Friday was our program's trip to Annecy! First, we stopped at the Gorges Du Fier for a picnic lunch. They were incredible! The bridges were suspended incredibly high above the water. Good thing I don't have a fear of heights!
Next we arrived in Annecy after driving through beautiful mountains. Immediately, I grabbed my swimsuit and left for the lake. The village was full of many other visitors. The lake put every other lake I have seen to shame. It's surrounded by mountains and filled with sailboats, swans and paddle boats.
The canals were filled with bright green water and in every corner there were flowers of all types. Annecy is actually a "ville fleurie" which means that it has a certain flower rating. Like the 1-5 stars used for rating hotels, you can find the "flower rating" for many villages in France on signs. Annecy is a "five flower" village, and it is easy to tell.
Bottoms up
These were right next to the sidewalk
Friday I got in the lake for the first time and then we had a dinner with all of the program at a lovely restaurant: La Part des Anges.
Saturday, I woke up very early to go hiking. My friend and I took the bus first to the village of Menton, where there is a chateau nearby. It took us awhile to hike up to and find the chateau, although I could see it up In the mountains beforehand. The views there were incredible!
You can see the chateau in the upper left
The hike up
Chateau Menton
View there of lac d'Annecy
Following this, the plan was to go to Talloir, a nearby village, to begin a hike to the cascades. But we missed the bus! What were we to do for the 15 kilometer journey there? Well, we hitchhiked!
We held out our thumbs, and two cars passed by us just giving us a thumbs up in response... "Is this a universal symbol?" Several cars later a Parisian couple vacationing in the area picked us up to go to Talloir.
A church in the village covered by ivy
Hey Talloir
The hike was steep but not long, and soon we reached a 60 meter tall waterfall! On the way there, you have to walk below a smaller waterfall
At the larger waterfall, next to the barrier, I ran into a climber and his friend. He nonchalantly hopped over the fence and fastened his ropes to the rock to spot his friend's descent of the falls. While his friend was going down, I spoke to him in French over the noise of the falls. How long has he been doing this? Oh, a year or two. Everything else got too"boring." Looks like scary fun!
On the way back down from the cascades, we took a turn from returning to Talloir to go explore another town, Angon. It's important to note that we had no idea where we would end up.
This is about all there was to Angon
I then sat down on some steps to look at a map for how to get back to Annecy and this pup came up to cuddle me like he'd been waiting for me to get there for weeks. This is such a happy photo although I have never seen this dog before....
The walk by the lake to get back
Sunday our hiking trip was to Semnoz elevation 6,000 feet, a mountain right next to the lake of Annecy. After one of the scariest bus rides of my life, winding through the mountains and cutting around cars, we ended up in the absolute middle of nowhere.
The drop off
Cows were everywhere! They each had a bell on their neck ringing constantly. This was quite a magical place.
After the hike I went paddle boating in the lake with my professor, Dorothée
A sunflower field on our ride back
And I came back "home" to Lyon to find this guy sleeping
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