Annecy 2025 Alps Viewpoint

The Plateau du Semnoz gives a fabulous view of the Alps! It's only a half-hour drive from our apartment, *and* it was a fantastic, super-sunny day! Of course we went!

I had checked ahead (tourist office, and Google street view), so I was prepared for some winding, forest-lined driving - it wasn't too bad!

I walked to the peak (pretty steep) for the 360° views - I reversed my usual order of photo-then-info, and took a photo of the Orientation Table, then the corresponding view. (See the Annecy 2025 Alps Viewpoint album for these)

Massif des Bornes

Massif de Mont-Blanc and Massif du Beaufortain 

Massif de la Vanoise and Massif des Bauges

Then I took some close-ups!

Here's Mont-Blanc (left side), at 4810 meters (15780 feet), the highest point in Europe outside the Caucasus mountains

Pointe Percée, the sharp peak in the center

Aiguilles d'Arvres, the sharp double peak in the distance 

Well, then I had to get a shot of the ski lift 😊

On the way back, we stopped at a viewpoint of the lake 

 

We could just make out the Château de Duingt on a peninsula in Lake Annecy

We were back in time to catch the end of the marché ; we got rôtisserie for lunch! 😋😋😋

Annecy 2025 Gorges du Fier

The Gorges du Fier is a natural wonder, just a short drive from Annecy. The Fier river (fier translates to proud) carved a gorge through the pre-Alps (foothills of the Alps), and Man added a footbridge. You (and a hundred of your best friends) can walk along, 25 meters (82 feet) above the water, but still well below the top of the gorge. The path goes for 1.2 km (3/4 mile) in the shade, with the sound of rushing water to keep it cool.

On the left side wall, there's a scale showing different flood levels.

Here are a few shots along the way...

We finished with a quick look at the Chateau Montrottier

Take a look at the Annecy 2025 Gorges du Fier album - there a a few short videos where you can hear the water 😉

Annecy 2025 Lake Cruise

We took a cruise around the lake!

Pardon the reflection - this was too nice a view to not include...

Château de Duingt on a peninsula in Lake Annecy 

Some paragliders...

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We had planned to drive to the Alps Viewpoint, but the forecast was for partly cloudy, so we did this instead - smart move, if I do say so myself!

We got to the quay, had a short wait to buy tickets, then to the boarding line. It wasn't crowded (and most people headed to the upstairs (wheelchair, no go), so we had most of the center to ourselves 🙂

For more pictures, see the Annecy 2025 Lake Cruise album.

Here's where you can listen to the English audioguide

Annecy 2025 Amble

We thought we'd see something of the neighborhood...

We ambled around, thinking we'd turn back whenever we'd had enough - that took a while!

Our view of the marché 

The canal Thiou 

Old buildings along the canal (see how the pink one is closing off the other one?)

Covered alleyways 

(Those old cobblestone paths were impossible with the wheelchair...)

Palais de l'île 

The view!

We rested on a bench in the Jardin de l'Europe 

View of the lake from the end of the Jardin. From here, we crossed the Pont des Amours - yes, we stopped to kiss, thus sealing our relationship forever (again 💞🥰). 

We stopped for another rest, this time with ice cream and sorbet! 😋😋😋. We walked along another canal to the tourist office for some information.

Then we made our way back towards the apartment, via the old town.

It wasn't far, so we sidetracked to the Cathedral St Pierre 

Back across the canal Thiou 

Here's our route...

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For more photos, see the Annecy 2025 Amble album.

Lyon 2025 Part 5

Au revoir, Lyon !

Yesterday was our last full day in town - besides packing, we tried another cuisine, Nepalese! Right next door, was the St Polycarpe Church and the arty Mermet stairway.

This morning, we finished packing, used the wheelchair to get to the metro quay, then I returned it to the pharmacy (easy peasy, took about 5 minutes to look it over, pay, and retrieve my deposit check). I picked up the rest of our luggage from the apartment, checked out, and met Rick on the quay. We had an easy metro ride to the end of the line, where we picked up the car and headed on to Annecy!

Lyon is a great city, with a ton of things to see and do - we had a list, and did what we could...

Normally, we try for a petit train, but even though I found references to three, the only one still running is around a large park (which we didn't do).

Likewise, there used to be two routes for Hop on Hop off buses, but I couldn't find the one around Croix Rousse.

When we stay in some cities, we like to use the Hop on Hop off buses - they get you around, and you get to see and hear about a lot of interesting places. But sometimes, we look at the routes to see what things we can get to on our own. For Lyon, we used a river cruise to see some, and used public transportation to see others. What we left for a future trip:

- Croix Rousse district's murals, viewpoints, and traboules 

- Les Halles, and nearby Ayla restaurant 

- Palais de justice at night 

- Hôtel-Dieu inside 

- Old Lyon traboules 

- Parc Tête d'or (petit train)

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The Lyon 2025 photo album has a few extra photos to see.