Annecy and Chamonix

Lac Annecy

By the Canal in Annecy

Lunch in the Park

On Tuesday we took a daytrip to Annecy, about half hour drive away.  Set on Lake Annecy, again surrounded by mountains and villages, the town of Annecy for us tops everything we’ve seen so far!  With winding cobbled streets and alley ways and characterful buildings dating back hundreds of years, it is ‘the Venice of the Houte-Savoie’ with canals streaming through it.  The water is crystal clear though, unlike the real Venice (and no pigeons!).  It is just stunning!  On the lake you can hire pedal boats, motor boats with deck chairs and a mini water slide atop, or just camp under an umbrella and enjoy a swim.  You can ride a gondola through the canals, or buy a ticket and relax on the ferry for an hour, taking a circuit of the lake, which is what we did.  For lunch we bought a baguette and some fresh strawberries from the market and found a mini enchanted forest with a stream and had a picnic (we’ve given up on eating out after we tried on Monday in La Clusaz and had death stares from an old french couple because of Noah’s reluctance to sit still and eat his pizza, and Amelia spitting hers out because she didn’t like the cheese!) It’s indescribably beautiful.  And I don’t think even the photos can capture it.  It’s a place you just have to see!

Another canal

Old prision

Mt Blanc, Chamonix

Thursday we decided to visit Chamonix for the day, one of the top ski holiday destinations.  It was a steep climb and a steep descent to get over a mountain to reach the valley to take us there.  We know of Amelia’s car sickness, and are prepared for it with Kwells and sick bags.  Not so with Noah, who vomited twice!  So once we arrived in Chamonix our first mission was to buy Noah some new clothes, as he reeked!  But he’d fallen asleep, and not wanting to wake him as it would just throw the whole plan for the day off, we pounded yet more pavements looking for Le Office De Tourisme and something for lunch, and a shop to buy clothes to change him into once he’d woken up.  It took the best part of the afternoon.  We found nothing but The United Colours of Benneton which luckily had a sale on.  So little Noah is now running about in designer clothing, all because he threw up!  And the funny thing was, in the shop, Amelia asked if she could get new clothes if she got sick?  So we bought her a tinkerbell t-shirt just so she didn’t miss out!  Unfortunately our day in Chamonix was overshadowed by vomit!  But also the magnificent mountains all around, and Mount Blanc which peaks at the height of about 4850m (which Maciek tells me is quite impressive!)  It’s actually very intimidating standing in the village with that towering over you.  The gondola’s and trains going up were very expensive (nearly E100 for the family) and we weren’t sure about the kids and the altitude (you can get a gondola up to 3770m!), so we gave it a miss.  Maciek definitely wants to come back when the kids are older to sample the heights.  And I’d like to come back to sample some fondue without the stench of sick!