Day 15 - Annecy - Left Saint Gervais early morning for Annecy via train.  Easy trip and hotel a very easy walk from train station. Dropped bags and went for a walk in glorious sunshine.  Annecy is called the Venice of the Alps and can see why .  Is very pretty place. Reminded us a bit of Lucerne or the Wolfganzee.  Very wealthy area and is definitely full of tourists even though it is no longer high season.  Went on a boat trip around Lake Annecy, viewing many lovely houses on the lakeside and chateaus that have been in the same families for centuries.  The lake (and Annecy) has soaring mountains in the background so the whole vista is pretty impressive.

We saw the Palais de L'lle which is a very old building in the shape of a ship's bow and used to be a prison, court and administrative centre. It's of medieval construction originally and the oldest parts apparently date from the 12th century.  Also saw the Chateau d'Annecy which in the words of my historical adviser is 'really old'. More accurately it was built between the 12th and 16th centuries.  Having said that it is relatively high up so also seems to have had a residence there for quite some time and as usual, various layers of buildings have been built on top of each other. Just walked around it as did not seem to be anything especially interesting inside.

There are also many churches here - from my quick google  this would same to be at least in part because during the reformation in the 1530's the bishop of Geneva was evicted and sought refuge in Annecy which was Catholic under the Duchy of Savoy. Annecy became rather important as part of the 'Counter Reformation' so  many churches were built. We saw a fair sample -  St Franciose de Sales, St Maurice and Notre-Dame de Liesse - they vary in construction from the 14th-19th century and a number seem to have been dismantled in part during the French revolution.  Given our non-rleigious leanings we only entered one - the Notre Dame one.  That one was built in the 1800's and was  impressive inside.

Stephen is definitely feeling better - he visited a chocolate shop today and bought a gelato this afternoon.  Things are looking up.  We had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant, sampling a half bottle of a local red - a Mondeuse. We resisted some of the more traditional local fare as they are very very cheesy.  It would not have ended well we felt if we had taken the cheesy options.

Lovely place but one night is enough for us.