Annecy

After a day off in Cremieu on Tuesday, on Wednesday we headed into the mountains to the town of Annecy, known as the "Venice of the Alps". It's a fairly well known place, and absolutely lives up to its reputation as one of the most stunning towns we've visited.

The weather was a little changeable with a few showers but luckily the sun came out for our walk along the lakeside.

The old town is also very famous, as the river Thiou comes pouring from the lake through the centre of the town. The water level is very high at the moment and the noise of the river pouring under the bridges is impressive!

The Palais de l'Isle is a 12th-century castle on an island in the river which served as a prison for most of its existence, although it now contains a local history museum.

The banks of the river and the surrounding streets and laneways are filled with restaurants and souvenir shops... of course being November at least half of them are closed! It took us a while to find somewhere to eat as the French are very keen on full 3-course meals twice a day, but we eventually found somewhere serving an Alpine delicacy, Flammkuche. It's kind of like a pizza but on very very thin bread, with white sauce, onions and bacon and a metric ton of cheese. Unfortunately we were so hungry I don't have a picture!