Camping au couer du lac – 16 euros per night inclusive

We came through Annecy 9 years ago when we briefly thought about buying a small hotel/chalet in France and always said that we would come back as it was so beautiful. The journey from Dijon was a long one, but as the weather was about to change and parts of southern France were already suffering the consequences following torrential rain we thought it would be best to not to cross the mountains with poor weather and tackled it head on.

The journey wasn’t that bad, the weather stayed dry most of the way and the roads twisted through the mountains providing us with some beautiful views as well as tired arms 🙂 Unfortunately as the journey took slightly longer than expected we arrived into Annecy at rush hour and with bumper to bumper traffic (the first we have seen since we arrived in France back in March) someone decided to take a closer look at our back bumper and gave us a nudge up the backside. Thankfully the damage looks minimal with just a slight crack to the bumper near the number plate… but not really the welcome we had planned for.

Oddly, as it is such a beautiful place, many of the campsites in Annecy are only open until mid-September we managed to find one which had one more week before it shuts its doors and not surprisingly, it was busy.

We woke up to sunshine and as we were right on the side of the lake, I went for a run and Keith a cycle to take in some of  the stunning scenery. As we got back to the motorhome the skies opened and it pretty much stayed that way until after lunch. The rain didn’t stop us from walking into Annecy and visiting the rather wet market to stock up on fruit and vegetables, but once it cleared up we got a better view of the town itself which is beautiful and we sat and ate lunch looking over the lake…..

The old town is built on canals which feed into the lake and it has lots of windy cobbled streets with boutique type shops and it even has a chateau 🙂

After a heavy night of rain we set off on a cycle ride around the lake on Saturday morning which is 42km and a little hilly in parts 🙂 Part way round we stopped at a small town which was hosting a Red Bull Extreme sports triathlon type competition which appeared to include parascending from the top of the mountain to land on a floating platform in the lake as well as mountain biking and probably several other sports which we didn’t say to see…. It was quite spectacular though.

Anyone looking for an tranquil place to go but with the options of lots of outdoor sports – walking, climbing, cycling, kayaaking, Ski-ing, etc …. Annecy is the place…. I would happily live here 🙂