Jour 3 Annecy: Lac D'Annecy

June 24, 2014

Jour 3 Annecy: Lac D'Annecy

If I could force you to listen to a soundtrack as you read this next post, it would be some cheesy French accordion music (like the stuff I threw into my video blog) and some classy Edith Piaf. We had a picnic of bread, cheese, and ham next to a lake with a view of the Alps, swans came swimming up to us, and there were baby ducks everywhere. Is it just me? Don't you think that scenario deserves a super Frenchie soundtrack?

So in my last blog post, I left you guys as we were heading into the park. There are several lovely grassy areas surrounding the lake. We saw girls sunbathing, kids playing frisbee, dogs taking a dip, and like us, there were people picnicking. The front desk at our hotel pointed out a spot that he said had lovely views so we headed in that direction (Parc Charles Bosson) to enjoy our picnic lunch.

We entered the park from the area just to the right of Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) and took a slightly winding loop through a lovely grassy area and some trees. We walked over a canal (via a cute little bridge) and emerged into an open area where there was grass on one side and the beautiful lake on the other.

I can't think of an animal more appropriate for this setting than these cutie pie swans. Swan good lookin' pair of birds, ain't it?

I was obviously enamored. I wish I could've forced two of them to form a heart with their bendy necks but I'm sure I would've gotten honked at and bitten.

After we got over our bird obsession, we were going gaga over the mountains. I mean, mountains, schmountains, right? Wrong! These are the hills that Maria was singing about; not from this angle or even this country, but it's the same mountain range, nonetheless.

I mean, would you take a look? You can even see a bit of snow.

I took a brief interlude from my mountain lovin' freakout to snap this photo. Ignore the 'no swimming' sign and take a look at that 'leash your dog' sign! How cute is that? Instead of demanding citizens and visitors to keep their dogs on a leash, this sign has a dog with a speech bubble telling its owner that "here, I have to be leashed!" If I ever became mayor of a town, my first task would be to make all of the signage in my town much cuter. I think we'd all be happier people.

And because we were visiting in springtime, we got to see some baby animals! We actually saw two familes of mama and baby ducks. We could tell them apart because this family had six chicks and the other one had eleven.

It was a gorgeously sunny day so by the time we'd walked for 10 or 15 minutes, we were getting toasty hot. So, for lunch, we settled down on a park bench right under this shady tree.

We poured ourselves a little glass of bubbly and toasted to a lovely three days (so far). This was actually a fermented sparkling pear cider that we picked up in Lyon and not champagne. Baby sister and I don't really like champagne so that worked out just fine.

Cheers!

After our toast, we made ourselves a lovely little lunch with the bread, jambon de pays, and 18-month aged gruyere that we picked up at the market just an hour earlier. It was freaking delicious. That cheese was on point. It was nice and salty, kind of nutty, and it was aged in a delicious way and not a funky "accustomed to" taste. The stretchy ham was good 'n stretchy and hammy. The bread was, of course, crusty and perfect.

Despite the leashed dog signs, this guy was hanging out on his own. Check out that smile!

Here's that second family I was telling you about. The chicks were so cute. At one point, the two familes were kind of close to each other and a few of the chicks got confused about where they belonged and they zoomed away from the wrong mama to the right one. They were pretty fast swimmers.