Annecy

day 21 – jour vingt-et-un

Today was our day of rest… sort of. We still woke up pretty early and had coffee provided by the host. No creamer or milk though so I made due by adding cocoa powder and sugar.

Goal #1: figure out how to connect to WiFi at the flat.

Goal #2: find food for the rest of the day.

I knew of two points on the map I wanted to walk to and we knew that if we had to, we could go back to the train station to get enough WiFi to download the instructions. The town was obviously much more awake than last night, shops open, people doing errands, people working on the cobble roads. Without any real direction, we wandered off around Annecy. A few blocks later I spotted a little corner cafe with WiFi in large print above their storefront. We were saved!

We managed to order two panini and coffees between the waiter’s bit of English and mom’s bit of French. And he was helpful enough to get my phone connected to the WiFi, ah the outside world! It’s amazing how really cut off we felt without friends nearby or a way to communicate!

Bellies full and equipped with the WiFi instructions for our Airbnb, we set off to enjoy the sunny afternoon. Annecy sits at the end of a large lake so we angled straight for the water. Despite never really feeling relaxed, it was so nice to slowly stroll along the lake. Mom and I took a nice break on a bench and did a bit of reading in preparation of our time in Paris. After our very full tour itinerary, we don’t want to overload our days, but we definitely want to make the most of our time.

Unfortunately, they were doing repair work on the little bridge that everyone photographs this little island prison from, so our pictures aren’t quite what I’d hoped. The town of Annecy is quite picturesque though. I love how so many homes in the city have overflowing window boxes, an oasis of greens and bright colors in a desert of grey concrete and stone.

We’d walked a circuit though town and I was ready to head back to spend the second half of the day relaxing/blogging/figuring out the rest of the week. We happened to walk by a miniature food co-op and decided to see if we could find things to make a substantial dinner. We ended up with a huge head of broccoli, ravioli, tomato sauce, wine, and a couple pears.

Et voilà! I spent a few hours getting caught up on blogs and then tried to tackle a bit more Paris planning. Somehow we still didn’t get to bed until after 11.