Annecy

A brief three and a half weeks ago (sorry for the delay! I have no excuses to offer aside from my usual delinquency), I went with my fellow Feurs purgatory-suffering friend Laura to Annecy, a town famous for its once filthy but now pristine lake.

Clocking in at a three-hour train ride, Annecy's on the far end of my day-trippable range, but a combination of a sunny day and knowing I probably wouldn't bother making a longer trip of it convinced me to go. Laura managed to escape from her well-meaning but overbearing host family in Feurs, so we met up in Sainté ever so early in the morning and made it into Annecy around 11.

The first order of business -- even before seeking out the lake -- was finding something to eat. We wound up at a dine-in only crepe stand that had only two stools at the counter, which was somewhat odd but worked out perfectly for us. The guy who made our crepes was nice and gave us some advice about what to see in town, though he was thoroughly appalled (even seemed a little bit personally offended) that we were only staying in his lovely town for the day.

After picking his brain and enduring harsh judgement of our travel plans, it was time to see the sights. We had picked up some walking tour maps in the tourist office that we half-assedly followed, but Annecy is small enough that just wandering around will still ensure that you see everything.

Despite the sunny, warm weather, the lake was heavily shrouded in fog. That definitely put a damper on my excitement for the town, but we still had a lovely walk around town and managed to take some nice pictures:

Feeling a bit of a late afternoon sweet tooth, Laura ordered a meringue in a bakery that was almost as big as our heads. Unfortunately she forbid me to take pictures of her eating it, for it was truly a majestic sight to see (this picture of me with the chocolate meringue will have to suffice).

Known more for winter/summer sports than for intellectual pursuits, Annecy boasts only one museum worth visiting (according to my Lonely Planet guide), the Musée Château d'Annecy. We decided to check it out. This museum was the most random collection of things I have ever seen; no coherent theme seemed to link the items, which ranged from coins to an absurd amount of stuffed North American animals to huge empty rooms with tiny modern art installments. This piece took the cake, however:

Major props to anyone who can even attempt to explain what it means.

Only after a thorough tour of Annecy's quaint streets did we head over to the lake in hopes that the afternoon sun would burn off some of the fog. It was certainly clearer than earlier, and I was very much impressed by just how clean the lake was; it almost could pass for a swimming pool. Apparently back in the '60s the lake was a filthy receptacle of all the sewage in the region, but after a massive clean-up effort it's now said to be the cleanest lake in Europe.