many interesting places to visit, and much pleasure to be found in paddling around the little lake Bourget on the small steamers, but the excursion which satisfied me best was a trip to Annecy and its neighborhood.You go to Annecyin an hour by rail, through a garden land that has not had its equal for beauty, perhaps, since Eden; and certainly Eden was not cultivated as this garden is. The charm and loveliness of the whole region are bewildering. Picturesque rocks, forest-clothed hills, slopes richly bright in the cleanest and greenest grass, fields of grain without fleck or flaw, dainty of color, and as shiny and shimmery as silk, old gray mansions and towers half buried in foliage and sunny eminences, deep chasms with precipitous wars, and a swift stream of pale blue water between, with now and then a tumbling cascade, and always noble mountains in view, with vagrant white clouds curling about their summits.

Then at the end of an hour you come to Annecy and rattle through its old crooked lanes, built solidly up with curious old houses that are a dream of the middle ages, and presently you come to the main object of your trip--Lake Annecy. It is a revelation, It is a miracle. It brings the tears to a body's eyes it is so enchanting. That is to say, it affects you just as all things that you instantly recognize as perfect affect you--perfect music, perfect eloquence, perfect art, perfect joy, perfect grief. It stretches itself out there in the caressing sunlight, and away towards its border of majestic mountains, a crisped and radiant plain of water of the divinest blue that can be imagined. All the blues are there, from the faintest shoal water suggestion of the color, detectable only in the shadow of some overhanging object, all the way through, a little blue and a little bluer still, and again a shade bluer till you strike, the deep, rich Mediterranean splendor which breaks the heart in your bosom, it is so beautiful.

And the mountains, as you skim along on the steamboat, how stately their forms, how noble their proportions, how green their velvet slopes, how soft the mottlings of sun and shadow that play about the rocky ramparts that crown them, how opaline the vast upheavals of snow banked against the sky in the remotenesses beyond--Mont Blanc and the others--how shall anybody describe? Why, not even the painter can quite do it, and the most the pen can do is to suggest.

Up the lake there is an old abbey--Talloires--relic of the middle ages. We stopped there; stepped from the sparkling water and the rush and boom and fret and fever of the nineteenth century into the solemnity and the silence and the soft gloom and the brooding mystery of a remote antiquity. The stone step at the water's edge had the traces of a worn-out inscription on it; the wide flight of stone steps that led up to the front door was polished smooth by the passing feet of forgotten centuries, and there was not an unbroken stone among them all. Within the pile was the old square cloister with covered arcade all around it where the monks of the ancient tunes used to sit and meditate, and now and then welcome to their hospitalities the wandering knight with his tin breeches on, and in the middle of the square court (open to the sky) was a stone well curb, cracked and stick with age and use, and all about it were weeds, and among the weeds moldy brickbats that the Crusaders used to throw at each other.”

MARK TWAIN'S TRAVEL LETTERS FROM 1891-92 with original illustrations by Dan Beard and Harold R. Heaton. Chicago Daily Tribune, November 8, 1891
http://www.twainquotes.com/Travel1891/Nov1891.html

June 11, 1989
Beside the Alpine Lake of Annecy
By PAUL LEWIS; PAUL LEWIS IS CHIEF OF THE UNITED NATIONS BUREAU OF THE TIMES.
WHEN he first saw the remote waters of the Lake of Annecy high in the Savoy alps of what is now southeastern France, the l8th-century philosopher and writer Jean Jacques Rousseau exclaimed: ''Now I have been happy. Now I have lived.'' Some license must be allowed, of course, for Rousseau was a romantic and also in love with a woman from the lakeside town of Annecy who wanted him to exchange the dour Calvinism of his native Geneva for easier-going Roman Catholicism……….

For more information go on to :
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D7143BF932A25755C0A96F948260 &sec=travel&spon=&pagewanted=print

How paragliding is putting the thrill back into flying
Richard Madden straps on his flying machine, steps off the edge of a mountain and soars 2,500ft above the French Alps.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2004/06/05/etparaglide.xml

Cycle the most dramatic climbs of the France on our 6-day trip through the French Alps. Surrounded by scenic views and the most rewarding alpine passes in France, we’ll greet each day with challenging climbs like Col de la Forclaz, Col du Télégraphe, and the Col du Galibier. You can even tempt yourself with a harrowing ascent of Alpe d’Huez. Like all Explorer adventures, the Classic Climbs trip emphasizes scenic beauty and spectacular riding in classic Trek Travel style……
http://www.trektravel.com/trips/france-classic-climbs-explorer


It has canals, a beautifully clean lake, and a casino. Walk into the surrounding hills and you can even see Mont Blanc. Adrian Bridge enjoys the charms of the 'Venice of the Alps'
Why go?
The writer André Gide compared the charms of Annecy to those of a lover. Undeniably, it does make for a romantic weekend retreat. Tucked away in the south-eastern corner of France close to the borders with Switzerland and Italy, this picturesque town, with its canals, arcades and medieval heart, is often described as a mini Venice. The lakeside setting and proximity to the Alps add to its allure….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2002/05/18/etannecy18.xml
&DCMP=OTC-Autonolnk


A charming lake town where it would seem the 21st Century never happened
The queen was incarcerated in a lonely tower of the castle in the French town of Annecy. She had been thrown in there by her errant husband the King who had tired of her whining. She constantly complained about his philandering ways and this led to marital disharmony. The King decided to silence his wife forever entombing her amidst walls four metres thick.
But help came from unexpected quarters. Monks from an abbey …………….
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/02/12/stories/2006021200490800.htm


Follow our writer's culinary course to 25 unforgettable eating experiences
By Leslie James
RESTAURANT CRITIC
At Chalet Des Trappeurs, a rustic lodge in Col de Tamie above France's Lake Annecy, we huddled with friends around a long wooden table, sipped fizzy local wine and shared the local treasure known as reblochonade. The red-hot contraption in the middle of the table held a huge wheel of Reblochon cheese. As the cheese melted, we took turns scooping the bubbling mass onto our plates, where it joined baby onions, sausages and potatoes. With no fear of "too much of a good thing," we also dug into Kirsch-spiked cheese fondue, and fell in love with tartiflette, a hearty casserole of, yes, melted cheese, cubed potatoes, bacon and onions.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050227/news_1t27eatm.html