We’re in the little town of Annecy, France, tucked in near the base of the French Alps. We’re just south of Geneva, Switzerland, and just north of some famous Alpine ski resorts like Chamonix and Albertville. No skiing for us, though. We’re just in this neck of the woods to wander around and gawk at the beautiful surroundings like a couple of wide-eyed tourists.
Today is market day in Annecy. When we got into town, many of the vendors were starting to pack it up for the day, but there were still quite a few trying to make another sale or two. We came across some very interesting-looking shops as we made our way from the train station to the center of town, but so far, things around here looked like a lot of pretty little French villages or small towns.
Then we went around a corner and things got more interesting. There were canals running between buildings as if we had wandered into the Venice of the Alps. We entered a pedestrian-only zone, and all of a sudden it was clear that this wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill beautiful little French village.
There’s a lake here, and as we got closer to the lake, waterways from the lake come into the town in the form of canals. As we walked around, we crossed little foot-bridges going over each canal. Flower boxes full of flowers adorned windows overlooking the canals. Seemed like everyone was just moseying around like us, just looking at how beautiful this place is.
The Palais de l’Isle
We reached a point where we could see the lake, so we headed in that direction. That’s when we came to a place where there’s an old stone building that forms an island in between two banks of a wide canal. We’ve seen this building in lots of travel books and calendars. It’s supposed to be one of the most photographed buildings in Europe.
The building is called the “Palais de l’Isle”, (Island Palace), although it’s pretty small as far as palaces go. It has a very medieval look, maybe because it was built way back in 1132. Given the fact that it’s still here, I’d say whoever built it did a pretty good job, eh? It was originally home to the Lord of Annecy, but it’s been used for lots of things over the years. In the Middle Ages it was the local hoosegow, which may have been a pretty good deterrent to anyone thinking about being up to no good. Today it’s a museum.
Just past the Palais de l’Isle, the canal widens and empties into Lake Annecy. It’s a gorgeous lake. It’s supposed to be the cleanest lake in Europe. Fron where we’re standing, it looked like it just might be. We walked out along the bank on a paved walkway. There were a couple of swans swimming along nearby. Very peaceful and idyllic. No stress here, that’s for sure.
We could see across to the other side, where it looked like a lot of people had villas, or maybe just vacation homes. Farther away were the Alps. The whole scene was really gorgeous. Wow.
Sitting there in such a beautiful spot, taking it all in… little birds a-chirping… swans a-swimming… at peace with the world… It had the same effect on each of us. I looked at my beautiful and demure Better Half. She looked back at me. Then we both said in unison, “I’m hungry! What’s for lunch?” Honh honh!
To be continued…
