move around, people are not squished together and in general, life is just better. Nevertheless, I arrived in Annecy shortly after my parents had arrived there by car. They picked me up at the train station and we checked into our hotel. The view from the window gave me a glimmer of what kind of town this was. We were directly on the little waterway, which was nice, except a bit noisy during the night. Kind of calming really. Sadly the weather wasn't ideal, but that didn't stop us. We walked around town for a bit and then hiked up to what looked like a chateau on the hill. Quite a steep climb, but when we got there we found out the place closed at 5. It was 5:07. Oh well. We walked back down the hill and waded our way through the masses of people back to our hotel to have a rest before dinner. Then that night I took my parents and friends to a place for fondue. Since we were so close to the Swiss border, it was easy to find. When I have had fondue before though, it came with hams and potatoes and bread. This one was just cheese fondue with bread. I told them to act like they were eating grilled cheese for dinner. Everyone came away satisfied. Some ice cream wrapped up our first day in Annecy.

Our second day consisted of a ride on Lake Annecy. It was a little chilly, but the sun did shine on us a bit and we enjoyed our two-hour tour of the lake and the little towns that surround it. We had a picnic in the park which consisted of all the fares we bought at the market that morning. Cheese, bread, strawberries, apples, sausage, wine and smoked salmon. A meal fit for kings. There weren't any picnic benches in the park, which seems like it would be a good investment because there were many groups of people taking up park benches for their lunch spreads. We took another hike up the huge hill after lunch to view the church that was overlooking the city. Our stay in Annecy ended with a dinner at the hotel where we were staying. We all ended up having the special of the day. It might have been one of the best meals I have had in France and the waiter was about as perfect as possible. He's been to school or something. All in all, a great trip to a pretty little town in eastern France.