Bonjour,

Lake Annecy is about eight miles southeast of Vaulx and Jacques house. This lake is the smallest of three lakes in the area with Lake Bourget being bigger and Lake Geneva the biggest. Lake Annecy reminded me of our Lake Tahoe. The water is extremely clear. Jacques told us that you can drink the water straight out of the lake; it’s that clean. And while Lake Annecy might be the smallest of the three lakes in the area, it is still quite large. We spent the whole afternoon around the lake area.

Jacques told us that this area is a huge sports and recreation area. He mentioned hiking, biking, mountaineering, water skiing, snow skiing, snowboarding, ski-jumping, parasailing, and more. Jacques said that he started his children mountaineering or rock climbing at age two.

1. We started out with lunch. We ate at the L’Oasis restaurant which is right on the bank of Lake Annecy. If you look at the lake between Jacques and Karen, you can see a water ski jump. Lunch included appetizers of whitebait, prosciutto, bread, cheese, ham, and pickles. We drank a local white wine. Lunch was local lake-caught fish with salad, vegetables, and fries. Needless to say, we weren’t suffering.

2. Next we went for a hike. The Rhone-Alps region has lots of small villages but is mostly lightly populated. Towns and agriculture and recreation and tourism all seem to be very intertwined.

3. Our hike was to Cascade d’Angon, which is the Angon waterfall. In this photo, you can see Vicky and Debra hiking through a gap in the limestone on our way up to the falls. If you look to the lower left of the photo, you might be able to notice that its very steep and a long way down.

4. Angon Falls was something like 200 feet and since it had rained recently, it was somewhat robust. Jacques and Vicky were getting up close with the falls.

5. We started watching the parasailers from below as they landed in a meadow. Eventually, we drove up the mountain and watched some of them taking off. You can see Lake Annecy in the background.

Voila,

Bill