Day two in Annecy, France. We post one day's blog before we leave. By noon we are out into the perfect weather - 85° and not a cloud in the sky. Our plan is to do some quick sight seeing, get some food and drinks for a picnic and rent a two person kayak to paddle around the lake.
On our way we stop in many places for pictures. It's a picturesque kind of place. We start at an outside fountain in front of a church then of course we are drawn into the church. Wow, it’s more beautiful than we expect - our cameras click away. We continue our stroll zig-zagging through the narrow lanes of the old town where we stumble across a gelato shop - no arm twisting needed here. White chocolate is our pick - and man is it good. Revived, we have more strength to continue on and are drawn into another store - local art - just a quick look. We wind our way to the bike store and ask about renting a kayak. They inform us that they only rent them on the other side of the lake - from here about a 15-20 minute walk - no problem.
On our way we reach the Pont des Amours bridge that crosses the Canal du Vasse. Wait! All of our sight-seeing and picture taking has distracted us from our picnic plans. We walk a bit further along the lake and agree that it is highly unlikely we will find a place to buy our supplies if we proceed. The supermarket is only a small backtrack if we change course now so we do. At the supermarket we get cookies, nuts, pop corn, water and wine - one from each of the 5 food groups - right? Back over the bridge to continue the walk along the lake - the sun is shining, it’s hot and there are no shady spots for quite a while. We notice paddle boats for rent. We continue walking. We pass several rental places and then a lightbulb goes off. In a kayak we cannot easily bring our snacks but with a paddle boat there is plenty of space. There are lawn chairs for driver seats and a flat back deck for sun bathing. We can have our picnic on the lake. Within minutes we are on board and peddling Fred Flintstone style towards deeper water. Time for a dip! We jump off the boat into the clear water and it is more than refreshing than we could have imagined. We look at each other - wow - we are really here in this place - pinch me. The setting is like a postcard in every direction you look. We stay on the lake for 2 1/2 hours paddling, lounging, eating and swimming. We finish two bottles of wine and eat most of our snacks. We both say - lets do this again tomorrow. It is hard to imagine a better way to spend the day. We found our new happy place.
Back at the dock we pay the tariff (28 euros) and walk back to town. We have a kitchen now so back to the supermarket for pork chops, pea pods, salt and pepper and more bottled water. We have potatoes leftover from this morning and Monique cooks us a meal that we both have been craving - something that is not a ham sandwich.
Back to the computer, with wine in our glass, to update and post our blog. We know now that we really need to do the blog for us, but appreciate anyone who takes the time to read what we post. We are having amazing experiences that come at us fast so we need to document them so we never forget. We feel lucky and know we made the right life choice for us. You only live once and the experiences we are having are worth every penny.
Rue Royale, Annecy - just outside our hotel apartment.
The colorful flower boxes are the perfect accessory to dress up this beautiful canal.
Unplanned gelato stop - good decision.
The Canal du Vasse lined with little boats snuggled up next to each other - Pont des Amours bridge and Lake Annecy in the background.
This paddle boat is so cool - I want one maybe just a little bit bigger.
The sail boat race was a bit slow - not much wind on the lake today - great for us though.