Returning from Annecy

Mark and I went to the beautiful lakeside town of Annecy in the French Alps. Gilles' nephew married yesterday and Gilles and Anne went to the wedding and loaned us their car so we could explore the Village of Annecy and the drive around the lake. What a great trip. It appears that French weddings last a long time. The ceremony was to start around 3 pm, it did at 4 pm. Then they had the reception for 300 people at the Chateau of the nephew's wife's father. Later a dinner for 150 people and then dancing. Anne and Gilles let us know they would likely not be home before 2 am. They got home at 3:15 am. Mark and I explored the town with the castle that has been converted to a museum. It was purchased by the town for 10 Francs. They have a natural history section that explains how they clean the lake water that had been badly polluted from industry. It now has the cleanest water in Europe. The lake waters flow through a river and canals through the city. Very romantic. The museum includes landscapes which show how differently artists viewed the alps over time. In the beginning the alps were depicted as dangerous. Over time the Alps were viewed as a friendly back drop to activities of living in the alps. Several examples of alpine furniture to hold clothing and the tables of beds of everyday living. The last section was modern art.

We walked along the shore in Annecy before leaving for Talloire, a very chic beach along the lake. While in Talloire we noticed hundreds for paragliders above us. We climbed the mountain by car then hike to the launching pad for the flyers. Spectacular.