From the Alps to Babylon

We woke to a fantastic breakfast of gorgeous local cheeses, managed to find a decent coffee in a local bar and then we were off, leaving the Alps behind us. 

The cycle paths in this area are legendary and we sat on a wide, flat path that whisked us to Lac d’Annecy, a beautiful lake full of boats, bathers and crowned by parapunters soaring above the high peaks around it. 

We were heading along the banks of the lake in a Sunday, with the temperature around 30°C, so, as you can imagine, the bike path was pretty crowded. There were families on mountain bikes, small pelotons of road bikes and triathletes on tri-bikes. Even a rider in the Transcontinental Race heading for Le Galibier and checkpoint 4 in his race. 

We made our way onwards with ease despite the traffic, had a dip in the lake at lunchtime and then headed to the town of Annecy. 

It’s a beautiful town with grand classical French buildings around the top of the lake. 

Then we were off the bicycle path at last and riding on a French D road. There’s still not much hard shoulder for us, but French drivers give us a lot of respect and they feel very safe. 

We’d decided to go to Frangy, which for 361 days a year is a quiet village that used to have a thriving agricultural community.  But for four days it turns into the Nomade Reggae Festival, filling  with thousands of tie dye wearing, weed smoking reggae fans. Guess what, we arrived on the last night of the festival and the village was heaving. 

We managed to get a pizza in the end,  but there were queues for everything and most places were shut. However it was a lovely relaxed atmosphere and another unexpected experience on our trip.