Day Trips to France

Our next trip was to Annecy, France. Geneva is located right in the corner of Switzerland so we actually went back and forth across the French border multiple times throughout my visit.

This is the Palais de l'Isle, an old prison built back in the 12th century. So cute!

We actually ate in a room right behind where Brooke and I were standing. It overlooked the canal and the three swans that were swimming. Such a lovely place to enjoy lunch.

 Yum! Tartiflette! This is a specialty of this region of France. Being a complete potato lover I was happy to devour this dish made of potatoes, reblochon cheese, ham, and onions. I need to make this at home (but I don't think it is a low-fat dish!).


The next day we took a trip to Chamonix, France to be able to see the Alps along with their crowning glory, Mont Blanc. The only problem was the weather. We got there and saw the lower part of the mountains, but the cloud cover was quite dense and so we did not get to see the grand views that Brooke had raved about.

The cable car ride up to the top of the mountains was closed due to the poor visibility so we were told to instead take the cog train up another mountain to view Mer de Glace glacier. The ride up was nice and we were allowed some nice views of Chamonix. However, notice the low cloud cover on the mountains.

Ummm...they failed to tell us the visibility up at the glacier was terrible. We got to the viewing station and saw nothing but clouds.

 After awhile the clouds shifted enough to get a few pics and then the clouds rolled back in covering everything up once again.

This is what we should have seen (thank you Wikipedia!).

 We still had a nice time walking around the town of Chamonix. It must be really fun during ski season! And, of course, we had to find a great place for lunch and enjoyed every bite of the new food:)

I had enjoyed the tartiflette the day before and decided to do it again. This one was even better than the first!

 

I'm not sure what this is called, but it was kind of like doing a Korean BBQ or Chinese Hot Pot except this time all the meat was cooked on a hot stone. All the dipping sauces were interesting to try on the meat.

Of course, by the time we got back to Geneva late in the afternoon the skies had cleared and the weather was beautiful. We got a good look at the Jet d'Eau on Lake Geneva (look for the large fountain) as we drove by -- it had been off the first day we walked down to see it!