Annecy; Friday, 03 May, 2024

When I’d originally booked the trip I hadn’t really looked at the onward connection from Geneva any more than confirming there was a relatively regular train service (hourly with one every other hour being direct and the other requiring a change of trains in Annemasse just over the border in France), so it had been a bit of a compromise to stay at a hotel out at the airport, but prices for the centre of Geneva were just ridiculous. In the end it turned out to be an excellent mistake as there is bus once every three hours direct from Geneva Airport bus station to the centre of Annecy, and it takes a good 30 minutes less time than the train, so after a late lie-in and breakfast I checked out of the hotel and caught the bus (now I’d figured out where they went to and from) back to the airport to catch the 11am bus onto Annecy.

The bus journey was very smooth – as to be expected by any operator who serves Switzerland – albeit the bus taking a very convoluted route through suburban Geneva and taking a good 30 minutes to finally reach the French border and from there only about another 50 minutes to complete the journey down to Annecy. Off the bus in the city centre, I headed down to my hotel for the next few nights knowing it was probably too early to check in, which it turned out it was, so I left my luggage with the hotel and headed on into town to explore.

Annecy sits at the Northern end of Lac d’Annecy at the point where the lake becomes Le Thiou river which runs the short distance through the city to join the River Fier on the outskirts of town. This gives the city two superlatives, the cleanest lake in France and the shortest river – it’s also the third larges lake in France if you ignore the massive chunk of Lake Geneva that’s also in France. I spent quite a bit of time wandering along the banks of the Thiou heading upstream through the narrow lanes of the old town to where it starts on the edge of Lake Annecy.

My wandering was well timed as I made it to the quayside from where the lake tour boats depart from only about 30 minutes before the next departure, so I was able to purchase a ticket and be in the first group of people boarding as a group had only just started to form a queue ahead of me.

The tour that I’d booked on did a full circuit round the whole of the lake. At about 14Km long and only 3Km wide at its greatest extents its possible for the boat to gently sail around the lake in about 90 minutes, taking in the Château’s, ruins, castle, vineyards and more impressively the mountains the surround the lake. There is a lot of information for a tour guide to give about the lake and its surroundings, so consequently the entire tour was conducted in French – so I didn’t understand most of it, but the rudimentary bits of French for directions that I can still remember – Gauche and Droit – at least meant I was looking in the right direction to see what was being spoken about.

Back in town I had a bit more of a wander through town before heading up the steep slope from the old town to the Château d’Annecy located on the highest point of the old town – but no longer one of the highest buildings as the city has expanded further up the hill in the 20th century onwards.

From the castle I headed back down into the old town and across to the Cathedral to have a look around there, before finally – just after 5pm – getting a text from the hotel to confirm that my room was ready so after looking round the Cathedral I headed back over to the hotel to check-in and freshen up.

A little later I headed back out into town and went for a little wander to find somewhere to eat, a task made more difficult by most places offering fondue or raclette as their main courses for a minimum of two people – eventually I found a small restaurant that did have other options for a solo traveller and had a decent dinner. After dinner I went for a bit more of a wander, first heading down to the lakes edge where it was possible to make out much more of the scenery as most of the earlier cloud had lifted.

I then wandered back into the centre of town via the canal, stopping off to pick up an ice cream from one of the multitudes of ice cream shops located in the centre of town before wandering back to the hotel via the castle.