A day at the lake in the summer. It’s not something I think I’ve ever done. But when you put the lake in the Alps, it’s more appealing.
We came to Lake Annecy for tonight’s big fireworks show. We decided to make an entire weekend of it because it seemed relaxing. And for our anniversary. Not exactly the romantic getaway I’d always imagined for our tenth, given that Kaitlyn was along, but that’s ok. And it’s the only vacation slated for this month. We couldn’t let a month go by without going somewhere! Annecy is only about an hour and a half from us (about 30 minutes from Mont Blanc), but we drove up last night. I’m so bad at getting up and getting going in the mornings, Bill figures we have a fighting chance of doing stuff if I start my day at our destination.
After breakfast, the plan was to rent bikes to ride around the lake (which I think sounds wonderfully scenic) and then go swimming. I figured we’d get the getting dirty part of being at the lake out of the way today, when we still have a hotel room and shower available for clean up.
Earlier this week I went online to find a bike rental place. There were at least half a dozen. So I figured they’d be all around the lake, easy to find… no need to make note of addresses. Lesson learned: write down addresses even if you think you won’t need them. We started by going to one of the rental places mentioned in my Rick Steves tour book. They had plenty of bikes and bike trailers for kids, but no tandem for a child that hooks onto the back of an adult bike. We thought that was what we wanted for Kaitlyn, so we figured we’d find another shop. There have to be plenty of them. I’d picked up a flier at the hotel for a shop we headed toward. It didn’t look super close on the map, but usually those tourist maps make everything look a little farther away than it is. Usually. Of course, not this time. We walked something just shy of forever way the heck around the lake until we found the place. (Oh, we passed another one on the way. I’m still not sure why we kept on going past that one) They didn’t have the hook-on bike either. But by then Kaitlyn was pooped from all the walking and all she wanted to do was to sit in the trailer. So that is what we rented. And where did the bike path around the lake go? Right past the first place we passed like an hour earlier.
The bike ride was scenic, although it didn’t go exactly along the bank of the lake like I’d expected. It did for a while then went a bit inland. Still, I enjoyed it. It reminded me that bike riding is an activity I actually enjoy and that I should figure out how to stuff my bike into my car and go to where it is flat in Grenoble to ride around on the paths along the river. I’m not biking on this mountain. Although after biking in Annecy, I can say I have biked in the Alps! We went for about an hour… or what would have taken an hour if we hadn’t stopped at some place with blow-up bouncy things for kids to jump on. After eating lunch at a little lake-side cafe, we got back on the path to return the bikes. Kaitlyn fell asleep in the trailer. Dozens of people we passed pointed and stared at her; it was starting to really annoy me until I realized they were amused at her napping.
We dropped off the bikes then had to find a public bathroom clean enough to use as a changing room to get into our swimsuits for the beach. It took a couple of tries and was still a rather frustrating experience.
The beach was pretty packed with people. Vendors were set up along the sidewalk with everything you’d need for the beach: sandwiches, drinks, beer, cotton candy. A guy in a sombrero walked around hollering about something called chi-chi’s… fried bread. Well, fried pain au chocolate… which is like a croissant with chocolate on the inside. I like chocolate, I like croissants and I like fried food but the combination did not sound good. The beach itself was half grass, half rocks. On the upside, there were lifeguards. The paddle boat rentals are in a different area, so we were off the hook for one of those. After peddling a couple of hours along the lake, I was done with anything resembling exercise for the day. I did go in the lake with Kaitlyn, but she was the one doing all the swimming. I was just trying not to freeze. I thought that after being in the sun the water would feel good, but it just felt cold. After a while I switched with Bill and he, too, thought the water was a little too chilly for any extended swimming.
On the way back to the hotel I made a very important discovery. The canvas bag I tossed our sunscreen, flip flops and the like into is way too small to haul all our lake or pool junk in. When you add three beach towels, it is just impossible to carry. Looks like a shopping trip is in my future!