A Weekend In and Out of France… Twice

Saturday, August 28 - Sunday, August 29 2010

You may recall us describing Geneva, geographically, as a peninsula sticking into France (imagine Florida sticking into the ocean, that’s pretty much the same thing).  Needless to say, we are close and weekend trips are a breeze.  We decided to take advantage of that fact this weekend with two different trips into France, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.
 
Annecy, France, is about 45 km from the Geneva city center.  It’s been a popular day-trip among our Expedia co-workers, so we decided it was our turn to pay a visit.  We caught a bus out of Geneva on Saturday morning and arrived at around 11am in Annecy.  (Of course, to prove that this really is a popular Expedia destination, we ran into one of our co-workers taking his family on the same excursion).  It occurred to us shortly after stepping off the bus that this was one of the few trips we’ve ever taken that didn’t have some sort of a schedule previously planned by us.  All we knew was that we needed to make it back to the bus at 5:15 for our return ride; the rest was up in the air...
 
We started by exploring the downtown market area.  The architecture was so quaint and charming it was hard not to take photos of every building (seriously, Dave took way too many-- our favorites are below).  To add to the charm, the once-a-month flea market was going on that day so vendors were sprawled out everywhere selling ‘antiques’ (mostly old junk according to Dave).  Ang saw a lot of cool stuff and was tempted, but the prices were even too much for her to swallow.
 

Notre Dame de Liesse

We are learning through visits of other European towns that part of the fun in traveling to these places is discovering new and unexpected things.  For example, the ice cream in Annecy was presented in a way we’ve never seen.  As you can see from the photo, it looked like blobs of frosting.  But when served, it’s as cold and delicious as ever.  Fun fact: Have you ever thought about what ‘Notre Dame' translates to?  “Our Lady”—made sense once we thought about it.  We came across a large cathedral named Norte Dame de Liesse, which translates to “Our Lady of Joy”.  It was beautifully ornate and peaceful.  Another treat was stumbling across a café that was playing covers of Michael Jackson songs, only in a very slow, swanky, laid-back fashion.  We tried to capture some of the audio when they were playing the song “Wanna Be Starting Something” but after reviewing the tape it didn't turn out.  The best was the first song we heard—“Thriller”—and thinking, “Wait, why do I sort of recognize this song, but sort of not…?” And then finally realizing what it was… while dumbfounded that someone would change up a classic so drastically and somehow make money off of it —very amusing to us.




We rounded out the day with a hike up to Basilique de La Visitation, which as you can see was hard to miss when viewing the town from the waterfront.  After reaching the basilica and checking out the great view of Annecy from above, we caught the bus and were back in Geneva to relax and prepare for another adventure on Sunday.






La Saleve, a large hill/small mountain in France just Southeast of Geneva, has been taunting us ever since we arrived here.  It’s actually in the same area where our friend Jaime and his family live, in Veyrier, and where the Tour de France rode by in July.  The forecast called for clear skies on Sunday so we planned accordingly and decided that we would conquer the beast.  Ok, beast is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it was a bit of a strenuous hike—a good challenge.  While we thought it would take longer, it was only about an hour and a half to climb up to the main attraction, the Telepherique du Saleve, a large cable car that transports less ambitious tourists to and from the top of La Saleve and the town at the base of the mountain.
 

As you can see from the photos below, we chose the right day to hike!  The views of Geneva and the surrounding lake and hillsides were amazing.  We could literally see our house from up there. (In the zoomed in city photo below—the one without the fountain—you can see a large circus tent in the middle-left.  Our building is the pinkish one two buildings to the left of the tent’s steeple.)  To add to the fun of the day, we ran into one of our co-workers randomly as we were enjoying the view. (We’ve heard Geneva is a small place but are now starting to realize it for ourselves.) 
 

Besides a lookout area known for stunning views, or perhaps because of it, La Saleve is a popular paragliding launch site.  We were lucky enough to catch a lift-off on our Flip Video (below).  Maybe someday we’ll head up and experience La Saleve on a whole other level…!