The Sound of Annency

Driving through Switzerland was amazing. But driving through the Alps was even better! After our whistle-stop tour of old Switz we drove to Lac d’Annecy through the Swiss/French Alps – I think… Could have just been normal, pretty mountains if I’m honest – and along some very twisty roads – again, I think. Left blogging until too late after my holidays? *gasp* How could you say that?!? Oh wait, yeah, that’s probably why I can’t remember anything… Hindsight!  Ok, time to create a pretty daydream. Imagine Brugge mixed with Venice, add a subtle hint of the Swiss and throw the backdrop of the Sound of Music behind it all. That my dear friends, is Annency. Oh! And Tourists! Can’t forget the flaming tourists… But anyway, the town of Annency was tremendously busy. Like Newcastle on derby day busy, but not as hostile and significantly less football fans. We tried to park, we really did, but Annency is the place to be in August (apparently). So after much hoo-ing, har-ing and argue-ing we found THE BEST CAMPSITE EVER.  It wasn’t really the best ever. But as you can imagine when you’ve been driving all day, were wild camping the night before, are in desperate need of a hot shower, really want to stretch your cramped legs and can’t stand two more minutes in such close proximity to your nearest and dearest, anything will do. Luckily our ‘anything’ was pretty decent, one of the best of the trip actually. After hooking up the electrics etc and getting ready we got ze bus into town from the most difficult to find bus stop ever in the history of the universe. After locating the stop – which wasn’t actually a stop at all but a restaurant half a mile down the road – the bus ride was only about 15 mins into the main town. Thank goodyness.  As always when we’re in a strange land we end up attracting the attention of an Englishman. As you can imagine, he was a tall, dark, handsome rugby player who fell madly in love with me.  But to everyone else he looked like a 70 year old photographer with an ipad… After chatting about world travel, retirement and lawsuits (it’s not what you think, I swear) we said cheerio to Mr Tall, Grey and Canny then went for food, ice cream and got the bus back to our campsite, La Nubliere.  It has to be said that we managed to try and get on the wrong bus twice. My small attempts at French seemed like gobuldee gook and the tensions began to soar! After locating the right bus with several other irritated and confused campers we eventually got back to base. One of those ‘Please Scotty, I know your a functional character but could you please beam me up?’ moments.  Finished off by a dip in the lake, we had a pretty sweet afternoon.