Notre Aventure Française, 2013: 13th September

To the north east of our village is Haute-Savoie. Haute-Savoie is a department in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy and shares Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe, with Savoie. Its capital is Annecy and that's where we headed today with an overnight bag packed in case we stayed the night
We elected to travel via the "scenic" route of about 150 kms through some of the most beautiful countryside you could imagine. It took us 3.5 hours to do the trip due to narrow, winding, hill climbing roads and frequent stopping to capture the breath taking scenery on the camera.
Once in Annecy we had some lunch, visited the tourist bureau and set out on foot to explore the "old town". Having explored some amazing "old towns" in Italy we thought we had seen them all. But no, Annecy offers something different. Being a town at the northern end of Lac D'Annecy, canals run through the town with houses built right to the edge of them. Window baskets adorn the houses and provide a magnificent spectacle.
Craft shops, cafes, restaurants, parks, porticos, churches and boutique hotels fill the town. This is not tourist season and walking through the promenades was comfortable, without the crush we imagine occurs during the high seasons.
We decided not to stay the night but to return at another time to circuit the lake and give the time that this great place and area deserves.
We returned via the A43 motorway (tolls) but at the time of day with the amount of traffic using it, it may have been quicker returning via the scenic route we took to get there. It took us 2.5 hours to travel the fast way and cost us 14 euros.