Annecy

Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018

We took the train from Lyon to Annecy, a relaxed 2 hour ride. A brief walk to the Hotel Allobroges and then off to dinner. It was a relief to be in a quiet hotel with A/C. This morning we got up to a stunning locale, Annecy is on a 7 mile long lake of very clear water. There is a bike path that circles the lake, 40km, so after doing as much work on the hotel’s buffet breakfast we were off to rent bicycles. It was a beautiful ride with a few hills in the first half and then mostly flat. Lots and lots of paragliders above us the whole time. We attempted to stop for lunch, and had a typically French experience. It was about 1:20pm, the restaurant said they were “complet” meaning full even though they were way less than half full. Then they said they were done serving food, even though others were still being served and there was a full staff on duty. They also had a beach that no one was using because they were charging 15 euros to cross the sand. This is the unique French idea of customer service which some what parallels what Basel Fawlty believed, eg. Everything would run better if it weren’t for the customers. Anyway, we ended up pulling over on a public beach and having a nice swim in cool waters while watching paragliders across the lake. If you haven’t been to Annecy, I would highly recommend it, although I can guess that in season it is way too crowded. September is a great time to visit.