Hey, we made it to Annecy! The bus we took, which was somehow affiliated with the company that runs the trains in France, dropped us off at the Annecy train station. Annecy is a small town with a population of about 50,000.
It was an easy walk from the train station to the main part of town. It was a market day in Annecy, but by the time we had arrived, most of the vendors were already packing up and hauling things away in miniature trucks and vans.
A curvy main road led into town from the train station. It was jam-packed with vendors who were either still open for business or packing things up. Walking from the station into the town, Annecy looked nice. It reminded me of a little Swiss village – not that I’ve ever been to a little Swiss village – but I bet you’d think the same thing if you were here.
So far, though, Annecy wasn’t anything spectacular. The most interesting thing so far was the market activity. It’s always fun to be in a town in France on a market day, even if we were a little late for most of the action.
One of the vendors who hadn’t closed up shop specialized in home-made nougat. I had read that nougat is popular in this area. The only nougat we’d ever seen are those little white pieces that come in the shape of a shoebox, and are about the size of a piece of See’s candy.
Not here, though. Nougat here comes in gigantic hunks the size of a layer cake. We didn’t even know what it was, because we had never seen nougat in huge blocks. If it hadn’t been for the sign that said “Nougat,” we’d still probably not have known what it was. (Fortunately for us, the word for “nougat” in french is also “nougat”).
If you want a piece of nougat, you just point at the kind you want, and the guy will slice you off a hunk. The nougat we have at home is nothing like this.
There were quite a few cheese vendors, too. They sell their cheese the same way the nougat vendors sell nougat. It’s a great way to buy cheese – just point at what you want and have the guy or the lady slice off a hunk. I knew those cows we’d been seeing on the way here had been busy.
As we worked our way further into the central part of town, we found a lot of interesting shops in addition to the stalls there just for market day. My favorite was one that sold mainly meats and cheeses, but they also sold wine, beer, sandwiches, produce, baskets, etc. Come to think of it, they sold everything one would want for a picnic.
Inside, cured meats of all kinds hung everywhere. The ones that were packaged were ready to sell. The ones just hanging there “raw” were still curing. They are big into cured meats here. I guess this is really charcuterie country. Well, we are very close to Italy, as well as Switzerland. I like this part of the world!
We hadn’t even made it in to the central part of town, but we were already starting to like this place. And looking at all these delectable delights was making us hungry. But before we could think about lunch, we still needed to go see the main part of town — the area we always see on calendars and travel books.
To be continued…
