Goodbye Lausanne and Switzerland and hello Annecy, France. The Ibis hotel email lets us know we can do an easy check out - leave the key in the room and that’s it. Hop the #3 bus to the train station and to the "billet" machine. Two tickets back to Geneva - we pick the express train. Wait eight minutes on the landing at track five and we are off. We want to talk to the TI in Geneva Gare because we know there is a train that will get us to Annecy but it leaves from a different station and later in the day. Annecy is only an hour from Geneva, but your best option is to take a bus, but we need to make sure we aren’t missing something. The TI confirms the bus is the best way to get there.
The TI guy tells us to go go straight out from the train station 300 meters and find the bus depot. With trust we walk through the city streets. No signs of the bus depot. Then, just when we are questioning our path, it appears.
Up to the ticket desk. Two to Annecy please. She points at the white bus. It leaves at 11:50. We store our bags below and after making 5 or 6 quick stops in smaller towns along the way, we arrive in Annecy around 1:40. Our French SIM card let us down even though we topped off with an extra 10 euros before we left - the text message says it has expired.
Okay, we can do it the old fashioned way - paper maps. Piece of cake - this town is easy to figure out. We find Rue Royal and walk until we find #9. Google maps has not made us dumber after all.
We have an apartment type hotel with a small kitchen so we must find a grocery store - later. Dave is pacing like a caged tiger and shows his teeth and even growls. He must be let out. The weather is unreal and the translucent lake right down the street calls his name.
One of the town’s attractions is its bike trails around the lake (40km full circle). It has outdoor cafes scattered along the trail. Our digital guide gives the exact location where to rent bikes. We find it, rent bikes, turn right and are riding along a beautiful bike trail with mountain and water views. We are thinking about food because it is 3:00pm and the only thing we have eaten today is half a ham and cheese sandwich back in Lausanne's train station - we used up most of our Swiss Francs in the process - yeah!
We pull the bikes over at a little place called L'Oasis. From the bike path it looks okay and we see people exiting. So we lock up the bikes and descend the stairs to see nice red tables right on the lake. Our timing is off, again. This happens to us a lot. Most restaurants stop cooking in the afternoon. If you can wait until 19:00 when dinner begins, the menu comes alive. Oh well, we need something, we can choose from a ham sandwich on a baget or a ham sandwich on some other type of bread. We seriously dislike the word ham now. Ok, two please and two pression (tap) beers. The views are awesome so another two beers are in order.
Now to the part about swimming. We ride and ride and see people swimming but when we stop there are signs showing "no swimming." Being tourists we don't understand the “rules”. We see beach areas full of people but are looking for a place with lower attendance and remember several places that looked good on our way out so we ride back and arrive to the place we saw earlier to see the same signs "no swimming." We come to the conclusion they are a recommendation not the law. The water is as nice as it looks. It is rocky with no sand but who cares. We swim and relax on the bank.
Time is ticking, the bike shop closes at 19:00 so we head back. When we return we talk at length to the woman renting bikes. She is French and has a lot of questions about America and what we think about Donald Trump. We learn that she thinks most French people "frown too much." She wants to move to Maui and asks what we know about working in the states. Unfortunately we don't know much about getting a green card. We walk away but return to ask about groceries. She shows us on the map but we must hurry because they close in 20 minutes. We race over, "VIK" (inside joke) and find the place but it is a clothes store. It must be here. Dave asks a woman who is talking on her phone - we are desperate, time is running out. She says it is upstairs. We run in, go up the stairs and sure enough, we see groceries. We plan for an American breakfast in the morning that consists of eggs, potatoes, cheese and sausages. We quickly choose our dinner - ramen noodles, potato chips, wine and beer and the breakfast items. The store is close to our hotel so we will make more enlightened choices tomorrow.
One of the whimsical canals of Annecy. Dubbed the ‘Venice of the Alps,’ the winding cobblestone streets lined by pastel houses and bright flower boxes will make you fall in love with this small French town. They have amazing gelato shops letting you know you are close to Italy.
The bike path that winds around the lake.
What a view.
That looks like fun.