Feet up time in Annecy!
Dave the motorhome’s toughing it out, kind of, still parked up in our fabulous spot next to the basilica in Annecy, waiting to see if the neds will make a re-appearance. It’s quite amazing that we can be parked just a ten minute walk from such an iconic place, for free. Even the appearance of a bunch of hammered locals last night setting off fireworks at each other’s faces, yelling and lobbing bangers until midnight hasn’t made us move today. Although I suspect if Charlie had a say in things we’d have gone; he’s terrified of fireworks.
Warmth eased its way into Dave this morning, aiding us to pull off the duvet and pull open the curtains to survey the damage. An empty bottle of rum stood in witness next to a third-full bottle of coke on the bench in front of us overlooking the old town. A few fireworks were strewn about. No bodies though, they weren’t that drunk!
We ate breakfast and wondered what to do. We’ve a very kind offer of a driveway to park on on Chamonix tomorrow night, so we could either start on our way over there, or just chill out here. Mr Blue Sky tempted us to stay, that and the quite beautiful old town below us. I’ll not lie to you, we’ve not exactly worked hard today, or played hard for that matter. Our August 10th is in pictures below.
A small bar opposite WW2 caves dug under the castle has a huge selection of wines. As we’ve found for Annecy though, the prices are comedy. I recall almost two years back knocking back glasses of red in a pinxos bar in San Sebastian for €1 each, they’re 3 to 6 times the price here.
Our car park is closer to the old town than the official motorhome aire. It’s a decent little hill to slog up and down though, this is the view we’ve had about 6 times on our way down the slope!
Harumph. I’ve taken out mortgages in less time than it took to buy a SIM in this shop yesterday. Today we’ve found out that yes, we can access the Internet with it but no, we can’t update our blog. After much playing about we resigned ourselves to another long wait, but then the thing started to work as we tried to demonstrate the problem in the shop. Once we were out of the shop of course, it’s conked out again. I think there’s some filter on Orange France’s Internet access and have got around it by installing Expat Shield on our laptop.
There are a few beggars about, and a few folks with more ingenuity. We’ve seen kids loving making these giant bubbles in a few places, and their parents seem very happy to hand over some change in return for the fun.
The view’s fabulous, shame the camera squished Ju! Annecy’s not bad either.
Looking south over the lake, the mountains have finally started to rise up from mere hills. Tomorrow, we should be in among the big guns, close to Mt Blanc, oooh, yeah.
The shore’s almost as busy as the lake today!
Getting about on wheels seems very popular. We’ve been nearly run over by the petit train, cyclists, folks on skates and scooters… :-)
Some serious petanque going on here. Not a single pint of beer being consumed between steel ball lobs.
As the evening wears on, this guy’s job is to chain up the pedalo’s out of range of the shore. We noticed they’re called ‘Pedal’Eau’ here – I wonder who came up with the name first?
We sat by the lake and chilled out, thinking about the future, like whether there’s any beer left in the fridge, or in Dave for that matter.
Ju and a scared Charlie on the Bridge of Lovers.
Folks are swimming in the lake at this time of year, and why not, it’s beautifully clear.
There are plenty folks selling and making art here.
Outdoor art workshops with some bangin’ tunes to keep everyone going.
There must be million photos of this spot on Earth. Make that a million and one.
The chateau (castle) at Annecy.
Don’t panic! There is beer left in Dave. Ju’s rummaged about and found a Polish honey beer she’s been hiding. It’s a Miodowe Lubuski, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. It knocks the spots off any of the honey beers I’ve had in the UK, dark, sweet, with strong malt and honey taste. It’s beautiful.
There are some French voices alongside us at the moment, their conversation punctuated with ‘voilas’, but we don’t think they’re on a par with last night’s neds, so hopes are high for a quiet night tonight. How sad are we, near the centre of a fabulous town and all we fancy is a beer and a kip?
Cheers, Jay
Perhaps you’re on to something. If French Orange Mobile salespeople had been in charge of the major world banks, we might never have got into this sub-prime mortgage fiasco: people applying for mortgages would have lost interest before the money was ever handed over…