Despite a little fan going all night, and ear plugs now my new sleeping aide to minimize the fan noise – it was very stuffy and warm in the little apartment, so we both woke several times – otherwise the bed was ok. The tiny apartment is bordering on claustrophobic and certainly the photos on air b+b are a bit misleading as I can see now that they are taken with a super wide angle lens with distortion removed There is barely room on my side of the bed to shuffle out, I certainly cant get out in a normal fashion. The bathroom whilst it has a bath is a one person only booth, and even alone in there you can only turn on the spot inbetween the toilet, sink, and bath. It was very cheap as far as Annecy goes and we can do a modest self cater which helps even the cost out for our more comfortable nights in other places. Today we counted 54 steps up the 3 levels, and it was interesting to note that the higher you get in these old buildings, the narrower the stairwell, and shorter the steps become!
I cooked up the pre made galette adding an egg and some nice cured jamon and then we headed out for a nice relaxing day to explore the old town, see the much photographed old palace in the river, and take a swim in the gorgeous clear aqua and blue lake. Before heading out we spent about an hour trying to sort out our Golden Pass and Gotthard Express scenic tickets – it was incredibly difficult and frustrating and felt like a waste of time – but we think we have got it sorted. You have to reserve and pay for the reservation, but this is not your ticket – you pay for your ticket at a station on the day or closer to the day. There are some options for online ticket purchase but they are not clear and we are opting for the pick up. The key tip here is you need to reserve the tickets or you could well miss out.
The streets around Annecy are pretty and similar to some areas of Paris and when you get to the areas where the man made canals are in old town it reminds me a bit of Strasbourg or Amsterdam (not the buildings for the later – just the tall wall to wall apartment – older style). Whilst they call it the Venice of the Alpes, I don’t think it is like Venice at all but it seems if you have canals over in Europe you can call yourself a local Venice. The buildings are usually 3 stories high plus a loft with gables and tiled roofs. Shutters with peeling paint are on most, and the paint colours are varied but understated. I think the similar era buildings in Nice are more attractive in gelato tones with a prevalence of yellow. They do flowers very well here – I think it is the Swiss influence not too far away – with lovely little public gardens in the squares (mixed with vegetables) and bright and tasteful flower boxes line the canals. There are a lot of tourists around, and quite a few homeless both the mentally ill and perhaps addict type. Once again I feel compassion but when looking at them they are not starving, often are smoking, have fat dogs, and/or have a can or bottle in hand or not far away.
We enjoyed our wander through the streets towards the palace and then were disappointed to see it was covered in scaffolding and protective cloth netting for restoration work. Grrr, you think they would carry that out in low or shoulder season, not peak season? Then Vernon reminded me that this is France! I took a photo anyway and in my mind imagined the shot I could have had. The weather was very kind to us today – a lovely 30 degrees for our lake activity. The walk from the port – town centre to the swimming area is about 1.5 to 2km and whilst it was warm it was very enjoyable watching fish, baby birds and their mothers going about their day in the see-through water. It was enlivening and restoring to see such a clear lake – and one of that colour and swimming temperature after the dryer inland area of Provence. The glimpse of alps in the distance and the high hills dotted with villages that frame the lake make for an idyllic spot. This is what Annecy is all about and she loves to show it off. We figured that it didn’t get much better than swimming, drying off on the grassy edge, and swimming the Manatee again. Far better than the bus loads of tourists we saw coming in, getting loaded onto a boat for a little trip and then hitting the expensive eateries in the more than balmy 30 degrees.
After a good hour and a half we headed back home via the supermarket to have a late lunch – early dinner self catered. We figure that we will take advantage of this ability to picnic and cook simply and pay for dining in Chamonix when we do not have these facilities. A lot of the menu we saw was for fondue, local meats, cheeses, salads, and the usual steak and chips type with veal added for good measure. Cold cuts, cheeses and salads I can do very well from the supermarket and we also called into a tiny butchers shop and got a nice fat, free range, freshly cut for me scotch fillet of pork – it was very delicious. Vern got a Flanders 3 month aged beer – which he assures me was nice and I worked on the bottle of local white the host left for us as a welcome gift.
We passed one shop I would have loved to buy from, but we are not staying here long enough to do a bigger shop was a fruit and vege shop with those lovely little potatoes Vern had in Rousillon, plus tiny super fragrant strawberries, red and golden currants, raspberries and other stone fruits and melons. I did get a melon at the supermarket last night that came from Spain like a small rockmelon and it was so fragrant and delicious – only 1.50 euro. Different courgettes, the plump spring onions and other Mediterranean veges also look very attractive to us.
I also spent too much time trying to sort and load a few photos for blogs before hitting the sack for another warm night. Vern was given the job of working on the iPhone to sort how we will get to Chamonix tomorrow – normally I have done all booking and we do the final purchase together. This leg we left open as we were unsure of weather at both Annecy and Chamonix and wanted to leave it till we were here. There are two options and as Vern narrowed down, the bus is lots cheaper and faster – just not as frequent; 20 euros vs. 48 euros. We opted for the bus as the weather unfortunately looks bad for Chamonix. This is our second attempt at visiting, we dropped it off the itinerary in 2013 due to bad weather and it looks more of the same deal this time. Never mind, we have paid for the accommodation and can always use the rest time.
Travels with Valrock 