Lovely Annecy & Cool Paris

Last week we went on holiday. I had a lovely time - it's always a pleasure going to France. I ate well ('well' meaning I ate a LOT of cheese, bread and pain au chocolat...not a healthy 'well') and drank a modest (ha ha) amount of house red, white or whatever they were willing to give us really.

We travelled down by train - Eurostar to Paris, then TGV to Annecy. We decided to do this all on the same day, but it was much nicer when we did the return journey and broke it up with a night in lovely Paris (where we broke free from the fromage, and switched to steak frites instead...).

Well, Annecy... what a lovely town. The weather was pretty misty, so actually seeing the surrounding hills and mountains was a no-goer for the first couple of days (which was a bit pants), but on the upside, the town was very atmospheric and virtually deserted (which was absolutely wonderful!).

We discovered that when the sun did shine, all the 'fair-weather' people (not the hardcore 'we're British, so a little cold and damp won't frighten us away' people that we are) came out of the woodwork. And it was then we really began to appreciate that, actually, we were really very pleased that it had been a bit sombre for the first few days: we didn't travel all the way down to the countryside from North London to be surrounded by the masses.

The hotel we stayed in was excellent - L'Hotel Alexandra, great value for money and in a fab location in the centre of town. The rooms cost €59 per night, and breakfast was €7 each extra, which we decided to forego so we could enjoy a coffee and a croissant dans un café like the french sometimes do (usually if they too are on holiday).

Most of our time in Annecy was spent walking in the forest area to the south west of the town. That along with eating and drinking, of course.

Mmmmm, I smell food...

Which brings me on to the subject of the Cuisine d'Annecy. Well, as you may have guessed, or already know, it's regional Savoie food - so, mainly cheese based dishes. Being a HUGE cheese fan, I basically resigned myself to the fact that I would saying a big bonjour! to bread, cheese and charcuterie, and a massive au revoir! to any sort of fruit or veg that might be offered as an (far inferior in my opinion) alternative.

We arrived in Annecy at 9pm, so, finding food was a bit of an issue...not because it was too late, but simply because (and to my surprise) almost everywhere was fully booked. We started to wonder if it was going to be a kebab for the first night of our holiday (at least we'd eaten a meal at lunchtime in Paris - my boyfriend very sensibly opted for a filling steak and chips, and I for a dinosaur sized toasted club sandwich with every possible filling under the sun stuffed into it).

Anyway, we found a restaurant (Le Ramoneur Savoyard) with space (we couldn't work out whether this was a good thing or not...) and dived straight in with a Savoyard delicacy (!) : a fondue. With cured meats. And wine. And maybe some desert. The meal was very nice, although, as I was soon to discover pretty pricey compared with some of the other restaurants in town.

The second night - Sunday proved to be just as tricky, if not more so, for finding a meal in the evening than the night before. It seems Annecy is super busy on the Saturday, then so quiet on the Sunday that the restaurants just don't seem to bother with opening (I know this is France, and that Sundays and Mondays aren't great days for shopping, eating out and the like...but still).

Again, after a wander round town, we revisited a restaurant that we had tried the night before where the waiter brusquely rebuffed our polite request for a table. We found out this time, that the entrance to the restaurant was not through the bar downstairs, but through a side entrance and up some not clearly marked stairs (one of those times when you expect to end up in someone's living room).

The restaurant 'L'Etage' (hence being upstairs) had just opened, in fact I think the kitchen staff we just finishing off their dinner. Despite being empty, they implied that they were going to be very busy (which they were later), but could find us a table. The food was excellent, the service very nice and relaxed (read: a bit slow if you are an impatient kind of person), and the bill not too bad at all. I had an interesting dish called 'Farçon Savoyard' which consisted a few slices of what I can only explain as a grated potato loaf with prunes and lardons (bacon-y ham) inside it. It was wonderful. My boyfriend had a 'Croûte au fromage et au jambon': a gratin of bread, potatoes and ham...and oodles of cheese.

I thought this meal was delicious - and fairly light (which made a change from all the other cheese-based evening meals we had).

At lunch time we were well behaved on the food-front: baguette, some charcuterie and some cheese from the market. I struggled a bit with the bread as just before I left England, I chipped one of my front teeth (rather ironically) on a tasty stone-baked baguette from Waitrose... so whilst we were away I had to keep breaking off baby sized portions to chew on. My tooth did chip once more, but it is now sorted, well, it's been filed down a bit anyway.

Say Cheese!

Other places we ate were: Le Freti where I had a very good fondue with bleu d'Auvergne cheese (yep, cheese in cheese!), and on the last night we had a raclette (see photos) (this restaurant was by far the best value for money-coming up at roughly €36 for aperitif, main and wine); Chez Mamie Lise, which was much like Le Freti, but the food was served on British gastro-pub style slates (thumbs down from me!) and it cost around €20 more for similar things to what we had in Le Freti and L'Etage (and my boyfriend was very disappointed with his steak which he asked for rare, and came rare, but continued cooking on the dish they presented it in until it was more than 'well-done').

Amble, drink coffee, amble some more.

Following the advice of many guide books and the internet, we went to Au Fidèle Berger (or The Burger Place as my boyfriend wittily referred to it) for breakfast one day. This patisserie/café is much like a Tea Room. They had a wonderful selection of cakes, and (very expensive) chocolates. We asked for two café crème and two croissants... the coffees arrived - smallish, but with REAL cream!! Nice, but a bit rich for first thing in the morning. It was also a tad on the pricey side: €4.20 each for the coffee and €1.20 a piece for the croissants.

After sampling many cafés, we did eventually find a lovely place (which is also a shop for the coffee house Le Folliet), modern - definitely not for you if you want an old-worldy French brasserie type place, but excellent coffees and hot chocolates (I had white chocolate hot chocolate mmmmm!), plus they came with an array of goodies - a small cake, a biscuit and a two chocolates. That was me sold.

Pine trees and the like.

When not walking in the forest, we ambled round town and had a wander part way down the path that runs down the side on the lake (which, incidentally, is exceptionally crystal clear - so much so that despite the temperature I had an overwhelming urge to jump in. I didn't, you'll be pleased to hear - apparently we can't always do what we want). The walk around the entire lake is 38k, so we didn't quite manage that! The tourist information office was very helpful, providing us with walks, a giant map, bus times and a leaflet on the cultural sites (the château and the Palais de l'île).

We were considering taking the bus to the mountains - a nearby resort called La Clusaz - but in the end the weather improved, so we stayed in Annecy to walk some more and admire the views.

We also visited the Basilica of the Monestry overlooking Annecy which had a few monks milling around inside, the Château, which had an unsual exhibition of lots of very random objects accumulated by Annecy from all over the world and great views of the town, and the Palais de l'île, which was small but well worth a visit.

So, by the time the last day loomed, we'd had a couple of reasonable days weather-wise, visited some sites, and drank lots of wine and coffee, and, of course, we had now seen some snow. Albeit on the very top of a mountain, a very long way away.

Sod's Law at its best.

On the last morning we awoke, not to the white skies of the rest of the week, but to glorious blue skies, not a cloud to be seen - just as I had hoped the rest of the week would have been. The TGV was due to leave at 9.30, so we dashed down to the lake to take a quick photo or two before leaving... the day would have been stunning had we been able to stay!

Oh well, it wasn't all bad... we were Paris-bound. One night in the City of Light before heading back to Holloway.

Paris!

After all the walking, I had some blisters on my heals (all this climbing up hills... I'm not used to it, nor are my feet), so even walking from the metro stop in Paris to the hotel was a bit of a pain. Especially as I took us the wrong way, ooops.

We arrived at the Hotel Helios Opera at around 2pm, starving but very pleased to find that the room was comfortable, warm and had what looked to be a good shower. We dropped our bags and headed out into the crowds to find a bite to eat. After some discussion (mainly me protesting against fast-food baguette 'restaurants') we ended up in a brasserie with a suitably aloof and unfriendly waiter. We were in Paris remember, if you don't get that kind of service at least once, then something ain't right.

I had a bit of an upset stomach by this point, so we took it fairly easy in the afternoon. In the evening we wanted to go to a restaurant called L'Office which had been recommended on the website Parisbymouth.com. However, when we arrived at just gone 7pm (yes, I know we were well early, but I was worried about my stomach!) they hadn't set any of the tables up yet. So, we carried on walking, ending up in Chartier, a manic restaurant that we went to last year. One hour and a steak frites, rum baba and a caraf of wine later (all for the bargain price of €36!) we left very satisfied. I'm not sure that the Japanese couple who thought they had a 4 person table all to themselves until we were sat with them enjoyed it so much.

The following morning we walked down to the Seine, and then to the Latin Quarter (where I finally gave in and saw a pharmacist about my stomach). We stumbled upon a lovely place to eat (La Lozère) - we saw an older couple go straight in without consulting the menu, so we assumed it would be okay! We indulged in a 3 course lunch of soup, veal and vegetables, and blueberry tart. The restaurant was small (we sat on a table for six between two other couples which was quite tight...), but the service and food was irreproachable. It was a great way to end our trip - better than some mediocre, over-priced salad from a brasserie with moody waiters!

So, that was it. Back to the hotel to collect our bags, then homeward bound on the Eurostar.

All in all, an excellent week away.

Annecy: The Best Of...

• Best coffee: Le Folliet
• Best croissant: Au Péché Mignon
• Tastiest meal: L'Etage
• Best value for-money meal: Le Freti

Costs

• Hotel Annecy €59 per night double
• Hotel Paris - Lastminute.com deal- €88 (dbl) with half a bottle of wine & breakfast
• Eurostar to Paris £69 rtn per person
• TGV Paris to Annecy €40 rtn per person.

Oh, and if you're wondering, yes - Annecy was a bit chilly, but nothing a few layers couldn't sort out (vest top, long sleeved top, thin cardigan x 2, wool cardigan, ski jacket, jeans, long leg warmers, socks x 2, gloves x 2, scarf and hat!).


Text & Photos © Abby Clarke 2011