annecy

A few weeks ago, my handsome brother appeared at the Grenoble train station and we decided to explore la France, starting with Annecy- the "Venice of the Alps." Easily the most beautiful place I've ever seen.

The Annecy château houses a museum, and while I expected it to be full of castle-y things, it turned out be a mélange of natural history, Annecy's fishing history, and a truuuly fascinating exhibit about MERMAIDS. Like, real ones (or so they said.) They even have the fossils to prove it. So, as if France needed one more ounce of magic, they've got mermaids, too. Come on, France, share the wealth! (Oh wait, they're trying. 75% tax rate for the bourgeoisie? Yeeks.)

From the castle, we took a little hike up to a cathedral that looked deceptively easy to get to- as in, it's on top of a small hill. Not too hard, right? Not right. It took us about 45 minutes, lots of stairs, muddy not-paths, getting out of the way of logging trucks and trying to not get crushed by rogue logs to finally get there. 2 minutes before it closed for lunch. I'm not sure why the Spanish siesta is so well-known and   le lunch in France isn't. Two hours for lunch, people? The outside of the church was really pretty though, and then we found the direct path down to the bottom of the hill (that took about 3 minutes) Whatever. We took the scenic route.

But really, every route in Annecy is the scenic route. Every street, every corner is just too pretty. If you told me Annecy didn't actually exist, and it's really just some kind of mental experiment where they drug everyone on the train with "Imagine the most beautiful place you can and call it Annecy" drugs, I would believe it in a drug-laden heartbeat. The sparkling blue-green lake, the changing fall leaves, the clean streets, the boulangeries-this city is perfection.

For lunch we went to an adorable (shocker, I know) little place right on the water (like most of the city is, because it's criss-crossed by canals like Venice...but cuter). We ordered our first real Savoyard fondue and ate our combined weights in melted cheese and bread. I still can't believe that is actually a meal here. These people have bread as an appetizer, as a side to the meal, bread and cheese after the meal, and bread and cheese for dessert. We were also the only ones not drinking an entire bottle of wine with our bread and cheese, but we made up for it by having both the blueberry and lemon tarts.

Stereotypes are true, my friends.