Annecy: READ THIS!

Well, we decided to take advantage of our current lack of plans and make a spontaneous trip! To Annecy!

Before heading off we went to Brun, the boulangerie that wont the best baguette competition in Paris. We got a baguette. ;) It really was delicious. We also got an almond croissant, a favorite of Monisha’s. It was damn good.

Annecy is about a six-hour drive from Paris.  We used a car-pooling app called BlaBla car to get us there.  A guy we’ve never met was on his way to take a paragliding exam in the Swiss alps.  We paid him for the chance to join him for a ride most of the way to Annecy.  He wasn’t actually going all the way to where we were staying so we parted ways around 30km north of our final destination.  To finish our journey, we decided to hitch-hike.  We had to walk around a quarter of a mile down the road to find a good spot.  This was the most nerve wracking part since we had to cross freeway lanes in a couple of places. Neither of us has much experience with hitch-hiking so we weren’t totally sure what we were looking for. Eventually we found a place with a good pull off where we figured someone could stop in and pick us up.  Then Monisha went to the side of the road and stuck out her thumb.  We’ve heard that it’s much easier to get a ride if you’re hitchhiking as a girl, so Nolan hung back a bit.  Monisha let her hair down just to make sure.  In just over five minutes, someone stopped for us! He was heading straight to Annecy so we hopped in and completed the final leg of our journey (around 45 minutes).  He was impressed with Monisha’s French speaking (as many people have been actually), noting that it’s rare for somebody from California to speak at all.  He talked a lot about how he thinks the French system is very good because they takes a lot of money from everyone (taxes), but also gives a lot of money back (health care, education, unemployment benefits, etc).  Our Airbnb was actually in Seynod (a 35 minute walk from the center of Annecy), but we told him dropping us off in Annecy works great.  He asked us for where exactly we were staying dropped us off straight there, which was really nice of him.  Another hitch-hiking success!

After being dropped off right at the place we were to spend the night, we realized our hosts wouldn’t be back for another 1.5 hours, so….we walked to Annecy >.< Whoops, should have just gone with our ride straight there. But it’s quite a nice walk anyway. So we made our way to Le Vielle Ville (The Old Town). Oh. My. Gosh. It is the cutest town I [M] have ever seen. Cobblestone streets lined with charming restaurants, shops, boulangeries, patisseries, ice cream stores, and more. Little canals running through the town with delightful little bridges going across them. Beautiful flower on bridges and along the canal. It was the romantic French town you always dream of. 

  

And soon enough, we had made our way to the Pont des Amours, the picturesque bridge in Annecy that opens up to the gorgeous lake whose pictures sold us on coming here in the first place. We sat on a bench by the lake together, gazed over the beautifully clear blue water, completed a couple Duolingo lessons, and eventually headed back towards Seynod, with our appetites whet for the following day by the lake.

We ended up finding a wonderful place for dinner in Seyond: Giovanni’s pizza. We saw amazing reviews online, and when we checked into our Airbnb and mentioned to our hosts where we were going, they told us it was unbelievable. When we got there Giovanni himself was stretching pizza dough, topping pizzas, putting pizzas in the oven, and taking them out with impressive speed. We found out they only do to-go pizzas (which was fine, we were happy to eat at the Aribnb apartment), but he told us they were so busy it would be an hour before he could have pizzas ready for us. Worth it? Worth it. We ordered, walked back to the apartment (5 minutes away), chatted with our very welcoming hosts, and joined them for a glass of white wine and a piece of delicious cheese and bread they offered us. At 9:45, we went to pick up our pizza. We chatted with Giovanni for a little, who was quite the character. He’s from Italy, and clearly has a lot of Italian pride. When we asked where in Italy is really nice, he emphatically told us, “TOUT!” (ALL!) Then started naming all of the cities in Italy we should see: Rome, Venice, the coastline, Milan, Florence, Pisa, etc. Anyway, the pizza. Damn. He definitely knows how to make ‘em right.

Saturday. Our one full day in Annecy. The room we’re staying in has black out curtains. Maybe they were a little TOO blackout. We woke up at 11:00am. Oops! Fortunately, we had four big slices of pizza leftover from last night, so we grabbed them, headed off with no time to lose, and ate pizza for breakfast on the walk to Annecy. Our plan was to have a relaxing day by the lake, lying on the beach, swimming… Plans started to change when one of the first stores we saw upon entering the town was a place to book adventurous activities in Annecy. Paddleboating, boat tours, snorkeling, wakeboarding, and paragliding. Wait – paragliding?! That thing Monisha has been wanting to try for over seven years? Mhm, that thing. We asked the woman working there about it. She said that Annecy is the best place to go paragliding in all of Europe. Yep, that sold us. “Can we…go today?” “Yes, there should be availability still.” We exchange nervous and excited glances. “Okay, let’s do it!” It turns out there’s only one paragliding pilot left. But also a hang-gliding pilot! She says she’ll let us do the hang-gliding at the paragliding price. Sweet! She calls the pilots. “Actually…they just filled up for this afternoon.” “Can we go tomorrow?” She checks and says yes. We confirm that we can get back in time for our ride to Paris. It checks out. “Alright, tomorrow, let’s do it!” “Actually….it looks like the weather’s bad tomorrow. Sorry.” Yikes. What a dramatic roller coaster. Fortunately it didn’t end there. It turned out there was availability to go paragliding at 6:30pm today! We took an early bus over to the side of lake we were to leave from. We relaxed by the lake on the beach, played some set, got a croque monsieur and fries, and made our way to the meeting spot by 6:30. Turned out, one of the pilots was a hang-gliding pilot, so he asked who wanted to go hang-gliding instead. Monisha was the lucky winner.

Ridiculously enough, on the way up the mountain in the car, the pilots were saying they hoped we’d make it up in time for good wind. After the sun goes down, the wind reverses direction and you can’t take off anymore. Was this going to be ANOTHER barely missed opportunity?? Nope. Thank goodness not.

Hang-gliding / Paragliding over Annecy was truly an experience of a lifetime. From the very beginning, it’s insane. The takeoff consists of you running straight down an incredibly steep mountainside, heading directly towards the trees just a few meters below. But after barely any steps, you’re flying. We started out flying over the forested mountainside, seeing all the trees right below us. We had the most gorgeous view of the lake. At some point we flew directly over the blue water, and you can see straight through it, it’s so clear. Monisha’s pilot was a character. As they flew over a paraglider, he said “we’re like a bird a prey when we’re hang-gliding,” and dove down straight towards the paraglider, lifting up at the very last moment to avoid actually hitting them. At the very end of the flight, he did a couple of tricks, including several stalls, which involved brief spurts of the roller-coaster-stomach-lurching-free-fall experience. It was terrifying, thrilling, delightful, and unbelievably wonderful.

In other words, 10/10 would recommend.