Into the Alps

We used Annecy as our gateway into the mountains. We have been here before, many years ago and it is just as beautiful. We camped on the west side of the lake, just south of the town, at a site that squeezed us onto the last available pitch. It was as if all of Germany had come here. They have a two week early summer holiday and so there were plenty of families and the kids were having a great time.

The site was chosen as it has direct lake access and the water was surprisingly warm and there was no hint of a hesitation before going in. We had four refreshing swims over two afternoons there.

We also had an alpine thunderstorm. These begin with an odd flash or two. Then there’s the realisation that ‘a big one’ is starting. I came out of the toilet block and a few spots started, yet in less than thirty seconds it was pelting down.

The nice French-Canadian cyclist, who has lived north of Lake Geneva for 40 years and was on a trip of several days, was already in his swag / bivi, right next to us. His bike and pannier bags were next to him. He was totally enclosed, on the ground and stayed there from about 8pm, all the way through the storm and overnight. The next morning he was cheerful enough and didn’t look wet. No, I have no idea how he managed that!

We left Annecy and heard a few sirens but of course had no idea that a multiple stabbing incident had just happened. We met some people later, who had planned to go there but thought they had better not. “We wouldn’t want to be seen to be on holiday and happy”. I told them to go anyway.

Turning off the valley road we headed for our first off-road tour. It looked ok on Wikiloc and the start of the gravel was marked with a sign that seemed to suggest that driving the track was OK.

First though, we had coffee at the refuge which has just opened for the summer. Not a bad place to start.

This turned out to be a wonderful track, traversing the side of the mountains, around 1,600m asl and there were hazy views of Mont Blanc in the distance, looking very white.

I eventually stopped to reduce the tyre pressures as the surface was loose and quite stoney.

We emerged at a popular col; descending to it we passed a few walkers, most smiled but some would have preferred us not to be there.

We did some shopping at Lidl - and had a great self-checkout experience. The process here is to unload one item and scan before placing it in a big container. There was no messing with bags and stuff until the purchase was done. No “unexpected item in the bagging area”. Once payment was made, you then loaded your bags. It somehow seemed easy.