Lake Annecy, part three: Gorges du Fier et un bateau

It's been almost a month since our vacation started and I've only told you about days one and two. There's a good reason - five days into the trip Josh badly injured his knee, and then we were without a computer for a week and living a pretty chaotic life ever since. But now the kids have started school and I have a morning free, so let's get back to it.

Picture it: Annecy, August 18th.

 We had breakfast in the apartment and then hopped into the car to check out a local landmark, Les Gorges du Fier. The drive was a little harrowing, as is all driving in Europe, but we made it there right when the ticket office opened, and actually found parking nearby for a change! Josh bought our tickets and we headed off to the right hand side, looking forward to incredible gorges and views. About five minutes later we saw this:

 ...followed immediately by a sign reading "Merci pour votre visite. A bientôt!" (Thank you for your visit. See you soon)! What a ripoff! We heard all these great things about the place and after one lousy gorge we're done? BOO.

Then as we were walking back to the car, passing the ticket office again, we noticed a turnstile and a big sign reading "Bienvenue aux Gorges du Fier." Welcome. That's right, we'd taken the little five minute free walk and entirely bypassed the actual gorges. Whoops. In we went.

 There's a wooden walkway suspended from one rocky side, out over the flowing water. Lincoln was a little nervous - but mostly thrilled to get to take "I'm so scared!" pictures. He also managed to pinch some binoculars from our VRBO host's home, which he happily carried and never once used.

 About halfway through the walk we descended some stairs to another kind of overlook with a pitch black cave, presumably the home of Shelob. Josh, aka The Fun Parent, took the kids inside to explore. I stayed safely outside with my camera.

 We finished our visit with the return hike through the gorge, happy to have seen it all before the bigger crowds arrived. I think we all walked more than five miles that day, and the kids were troupers! By the time we reached the car we were starving, and of course finding lunch was a huge hassle. The gorges are not near Annecy city, and we struck out three or four times trying to find an open cafe on the way back. Finally we used Yelp and Google and had some fairly grim "tex mex" food. Anything with corn on it is called tex mex here, as near as I can tell.

Back in Annecy we had a couple of hours' non-nap in the apartment, then walked around sightseeing in the old village. We passed what, at first glance, I thought was a patisserie - then I saw that all of the delicious treats on offer were actually fish! I'm sure they're delicious, but they definitely aren't dessert.

 One souvenir shop had music boxes - I did not expect to see The Simpsons theme among them.

 And then we had another incredible dinner out. Our friend Sabina, who is from Poland but lived in Clermont-Ferrand for many years before being expatriated to the U.S., recommended a restaurant called Vinistrot, where her friend is the sommelier. It did not disappoint. We were the first to arrive, of course, because dinner before 8:00 p.m. is a cardinal sin in this country. Luckily for our kids' needs, they actually open at 7:00.

Soupe de petit pois avec yaourt. Pea soup with sweet frozen yogurt and basil. Divine.

Two appetizers on one plate - cold shrimp and avocado salad, and fois gras with strawberries and herbs.

 Mademoiselle wanted something a bit plain and comforting, so she had pasta with a mushroom and basil cream sauce. Monsieur ordered potatoes, ham and cheese on rustic bread with a big salad - I think he liked it.

 Josh's steak frites was delicious but I forgot to get a picture. My meal - I make a point to get fish whenever I can, because I missed it so much during my inland USA years - was fish en croute with gorgeous summer vegetables alongside. The sauces were light and creamy and delicious. Such a great recommendation! And somehow we chose a red wine that paired well with it all.

 Sylvia so charmed the waiter that he brought her a little child-size umbrella that had been left behind by other vacationers. It's her favorite vacation souvenir, BY FAR.

 Saturday we decided to take a boat tour of the beautiful lake, and it did not disappoint. I grew up an ocean person, and the sea will always be my favorite. But this lake in the Alps is so big, cold, and gorgeous that I almost felt at home on the water. 

 Our guide told us many facts about the villages and castles we were seeing along the coast - none of which we could really understand. Our bad French skills plus the captain's heavily-accented English, compounded by a loudspeaker on a fast-moving boat meant we absorbed almost nothing. But it was beautiful.

The color of the water changes so abruptly!

 Sylvia was a little bored by the whole affair, but not so bothered that she forgot to smile for pictures. And once she realized she could sit in Lincoln's lap, the two of them kept each other amused for the remainder of the trip!

  The rest of our Saturday was relatively quiet and calm. We rented a pedal boat and had a great time swimming in the shallow water, collecting empty clam shells and pedaling around in the way of the other tourists. We knew that the next day was our last in the Alps, so we went to bed early and planned a day of touring, good food, and boats for our final day. Little did we know that this would be our last day with eight functioning legs among us! Stay tuned.