It's mid afternoon of our first day in Annecy. We finished our hike to Cascade d'Angon and have now checked into our hotel. Its time to explore the city and old town.
Well, mostly just the old town.
The city of Annecy is located in the French province of Savoie, a southwestern region of the country near the borders of Switzerland and Italy.
A short drive to the east takes you to Lyon France and even closer to the north is Geneva Switzerland. If you are into skiing in the winter than Chamonix is only an hour drive to the western edge of France.
The town itself is surrounded by low mountains and is situated on the edge of a large blue water lake where people can be seen paddle boarding, kayaking or just generally laying on the beach to catch some rays. Do people still use that phrase "catch some rays?"
Annecy is sometimes referred to as the "Venice of the Alps," since its old town is close to the water and has several canals running through it. Personally, I don't think that the nickname is at all justified but all countries and regions seem to have their own version of Venice, so I guess it makes sense that Savoie has one too.
That's not to say that the canals aren't lovely though. They are all lined with a continuous array of restaurants, bars and cafes. There you can sit and have a drink or a bite to eat while listening to the gentle trickle of water flowing through the city just a few feet away.
The setting is really quite splendid.
Interestingly, the canal is actually a 3.6km long river called the Thiou, and it is considered to be one of the cleanest rivers in Europe.
Close to the mouth of the river is a famous historical landmark of the city that goes by the name Palais d'Isle.
Historically the monument served as the towns courthouse and prison. Now it is home to a local history museum.
People can pretty much be seen at all hours of the day stopping here on the bridge to take photos. There was often a man playing live music here on most nights as well.
Annecy is a relatively small city with only about 50 thousand residents. In 2017 though, the population expanded to around 130 thousand people after several smaller communes amalgamated to become one large township.
Despite its small size, the old town is quite large. It has a castle on the hill that you can tour around for around 5 euros as well as several churches.
There are also quite a few passages and meandering streets to explore and get lost in. Okay, maybe not lost.
We used Annecy as a home base for our trip and stayed there for three nights in total. We explored the town on day one after our hike and ate dinner there each night after branching out to other cities in the area.
Annecy served as a great base location for the trip and three nights seemed like a good amount of time. We didn't get bored with it, nor did we feel rushed to take it all in.
Savoie is known for a few local specialties, including a cheesy potato dish called tartiflette, which my wife enjoyed on one of the nights. It is also known for its chacuterie, alpine cheese and fondue and of course its fresh fish from the lake.
We enjoyed all of our meals in town.
Ice cream is also very big in Annecy. I have never seen so many ice cream shops in one small area before, and each of them had their own unique marketing gimmick that allowed them to compete with their rivals. For instance, one shop had over 30 flavors. Another had a happy hour between 3-5pm where you could get a second scoop of ice cream or the price of one. Most places also had a deal where you could get an assortment of 9 small scoops of ice cream (or more) served in a bowl - just in case you couldn't decide on one or two flavors.
Our favorite spot that we kept going back to was called Glacier des Alpes. The ice cream was excellent and they gave out one additional small scoop with every purchase as a sort of a bonus. It was the perfect way to try that extra flavor that you weren't quite sure about but really wanted to sample. I typically chose a small scoop of coconut ice cream to go with my chocolate and nut flavor (chestnut, hazelnut, or pistachio). My wife chose the lavender honey flavor which was surprisingly good.
While exploring town you can walk through an old clock tower and city gate to come to a small square lined with restaurants. A little further on are some shops selling souvenirs, clothing and local delicacies.
A little further still on brings you to another ancient gate that exits the old town.
From there the historic feeling of old gradually fades away into the modern, until eventually you find yourself in a newly constructed city.
That’s it for the town of Annecy. The next post will be about our bike ride around the Lake. Thanks for Reading
If you are interested in reading more about our trip I will be posting about it over the next few days. For the previous post click the link below.