36 - Wining and dining throughout Haute-Savoie

We are at least two blogs behind and using our "self-quarantine" time to try to catch up.  We're safe and comfortable in Lagos, Portugal.  Dan and Alison just flew back to their boat in Northern Ireland.  We'll fill you in on their visit in another blog.




Meanwhile, back to France....  We already told you about the wonderful time we had with Frenchie.  We continued to enjoy the amazing hospitality of Charlie and Deborah in Annecy.  It's hard to imagine a more enchanting view than a rainbow- well, maybe a full moon over the water from your bedroom!

We dropped Frenchie off in Geneva and drove back to Annecy just in time to catch the Saturday farmer's market.  It spans several blocks and had just about everything you could think of from cooked food to anything you'd want to cook at home.  We spent a couple of hours roaming, shopping and eating.  It was fabulous!!!!

 The next day we visited Montmin after a recommendation from the guy at the ski rental shop.  We drove through the town of Talloires and up a very windy and supposedly two-lane road (thankfully, we were the only car on the road most of the time). We continued until we could drive no further.  Then, we hiked another kilometer or so and were rewarded with some amazing views. This area is home to many paragliding companies (we'd seen them from below). Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anyone jumping off of the mountain but it was still worth the trip.

Next, we decided that since we'd been enjoying so much French wine, we needed to check out the source.  We packed for an overnight stay and drove to the town of Ampuis (the closest winery we could find to home).  





We'd mistakenly thought this was the Cote du Rhone region as it's bordered by the Rhone river but we were very pleasantly wrong.  The area is a very small appellation called Cote Rotie.  It's an area of only about 10km along the Rhone River. The vineyards are planted on the mountainside affording them full exposure to the sun.  The name Cote Rotie means "roasted coast" as the grape’s "roast" in the sun all day.  The wines are mostly Syrah grapes and we loved learning about them and loved even more the tastings.

The first vintner we met was a 4th generation grape grower.  He explained how the vineyards were almost lost during WW II as there were no men around to plant the grapes or tend to the wines and all available labor (women, children and men too old to go to war) was needed to grow other crops.  We thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  All in all, we visited 3 vineyards all of which were very different.  We highly recommend a visit to this area.

We then checked out the neighboring towns.  Vienne is bordered by the Rhone river and overseen by Mont Pipet, where there's an overlook with a great view of the entire city.  A treacherous drive to get there but well worth it. 

We spent the night in the quaint little town of Givors which had a great little (one car at a time) bridge over the Rhone.  This was great for our morning walks (we had to walk off the wine somehow) and a perfect scene for the sunrise.

Back to Annecy to regroup and then we decided to visit the town of Albertville.  MaryAnn was convinced that it was named after - or at least in honor of - her father.    Our French skills weren't adequate for us to find out who was the original Albert so we'll just assume that we're right.  After perusing their farmer's market, we walked around taking pictures of anything we could find with Albertville in the name.

 After lunch, we hiked to the top of the mountain (I guess technically it was a hill but we'd had beer and wine with lunch so it felt like a mountain) to explore the medieval village.  Most of the place was closed for the season (looked like it would be happening in the summer) but the views were amazing.  

I took some more pictures and couple of videos so here they are:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tVGogn9tfSa5xDqi8

From Albertville, we took a circuitous route home and found the town of Chambery.  What a great find!  This town reminded us of a small Lyon with its wonderful winding streets.  The city center was full of shops, restaurants (one great pub with a huge selection of draft beers), a gorgeous castle and their elephant fountain which was built in 1838.  We absolutely loved this town!

 

 

We decided to stay closer to home for our last few days - plus Orcetta (Charlie and Deborah's landlord's dog) seemed to miss us when we'd been gone too much.  So, we again explored our home town of Annecy.  The walking/biking paths there are perfect.  There was great path right behind "our" house that led to the grocery and all of the way into town.  

In town, we found another great walking path along the river that continued about 2 km from town.  We found old water pumps, a great riverside park and lots of wild (and some not so wild) life.  We found another pub on our way back (we had to work off the exercise somehow) and paired our beer with a loaf from our favorite baker in town

 

Being surrounded by water everywhere we went, we were excited to discover that the sightseeing boat trips on Lake Annecy had just opened for the season.  The weather was a little cool albeit gorgeous and sunny. The boat trip covered the entire circumference of the lake.  We even got a great picture of "our" house.  It was great being on the water even with the motor running!!

Here are some additional pictures we took of Annecy:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SUyrrHeiXgCU9d1w9

Our only moderate criticism of the Haute-Savoie area is that the restaurants we found mostly seemed to have the same food.  While we love cheese and potatoes and more cheese, we wanted something special for our Valentine's dinner. "Our" kitchen was fully provisioned and we'd already (well mostly Pedro) cooked many an elaborate meal but we wanted some seafood - maybe being on the boat triggered it too.  We found escargot (I know we were in France after all but I'd never really seen it in a grocery before) and some great clams for a clam and pasta dish!  Paired with our newly acquired Cote Rotie wine, it was one of the best Valentine's (heck, any day of the week) dinner!!!

 

Alas, our time in Annecy had come to an end. We cannot thank Charlie and Deborah enough for allowing us to use their house and with any luck, we'll have a blog post showing them visiting us aboard Whatever She Wants somewhere.

Since we still had plenty of time before the boating season begins in the Mediterranean Sea, MaryAnn arranged a pet/house sitting job on the other side of France in a town called Mohon. So, we headed back to Geneva to catch a flight to the west coast (of France) to the city of Nantes.  We'll fill you on that next time.

Until next post!