Sunday, June 06, 2010

Annecy Rambles

Having dropped Susan and the girls off at Avignon (Sooz to begin her live-in homestay French course and Steph and Jenna to fly back to London), the Ramblers pointed Megan northward and choofed off to Annecy. I had never heard of it before, and neither had you, in all probability. Let me tell you though, that there are hundreds of thousands who had! And they were all downtown in the city when we arrived. Saturday night was THE time to hang out. The place was jumping! The crowds were seething! The parking was IMPOSSIBLE! Our apartment is located in the central part of the old town (vieille ville), so skinny, windy streets were in abundance. Visions of multiple bag-hauling relays over huge distances filled our hearts with dread. But wait! Isn't that smart red sports car about to leave that spot a mere 40 metres from our front door? YES! That smart red sports car IS about to leave that spot 40 metres from our front door! Yippee! Another miracle!

Half an hour later we are fully settled into our apartment on the tippy top (ie third) floor. No worries about parking until Monday because Megan is 'sauf' in a 'non payent' (ie free) street park for all of Sunday.

Massive loads of people surged through the streets, alleys, restaurants and bars in Annecy of a Saturday night. It is a resort town. Beautifully situated beside a huge lake, it is a fresh water Byron Bay, but a bit bigger. Our apartment looks out onto a river flowing out of Lake d'Annecy, coursing its way north to the coast (as rivers around here have a habit of doing). People are engaged in all manner of lakey activities: swimming in it, sailing on it, fishing in it, restaurant-on-a-boat eating on it, hang-gliding over it and (as we did on Sunday arvo) riding bikes around it. As well as a swim. 30+ degree temperatures made for a great wind-down after a frightfully long day of driving.

Sunday morning was market day and all the usual suspects were in attendance. And yes, over in a corner amongst the clothing stalls, the peeling fruit knife man and the hat stall was the - you guessed it - the mattress man! I think we are being stalked! We bought the ingredients for Sunday night's omlette (no, NOT from the mattress man, give me a break) and stuff for the rabbit mustard stew I am planning for Monday night. I'll let you know how that turns out ...

Gotta go and attend to more lakey things.

See youse!

Groombles

1 comment:

  1. Hey... we've heard of Annecy because the girls had travelled there last year. However your description is far more informative !!!!

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