Beaucoup de Photos - Finally

What a day!! Today was the CUEF (my school) sponosored trip to Le Retour des Alpages in Annecy. We left at 8:30 am, which makes it the earliest Saturday morning for me in a very very very long time, my entire family was still asleep when I crept out at 8am to be there on time. Lots of American students, but I did meet a guy from Paris and the two girls I hung with both speak very good French as well so I did get to practice quite a bit of French. On the way there we stopped at Chambéry, which was a surprise for me since I guess I didn’t read about the trip very well and didn’t know we were going there. It was a beautiful little town and we got an hour to walk around and just kinda check it out. The church was the only thing we really had time to go in, but following with my obsession all things cathedral, I was perfectly ok with that.

Chambery. The flag is the flag of Savoie.

Then a pit stop at Aix-les-Bains, which is on one of the largest Alpine lakes. We had like 20 minutes here, just enough to get out and walk to the end of the pier and take lots of pictures and breathe in the really fresh air and take in the view. It was definitely more of a summer tourist place, but beautiful nonetheless.The lake at Aix-les-bains.

Me on the pier at Aix-les-Bains.

And then on to our final destination of the day: Annecy et Le Retour des Alpages. It’s a one day festival that celebrates all things Savoie. Savoie is a part of France/Germany/Italy that was, at one time, autonomous but the three larger countries decided to split it among themselves and essentially it got split along the lines of who spoke more of which language. This festival was incredible. Very French and German. There was food and music and dancers and animals and vendors and anything else that might possibly have anything to do with la vie Savoie. It got really really crowded after about 14h so I was glad we were leaving soon actually. We spent five hours there and it was fabulous. By we I mean myself and Irene and Debbie. They’re both from Calvin College in Michigan. Irene is from Wisconsin and Debbie is from Korea, but spent the vast majority of her life in the Congo, where her parents were missionaries. It was really interesting to hear her talk about her life. But back to Annecy. The town itself is centered around the old village which is very picturesque. Lots of churches in town, which I loved, and un château de le XIIIe siècle. The pictures really say more than I could, so enjoy!

Me in front of the Chateau d'Annecy.

Woman in traditional old Savoie attire... in stark contrast to the very modern woman next to her.

Like I said, it got really crowded. That's during the parade.

The lake that Annecy is famous for and a few of its many sailboats.

Musicians who played all day. Too bad I didn't know the songs or I could have sung along like everyone else. I did get video of them though...