An American in France: Day Trip to the beautiful mountain town of Annecy

Yesterday was by far one of the best days I have had during my semester so far. I met up with some friends early in the morning and took a two-hour train to Annecy! Annecy is a little city east of Lyon in the mountains. It's on a lake and is right on the border of Switzerland. It was SOO beautiful and as soon as we got off the train, I was obsessed!

the first thing we saw when we left the train station

with Virginia on one of Annecy's many bridges

First, we walked around for a little while taking pictures and stopped at a cafe for some croissants and brioche chocolat. Right away, I noticed how friendly the people in Annecy were! In Lyon, most people are friendly, but here, they really went out of their way to help us out and talk to us! One man walked with us for about fifteen minutes showing us some of the really pretty spots in the center of Annecy and led us to the spot where the river meets the lake (which is also the spot that is in a lot of pictures when you Google Annecy!)

with Antonio

the whole group: Virginia, Rodolfo, Paris, me, and Antonio

I recognised this spot from Google!

After taking tons and tons of pictures on the bridges, we came across the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) and went to a cafe to get coffee and hot chocolate that we brought with us to the park. We walked through the park and just took in how pretty Annecy is. We found a spot on the lake where we could rent a paddle boat and got one for all five of us. We spent a half hour just paddling around Lac d'Annecy taking in the view of the mountains and everything. It was so much fun!

in front of the Hôtel de Ville

hangin in the park

Paddle boating on the Lac d'Annecy

After that, we stopped for some lunch at a little Italian restaurant next to the lake. I got salmon lasagna that also came with a salad. It was so good! Then we were all craving some French ice cream, so we stopped at a little Glacerie nearby. I got Snickers and Nutella. The Snickers kind of tasted like peanut butter which helped satisfy my peanut butter cravings a little! (They don't have peanut butter in most of Europe for some reason. I don't think I'll ever understand why the French find frog's legs and liver appealing but are repulsed by the thought of peanut butter.) While we were eating lunch, it started to rain a little, but luckily it didn't rain hard and it didn't last long so we could still enjoy the day!

After lunch, we explored some more and went to an old castle from the Middle Ages called Château d'Annecy. Inside, it had been made into a sort of art museum that had all different types of art. There were paintings and sculptures and some cool sand art (and also some modern-type pieces that we just could not understand!) The architecture of the castle was really cool and from the area behind it, you could see a beautiful view of the whole city and the lake. I'm sure we could probably even see Switzerland from there! Next, we went to a nearby church. It was so pretty and there was another great view of the city from there.

behind the castle with a view of the city behind us

the Basilica

the view of the city from the Basilica

For dinner, we decided to try a famous French fast food restaurant called "Quick." I got a chicken sandwich and fries, but I was really surprised how expensive it was for fast food! For my bottle of water half the size of a normal bottle, I had to pay €2 which would be about $3--so crazy! After dinner, we headed back to the train station where we had to catch a bus back to Lyon. I got a copy of the French Cosmo, but didn't read it yet because we were all so tired that we slept the whole hour and a half it took to get home!

Yesterday was so much fun and I fell completely in love with Annecy. I would definitely return there again, and going there made me really excited to see even more of France and Europe! I think it's finally starting to hit me that I'm in France, and I love it here so much! The thought of having to go home in three months actually makes me depressed. I would definitely want to stay for the full year if I could transfer more than one business class back to Elon. I have already come to the conclusion that I am going to live in Europe someday though, so when I do have to leave in December, I know it won't be for too long!