FRANCE part 5

FRANCE part 5, August 2019


Sunday morning, time to drive! Forgot to mention that on the day before we finally went looking for a "one way" car rental, yes we PRORASTINATED!! The Hertz counter rep pretty much laughed at us, in French of course, including a less than encouraging rolling of the eyes..."no reservation, no cars". My wife looked at me and we figured...."well, we have certainly screwed up royally this time"! As we walked to EuropCar just down the street we said "oh well, there's always the train, right?! The EuropCar young lady did not laugh or roll her eyes, but had to ask a manager...uh oh...manager did not laugh, but she may have rolled her eyes...then ...BINGO!! they offered us their last car, a nice shiny Peugeot mini SUV!!! Thank you EuropCar!!!!








If you think we procrastinated with the car, so was the planning of this next leg to the alpine village of Annecy. We knew the route, but hadn't decided on what to see along the way. We passed exits for many attractive sights, but continued saying "next time!". After a couple hours of heading north we did decide to take a pit stop in Aix-en-Provence, home of Paul Cezzane! This was a good stop, but we didn't have enough time to do it justice. We walked a lot of the Centre-ville enjoying the tight streets, monuments and of course the churches, The Cathedrale D'Aix en Provence is another beautiful feat of architecture!
























After a couple hours of sightseeing and wanting to arrive in Annecy by sunset we hit the highway. Arriving in town under darkening skies we parked in a nondescript garage just uphill from the village and walked in via the back streets. Entering a narrow cobblestone street lined with shops and restaurants we quickly found the Hotel du Palais de I'sle. This hotel sits perfectly in the middle of town and if you are lucky a couple of rooms offer romantic balconies on the Thiou canal. Since we reserved our room just a couple weeks prior, we settled for a large newly renovated room offering 2 huge windows with nice views.





















Freshened up, then hit the streets. The overcast skies gave way to darkness, but boy does this medieval village comes alive with color! After 9pm we found a nice small restaurant and grabbed a table outside under the veranda with a wonderful view of the 12th century Le Palais de'I'lle, which sits in the middle of the canal. It drizzled a little during dinner and we were happy being under cover as people walked by with umbrellas. Great pizza and tasty truffled mac and cheese served by a wonderful family! At the end of dinner they graciously brought out a regional anise-flavored "digestif" called Genepy, which I liked!
















The drizzle had stopped and we meandered around late into the evening, enjoying the colors and peace and quiet. We couldn't wait to see this town in the daylight!!

































To be continued..........

Love the night shots
Assuming you are shooting at a higher ISO and handheld?

A big fan of anise-flavored potions - I will be looking for a "digestif" called Genepy

Thanks and yep high speed handheld, I was happy with the settings I used.

Genepy is a close relative of Absinthe, pretty strong and made from flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium ("grand wormwood"). Had to google that! I wanted to bring back a novelty bottle, it's pretty inexpensive, but the airport didn't have it, so just wine came home.

Also, about the car rental, my wife did find cars available on the Hertz website even the day of, but the lady at the counter said they actually turned away reservations because many cars were not turned in on time.

I can second the Genepi! It will not be hard to find. I believe it is from the alpine region of France and Italy. I would call it more herbal in flavor than straight anise, but yummy.

Ellen yes a little herbal describes it well, also not too sweet. I saw some bottles having a stem with leaves and flower. Disappointed I didn't buy a bottle in Annecy.

Aix-en-Provence

Someplace on this thread didn’t I suggest Aix!?

Glad you enjoyed, even for a few hours.

Great night photos.

JP you certainly did and thanks. The stop was so unplanned, I didn't know it was the home of Cezzane until I saw a small bronze marker on the sidewalk. Barely scratched the surface there.