Annecy, France

This weekend we decided to drive into France to a town called Annecy, which is about an hour drive from Lausanne. Driving into Annecy, we had a little of what Americans refer to as "deja-vu" and what the French call "haven't I been here before?" The town itself is very similar to Stresa, Italy as it is located right on a lake and surrounded by the Alps. Annecy's old town area is filled with pedestrian streets that follow the river as it flows through from the lake, and to Nicole's delight it also has quite a bit of shopping. However, we weren't here to shop, we came to do some biking. We didn't ship Mason's Burley 4,000 miles for nothing!
So, after struggling to get out of the apartment before 10 a.m., and then getting stuck in traffic in Lausanne and again in a small one-stoplight town in France, we finally reached Annecy at noon all fired-up to start our day of biking. We reached the bike rental store and found out it was closed until 2 p.m. for lunch. We had packed a picnic to bring on our bike ride, so we ate our lunch in Annecy in a waterfront park and waited patiently (depending on who you ask) until 2 p.m. At 2:00, we rented our bikes and I pedaled back to the car as fast as I could to get the Burley, only to realize that we had forgotten to bring the arm that connects the Burley to the bike. Quite fruststrated, I pedaled back to the bike shop again, where the French lady working the shop got the laugh of her day. "So you bring zee trailer all zee way from zee US, and you didn't bring zee arm?!" Preserving some dignity, we informed her that the arm was not left in the US, that we had only left it in a differnt foreign country, but I think she was still amused. Luckily, they had a bike trailer for rent. Not so lucky for me, the thing rolled about as well as a brick and weighed more than our car.
The bike ride was very nice (other than the struggle with the trailer). We biked for 44 km rountrip up the lake shore and back on nice, paved paths. Mason enjoyed watching the parachuters who jumped off the top of the nearby mountains and flew across the lake before landing towards the end of the bike trail.
After the bike ride, we walked around Annecy and ate at a fondue restaurant in the old town. Nicole enjoyed the fondue much more than I did. Melted cheese on bread seems more to me like an appetizer than a main course, but Nicole thought differently. Mason didn't care what we ate, as long as we stopped at one of the glaciers afterwards for gelatos (which we did).
Despite the problems during the day, we really like Annecy and will definitely return another time before we leave.