Annecy is located about 100 minutes drive from where we live. We knew about the town and had wanted to visit it for the last 2 years. But it was only until June last year when we spent a weekend there. Yeah, this post has been in the draft folder for months.
Annecy is the capital of the province (department) of Haute-Savoie. It lies on the northern tip of Lac d’Annecy and is 35 kilometres south of Geneva.
The Palais de l’Isle, also called the “old prison”, was built from the 12th century. It is the symbol of the town and is among the most photographed monuments in all of France, according to Wikipedia.
With these pictures, we are helping it keep that status.
Annecy has hosted the Annecy International Animated Film Festival since 1960, an event we just missed by only a few weeks. We have to remember to attend this festival next year.
We arrived around noon on Saturday when the town’s market was in full swing.
The town has many waterways criss-crossing it – some said that it is the Venice of the Alps. We think there is a huge difference between the two – Annecy’s canals are so much cleaner than that muck in Venice – there is no comparison.
No gondola though.
Beautiful at night.
The town is on the shore of Lake Annecy, the second largest lake in France (if Lake Leman is excluded) and reputedly the cleanest lake in Europe.
There are a lot of public spaces around the lake front – sightseeing ships, peddle-boats, speedboats … All forms of enjoyment of the lake are catered for.
In my opinion (Chris’s), Annecy is the most pleasant city that is integrated with a system of waterways. This is based on our recent visits (see earlier posts) to several cities with canals – Milano- Il Naviglio Grande (one canal), Colmar (small network of canals) and Amsterdam (a much bigger system with a harbor).
Annecy is full of restaurants – next post!