The Final Installment

The fifth day of our trip we drove out of Paris and headed across France to Annecy. On the way, we decided to randomly stop in a little town called Beaune. Unbeknownst to Pierre and I, Beaune is apparently famous for its wine and vineyards. (So obviously, we got roaring drunk and headed out of town...oh wait, that didn't happen.) Instead, we enjoyed a small lunch and a fun walk around the old town, that is still encircled by Medieval ramparts, battlements and a MOAT! The pictures you see are typical scenes of our trip. One, me with Rick Steves book, attempting to decipher his handwritten maps of sites and restaurants. And two, Pierre and I making fun of things that are probably deeply important to the city we are in. (Why they made a mural of someone filming a movie - I will never know? Do I want to know? Sort of.)











The first morning we were in Annecy we woke to rain. Attempting to find some alternative activities we walked over to the local tourist information and were told, "It is raining and you really shouldn't do anything." (We found in most cities the people who worked at the tourist information actually hated their jobs and hated tourists. It seemed like every single TI specialist tried to stop us from doing something cool. I don't know who hired these people, but at some point in their training they really should have learned the concept of being happy ambassadors for their cities and towards tourists. Just a thought.) Anyway, fortunately, we stayed at the Alexandra Hotel, which was run by two of the happiest French people we came across the entire time (that picture of the canal is the view from our room) and unlike their TI counterparts, they pointed us to a fun hike and off we went. For almost two hours we hiked through the forest and scored some awesome views of Annecy Lake. That night we went to the old part of town, which resembled Venice with its canals and small winding streets, and as I've mentioned before, experienced our delightful dinner of raclette. (Picture of the restaurant to the left.)























The next day in Annecy, after killing a fantastic buffet, we rented some bikes and headed around the Lake. Without a doubt, this was the best way to experience Annecy. I can't describe how beautiful of a blue the lake was and how glassy it appeared. I love this picture of Pierre cruising through the old streets of Annecy on his bike. After our ride we grabbed some awesome paninis and headed out of town towards Chamonix.










I really think Chamonix was my favorite part of the trip. You could literally see the Alps in every direction. The picture to the left is us in front of our hotel. It wasn't exactly the most amazing room, but outside our window was a beautiful river, that we could hear while we laid in bed. To the right is Pierre "enjoying" a little ice cream. (check out those Alps in the back...)

As we all know, from my entry a few days ago, the next day in Chamonix Pierre and I traveled up Aiguille Du Midi and then hiked down. (scroll down for pictures) Once we recovered from the hike, and watched the US tie Slovania (Did you hear that? That's the sound of a bandwagon going by.) we had delightful dinner at a quaint little restaurant run by a father and son.

Unfortunately, this is our last picture. The last day of our trip we drove from Chamonix to Lyon, and after a complete debacle of returning our rental car (entry coming) we braved the rain and did a quick tour of the city. (Okay we basically sat underneath a tree and read Rick Steves' descriptions of things we should have seen had it not been raining and if we weren't sick of museums. It really sounded like a lovely town.) After walking in the rain for a few hours, we found ourselves in Rue Merciere, which is a four block area of just restaurants, and ate our last French meal. Dinner was great, however, the highlight was, without a doubt, the lemon meringue pie we had for dessert. I'm not a restaurant dessert person, but oh my...

Okay, we're done. Or are we??