May 23, 2014
Biking around Lake Annecy
Final day in Annecy came around far too quickly, but like any good troopers, we made the most of it. After checking out and depositing our backpack into Marc’s cellar to be retrieved later (it is somewhat inconvenient that the train station does not have a locker facility), we went over to the office of Vélonecy to take out a couple of their chainless yet 7 speed-equipped Classique urban bikes. As we travelled to Annecy by train, our SNCF tickets scored us the equivalent of local resident’s rate of €5 per day.
Our plan was to cycle the entire lake, having seen good bike lanes stretching to the villages next to Annecy. When we mentioned this to Marc and Marie, they assured us that this would be very doable, but with a small caveat – there will be a stretch where we would be on the road with the rest of the traffic without the benefit of bike lanes. Undeterred, we went ahead with this excursion.
As we pushed the bikes out from the office of Vélonecy, F and I looked at each other. Which way should we go? Would we cycle clockwise or anti-clockwise? Undecided, we figured we would just cycle towards the lake and take what felt to be the natural continuation path. And by this serendipitous strategy, we travelled clockwise, leaving Annecy behind us as we chased for Annecy-le-Vieux.
Dark clouds were looming above our head but having been rather well kitted out, we were not too concerned. The first stretch of the route was easy, almost leisurely, leaving plenty of opportunity to look around and to go oooh-aaah over the scenery. We picked out houses which we would be happy to own (if that ever happen) and marvelled at the calm and quiet after the bustling Annecy.
As we continued towards Veyrier-du-Lac, it got a little harder. The bike gears were cranked to the lower end so I wouldn’t feel like I was peddling lead, but this came in bursts. One small stretch of uphill ride, one small stretch of downhill free flow. Occasionally, I may have used photography as an excuse to take a break but to be honest, we were surrounded by so much natural beautiful that anyone would want to slow down and enjoy it too.
The journey between Veyrier-du-Lac and Talloires felt never-ending. Not only were we on a stretch that were slightly tilted – and not in our favour, mind – it started to drizzle, we were on the main road that didn’t have a lot of shoulder for us to stay on and therefore away from the path of traffic zooming past us constantly, and I was roasting under my windbreaker/raincoat. The need to cool down trumped the need to be protected from the drizzle, so another stop by the precarious edge of the road to strip down a little.
We powered on. What felt like torture had to end at some point, and eventually, we returned to the pace of leisure biking when we stumbled across a group of paragliders preparing to take off at the mountains above Talloires. I wished I was part of the group. A couple of friends had told me about paragliding in Annecy previously but without a car, I never thought we’d be here to be able to do it. Who would have guessed I would cycled out here instead? Not me, even!
It was as we descended towards Talloires, some 13 km away from our starting point, that we were *very* glad we cycled clockwise instead of anti-clockwise. Our slow and steady climb up until now could not compare with the steep zig-zagging route downhill we took next. Had we needed to climb this stretch instead, our quaint city bikes would had given up along with our legs, and we would be pushing the bikes uphill instead. Can I just say once again how glad I was to be cruising down at this point?!
Shortly after we got to the other end of Lake Annecy opposing where Annecy sits, we found a pleasant path away from the main road where we could cycle-and-admire the lake rather effortlessly. It didn’t even occur to us that it was way past lunch time, until we saw a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Not wanting to spend too much time for lunch, we moved on until we hit the next main village, Duingt, grabbed sandwiches and pastries from the local bakery, and had a picnic by the lake.
Between Duingt, Sévrier and Annecy, the route was back to relative plateau, nice and easy to handle. We were starting to see more cyclists and joggers too, so our calm and quiet discovery part of the lake was over. We almost resented that, for it meant our short vacation was coming to an end and we would soon be facing the hastened pace of Parisian life again.
One could realistically cycle around the entire lake in about 3 hours, but F and I took nearly twice that amount of time. We took numerous (long) pauses just to huddle next to one another and focus on the breathtaking views before our eyes. There was a certain magic to it that I could not explain…
Biking around Lake Annecy: full photoset on Flickr
All posts in this series:
Annecy: Lake Annecy | Flickr Photoset
Annecy: A very picturesque Annecy | Flickr Photoset
Annecy: 20/Vins: more like 12/20
Annecy: Hiking the Annecy-Sévrier way | Flickr Photoset
Annecy: Lunch at La Ciboulette
Annecy: Biking around Lake Annecy | Flickr Photoset
Nice cycling route!!! Beautiful scenery ;)
You’d love it, and with your current biking streak, you could even tackle it the other way round ;)