Table of Contents for this Episode
Category: Lyon Area
Discussed in this Episode
- Annecy
- Thiou River
- Lake Annecy
- Haute-Savoie
- Alps
- Semnoz
- Parmelan
- Old City
- Palais de l’Isle
- Château d’Annecy
556 Annecy with Elyse (July 27)
Annie: This is Join Us in France, episode 556, cinq cent cinquante-six.
Annie: Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent and Join Us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational journey through the beauty, culture, and flavors of France.
[00:00:30] Today’s Episode
Annie: Today, I bring you a conversation with Elyse Rivin of Toulouse Guided Walks about the enchanting city of Annecy, known as the Little Venice of the Alps.
Annie: Discover why this picturesque destination captivates travelers with its stunning scenery, rich history, outdoor adventures, and really good cuisine.
Annie: Listen in for insider tips and stories that will inspire your next French getaway.
[00:00:58] Podcast Supporters
Annie: This podcast runs on chocolatine, caffeine, and the support of lovely humans like you. You book itinerary consults, take my VoiceMap tours, ride shotgun in my electric car, come to the boot camp, or slip me a few euros on Patreon, and I love you for it.
Annie: Want to keep me going and skip the ads? There’s a link for that in the show notes. And head to joinusinfrance.com/boutique for all of my services.
[00:01:28] Magazine Segment
Annie: For the Magazine part of the podcast, after my chat with Elyse today, let’s talk about some big differences between life in the US and life in France, things that surprise visitors and even longtime expats.
Annie: And also, about the Paris balloon that’s doing its part to understand the increasingly crazy climate that we have.
Annie: Want all the links and the full episode transcript? You’ll find everything on the page that lists all episodes by month at joinusinfrance.com/episodes.
Annie: And if you’d like a handy summary of the conversation with all the useful links, subscribe to the newsletter at joinusinfrance.com/newsletter. It’s the best way to stay in the loop.
[00:02:22] Annie and Elyse about Annecy
Annie Sargent: Bonjour, Elyse.
Elyse Rivin: Bonjour, Annie.
Annie Sargent: We are going to talk about Annecy today, the beautiful, beautiful city in the Alps, otherwise known as the Little Venice of the Alps.
Elyse Rivin: The Little Venice of the Alps, or a writer called it, The Pearl of the Alps.
Elyse Rivin: Very nice.
Elyse Rivin: Isn’t that very nice?
Annie Sargent: It’s a favorite of people to visit, because it is so scenic. And then when we were chatting before the recording, you said, “Oh, but there’s so many pretty villages in France.” Yeah, but I mean, you can say that all kittens are cute … but some kittens are cuter than others.
Elyse Rivin: Stole my line. She normally would say that about dogs, you know?
Elyse Rivin: I said puppies, I said puppies.
Elyse Rivin: You said puppies, yes.
[00:03:05] The Scenic Beauty of Annecy
Elyse Rivin: No, it is true that Annecy is very beautiful. I think it’s partly beautiful also because of where it is. It’s like the cherry on top of the cake, and the cake is the Lake of Annecy for me, you know? And it’s surrounded by the Alps. It’s surrounded by part of the Alps that are absolutely magnificent. They’re not the highest part, but they’re absolutely beautiful. And it’s very green and it’s very lush, and it has a very, very, very old history as a town. It really makes it this little jewel, really.
Annie Sargent: I agree, yeah. It’s very, I wouldn’t say it’s unique, but in France, really, the vibe of Annecy it’s quite spectacular. And it’s a very pleasant place to spend at least a day.
Annie Sargent: You could spend much more time if you wanted to enjoy activities around the lake, and also biking and hiking and things like that. But for people who just want to visit the town, a day is sufficient. There are people who will want to go there to take wedding pictures. I mean, they have a thing called Le Pont des Amours, which is very pretty.
Annie Sargent: Aw.
Annie Sargent: So it’s being packaged as a romantic destination as well.
Elyse Rivin: When you went there, did you see anybody taking pictures on the bridge?
Elyse Rivin: I saw hundreds of people taking pictures.
Elyse Rivin: But, I mean, particularly wedding pictures, no? Not, you didn’t notice particularly?
Annie Sargent: I don’t remember. But I was there in the middle of the day. I’m assuming that professional photographers would show up at sunrise and later at sunset.
Annie Sargent: Maybe, yeah.
Annie Sargent: Because I did it as a day trip from Geneva.
[00:04:43] Traveling to Annecy
Elyse Rivin: Right.
Annie Sargent: So I took the train from Geneva, which was very nice, by the way, excellent. It was a fast train. I don’t remember how long it took, but maybe 40 minutes or something like that.
Elyse Rivin: Couldn’t have taken much more, because I have it even here, it’s 43 kilometers, which means it’s probably 40 minutes by train. Yeah.
Elyse Rivin: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: And like everything in Geneva, it was kind of expensive for a train ride.
Annie Sargent: Everything is expensive in Geneva.
Annie Sargent: But I arrived like around 11 or something, and then left by 6:00 PM.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Annie Sargent: So I didn’t see the professional photographers, but I’m sure there are plenty.
Elyse Rivin: Oh, I’m sure there are. It really is. It is beautiful. And most people in France that are French, I mean, not just tourists, know that. I mean, when people talk about Annecy, they talk about it as being this gorgeous little site. It’s the town and the lake. It’s like the whole thing is a package, you know, of something very beautiful.
Elyse Rivin: It is, to my surprise, actually, the prefecture of Savoie, which I didn’t realize, because it’s not that big, although it’s bigger than I thought in terms of population. I mean, it has about 100,000 people, because that includes the outlying areas. It includes all of the parts that are built up as kind of suburban areas, but still keeping a certain homogeneity in the architecture that’s very mountain architecture, you know, the Savoy architecture. So, you have those lovely steep roofs, and kind of chalet-looking houses once you leave the old city.
[00:06:09] Exploring Annecy’s Old City
Elyse Rivin: But the old city, of course, is filled with these canals and is very, very, very old.
Annie Sargent: Right, so some people describe Annecy like a quaint village. It is not a village. It’s a city. Maybe 100,000 – 130,000 inhabitants total if you take the whole… It feels like a city. When you arrive by train, you know, you will see, not super high rises, but you will see buildings with apartments, and you will see, you know, a normal French city. It’s just the hyper center is super quaint and super cute. The rest of the city isn’t anything special or anything awful. It’s just a French city.
Elyse Rivin: Yeah, and it’s very much… We did a podcast, I think, about when we did Haute-Savoie, I mentioned a little bit about Chambéry, we came coming by car actually from the Chambéry, which is north. But it’s very similar. You have the old, very quaint, beautiful little historic part, and then the rest of it, which is typical city, but with a little bit of a flavor of the Alps, let’s put it that way. It has a certain architecture that isn’t just anywhere else. You wouldn’t mistake it for architecture in Toulouse, for instance, you know?
Annie Sargent: Right, right. And along the way on the train ride, you have some beautiful views.
Elyse Rivin: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: Because you’re going through the Alps, and it’s definitely a beautiful ride, I thought. I’m sure you could also drive it, and you can come from Annecy from different directions. I mean, I did it from Geneva, because we were staying in Geneva, but you could also visit from Chambéry, or…
Elyse Rivin: You have the trains. You even have the TGV, which actually comes from, well, you have Geneva, but you also have it coming from Grenoble, and you also can get it from Lyon, and it will take you right to Annecy.
Elyse Rivin: So basically, you have connections from really pretty much everywhere, because I noted down, and with the distances, it’s far from Paris. It’s interesting when you open up and start reading about it online, it says it’s the southern part of France. I don’t think of this as the southern part of France.
Annie Sargent: Me neither.
Elyse Rivin: It’s actually, of course, it’s the extreme eastern part, because it is literally almost on the frontier with Switzerland. But, as far as geography is concerned, it’s below the midline in France, so it’s considered to be a bit south. You can get there easily by train from Lyon, from Grenoble, from Chambéry, from Geneva, and you can, of course, also get there from Paris or Marseille, but then you would have to make one change on the train to get there. But besides being accessible by car, which is how we went, it is easy to get there by train, you know?
Annie Sargent: And from different directions. Now, it would… i’m sure that the train, even if you are on a TGV, does it go TGV speeds?
Elyse Rivin: It doesn’t go TGV speeds the last distance, but at least it’s a nice… You know, it’s a sleek train. It’s not one of these little chug-chugs that go, you know… Like, when we go up into the high Alps, the last train we take is you know, it’s an old-fashioned chug-chug, you know? But the other thing is, is that it’s surrounded by absolutely gorgeous mountains, so on the eastern side. So Annecy is actually on the northern tip of a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful lake, the Lake of Annecy. Doing a little bit of reading about it, this is the kind of stuff that I really normally would not carry around as information in my head, it’s, of course, a glacial lake. It’s a natural, real deep, really deep glacial lake. It’s the second-largest glacial lake in France, and the water in it is so pure that you can drink it, which is exceptional. There are two reasons. One, because it never had terribly polluting heavy industry around the lake.
Annie Sargent: That’s correct. I didn’t see any remnants of heavy industry. No.
Elyse Rivin: No, no. And the other thing is that they managed, I guess, in the last 40, 50 years, to do enough water treatment, in spite of the fact that there are lots of water sports that take place on the lake, to keep it that clean, because it is the water that winds up going into people’s houses, you know, in Annecy and around there.
Elyse Rivin: And so, it is drinkable, and they said it, that it is an exception. It’s really quite an astounding thing.
Elyse Rivin: And they have an ecological mayor right now, and apparently, that’s what they would like. They want to keep everything that way. My guess is, if that’s the direction they’re going, that it’s probably going to soon be the case where in the old city, no cars are allowed, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah.
Elyse Rivin: It’s already pretty hard to drive through there, you know? It’s… Anyways. So the eastern side is called the Massif des Bornes, B-O-R-N-E-S. And massif is a range. It’s like the same word as in English when we talk about a range of mountains, but it’s not quite the same thing. So don’t ask me to explain the difference, it’s like if you take the Alps, and then a little part of it, like a chunk is the massif. You know? It’s like…-
Annie Sargent: Well, yeah, like in… I know in Utah you have the Rocky Mountains, and then you have the Wasatch Front.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Annie Sargent: Wasatch is a set of mountain… Yeah, yeah.
Elyse Rivin: It’s a set of mountains, right? In- inside the huge Rocky Mountains, right?
Annie Sargent: Exactly.
Elyse Rivin: So you have the Massif des Bornes on the eastern side, and you have, on the western side, the Massif des Bauges, B-A-U-G-E-S, which I know better, and that is actually the section we drove through getting there, because we were coming down from my stepson’s house up in the Alps, and traveling and visiting lots of places.
Elyse Rivin: And I have to say that my memory is meandering, coming down from up there in Chambéry and going through these mountains. And of course, my husband at the time was really able to do all this kind of driving and walking, and you get to a point where you’re on a… on the top of one of the mountains, and all of a sudden you have this view out over the lake and the city, and it’s absolutely gorgeous, just drop-dead gorgeous, you know? It’s really spectacular.
Elyse Rivin: And so along the lake, you have lots of hotels, more in the old-fashioned style. I don’t… Maybe now, you were there more recently than me, but mostly it was more these old-fashioned style, but they’re very luxurious.
Elyse Rivin: And my guess is that that’s… If people are going to spend two or three nights, that’s a probably a nice place to kind of do it, you know, where you get a view of the lake. They have nice restaurants. Oh, this is one of the few places in France where you can still get freshwater fish in restaurants, which we did, and to this day we talk about the meal we had. You know?
Elyse Rivin: Nice.
Elyse Rivin: It was really that incredible. And so it’s very nice.
[00:12:20] Activities Around Lake Annecy
Elyse Rivin: And then, of course, you work your way to the old city. But just as an idea for people who are active, outdoor sports type people, the number of things you can do around the lake or on the lake is really quite amazing. You can fish, you can row, you can swim, you can windsurf, you can water ski, and Annecy and the lake are the center of paragliding in France.
Elyse Rivin: Hmm.
Elyse Rivin: Very nice.
Elyse Rivin: That’s because of the winds.
Annie Sargent: Right. You can also just get on a big tourist boat, which is what I did.
Elyse Rivin: Ah. Did you go on a tourist boat?
Annie Sargent: Oh, yes. Of course. If there’s a tourist boat, I’ll get on it. I love those things.
Elyse Rivin: Do they tell you anything about the history, or is it just a tour around the lake. Do you remember?
Annie Sargent: I don’t remember, I think there was commentary, but you know, it doesn’t matter. Like, I wasn’t there for the commentary.
Annie Sargent: Okay. No, I was just wondering if there’s anything that you learned from being on the boat as opposed to just walking along the banks of the lake or anything like that.
[00:13:22] Rent Your Bike in Advance
Annie Sargent: No, nothing that stuck in my mind, but honestly I was there just for a few hours, and so I couldn’t go around the lake. I knew I didn’t have time for that. I saw a couple of places right by where the city center, there’s like a whole area where the lake comes, and along there, there were bike rental places.
Annie Sargent: Yes.
Annie Sargent: But there weren’t that many, so I think perhaps if you are going to go there and you want to rent a bike, you should book that in advance, because they looked like they were mighty busy.
Elyse Rivin: That’s very possible. What I did notice was that they were increasing the amount of cycling paths, that right now they mentioned 46 kilometers of cycling path, because it doesn’t go completely around the lake. I mean, it’s a very big lake, you know? But there’s a lot, and they encourage it, of course.
Annie Sargent: Oh, I thought it did go completely around the lake.
Elyse Rivin: I don’t think you can take a bicycle completely around the lake. I think you can… There’s a big chunk of it you can do. The lake is very, very big. So I don’t know if you can do a full circle around, because I think that would probably take more than a day to do, you know? It’s very big, the lake.
Annie Sargent: No, I’ve had people on the podcast saying that they did it in five or six hours.
Elyse Rivin: Did they do it in five or six hours?
Elyse Rivin: And that was with an electric bike or a regular bike?
Annie Sargent: I don’t remember. But I’m quite sure, there would be no point to having a partial bike path around the lake. Like, it has to be complete.
Elyse Rivin: My understanding was that it makes a kind of U-shape. In other words, you… Because Annecy is up the northern tip, you can go east or west, you go down and then you basically come back and go back the other way. I don’t… I wasn’t sure.
Annie Sargent: Right, but that’s a loop. That’s a loop.
Elyse Rivin: No, but… Okay. All right. What I was reading would… It didn’t indicate that you could go completely around, but it doesn’t matter. I mean, you can rent bikes and lots of people do it. And a lot of people hike around the lake, and a lot of people run.
Elyse Rivin: When we were there, one of the things that we noticed was that it’s very well set up so that you can visit the lake by foot. You know, it’s not some other lakes where it’s hard to have access by foot. You can pretty much hike or run or walk and just go just about everywhere, you know?
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes, yes, and there are some pretty villages along the way.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: We saw them from the boat. And these are very, very small little communities along the lake.
Elyse Rivin: I think they’re part of what they call the Greater Annecy right now, you know?
Annie Sargent: Probably, but they look like very teeny tiny little things. So, if you want to be in a village around Annecy, you’d want to be in one of those rather than Annecy Proper. Which is a city.
Elyse Rivin: Which is a city. No, but the old city, of course, is beautiful and quaint. I guess this is one where we could really say that it’s quaint in a very nice… there’s the chateau, of course, which you visited recently. And is up on top of one of the hills. You have the basilica, you have one of my favorite things, which is the strange palace in the middle of the Thiou River, which is this fortified structure that’s from the 12th century that is shaped almost like the prow of a ship, and which of course served as a prison. And the Thiou River is one that comes out of the lake and actually is what the old city is built on, with the canals that connect between the rivers. There are two other small rivers, and then you have the old streets and you have the canals and some bridges and some towers and some clock towers.
[00:16:37] Historical Significance of Annecy
Elyse Rivin: And so it’s very condensed. It’s not very big, the old part, but it is very beautiful, and it is a very ancient city. So, to my great surprise, I really didn’t know that much about it, I have to admit. It had a long history, and I’m just going to… And just do in one sentence. It had a very long history as being a major route on the Roman roads when it was part of the Roman Empire here, connecting north, south, east and west, because of where it was situated on the lake.
Elyse Rivin: And it lasted apparently a very, very long time, and it didn’t come into the Christian period in the Middle Ages until a lot later than a lot of other places. Maybe because it was in the mountains and it was a bit isolated. Who knows, you know? But then it became a very prestigious, important old city in the medieval times, connected to what was the Counts of Geneva. So this was now France, huh? And Geneva… I had… you know, I’m nulle on the history of Switzerland, to be very honest. I mean, I know about William Tell.
Elyse Rivin: And I know that part of it is German-speaking, part of it is French-speaking and part of it is Italian-speaking. But honestly, I really don’t know a lot about the history, except that of course it was a consolidation of a lot of tiny little areas that each were run by a different nobleman.
Elyse Rivin: And so there were the Counts of Geneva and Annecy was the second city of the Counts of Geneva, after Geneva. So they’re both from pretty much the same time period, which is the Middle Ages, the early Middle Ages. And it was very prestigious from the beginning. Probably, my guess is, probably because of how rich the waters and the land are around there.
Elyse Rivin: And so that was when a lot of what you can still see was built in the 12th century and the 13th century and they managed to keep it all up. They managed to preserve it all. It stayed part of the region of the Counts of Geneva for centuries, and centuries, and centuries. In fact, we talked a little bit about Haute-Savoie and some other places on the eastern edge of France, a lot of all of that territory was not a part of France until much, much, much later.
Elyse Rivin: Now, you were in Geneva, in fact, recently, but I’m assuming that Geneva has always been French-speaking, but I honestly don’t know.
Annie Sargent: I don’t know either, but it was French-speaking when I was there, yes.
Elyse Rivin: I’m sure it’s French-speaking now, right?
[00:18:59] Annecy’s Religious and Political History
Elyse Rivin: So it was part of this territory of the Counts of Geneva, and then a very interesting just piece of history is that in the War of Religions, which happened in the 1500s, Geneva was one of the centers of the new Protestant reformed religion with Calvin. Calvin lived and wrote in Geneva.
Elyse Rivin: The region Geneva and the region around it moved to the new religion, basically moved to what they call Calvinism, which is just a form of Protestantism. So what happened was that because prior to that, all of this area had been Roman Catholic, and there were lots of monasteries and there were bishops and everything, the Catholics, and the bishops particularly, were so indignant about the fact that the city officially took on this new religion, the Protestant religion, that they up and left Geneva en masse, and all of the bishops moved to Annecy.
Elyse Rivin: All of them. It’s like they just took all of their things, and they rebuilt monasteries. There must have been already several monasteries in Annecy and along the shores of the lake. But what they did was they literally evacuated, I mean, the entire Catholic population of Geneva and right around it, moved to Annecy. And Annecy in the 16th century and 17th century became known as the New Little Rome.
Annie Sargent: Oh, how interesting.
Elyse Rivin: Which I thought was really interesting, because… you wouldn’t… I mean, this is one of those things where they don’t make a big deal about it when you go into the city, you know?
Annie Sargent: No, I don’t remember this being emphasized at all, but it could have happened, because the religious tensions were a big deal back then.
Elyse Rivin: A big deal. Yeah, they were a big deal.
Annie Sargent: And I don’t particularly remember a big, big church or a big cathedral, but maybe it’s just not in the hyper center.
Elyse Rivin: The basilica is. It’s called the Basilica of the Visitation. But it’s a basilica, it’s not a cathedral, which is really interesting. I don’t know, but maybe… Because the basilica is… is this, like a second step down from cathedral, which is of course what we have with Saint-Sernin. It’s prestigious, but it’s not the same thing as a cathedral. It is very possible that the cathedral was destroyed. I really have no idea.
Elyse Rivin: But the one big, big church is the Basilica of the Visitation. And it is, it’s really from that time period, which means it’s not as old as a lot of other structures are actually in the old city center.
Elyse Rivin: So, it’s interesting to know that it got rebuilt at that time during the War of Religions. But something clearly happened, because it wasn’t destroyed, but there was no major cathedral, so I don’t know.
Elyse Rivin: And the palace, of course, of the Counts stayed, and you’re going to talk about what it’s like to visit it on the inside.
Elyse Rivin: But what’s interesting, too, is that… because this was not part of France, this was part of the little mini kingdom of the area around Geneva, it then became attached to what became known as the Kingdom of Savoy. And Savoy is very strange, because it was a kingdom that lasted for quite a few centuries. And if you take a look at a map, it starts in the mid-Alps and goes straight down, because it’s basically more Italian than French. It’s very strange. And it includes parts of northern Italy, and it included, of course, the area around Nice as well. And all of that was the Kingdom of Savoy. And I don’t know what language they spoke. It would be… I don’t know if they spoke Italian, if they spoke French or whatever. I mean, they may have spoken a dialect. And so Annecy was ruled by the Kings of Savoy for several hundred years, and then it got given to the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Annie Sargent: Oh, that’s unexpected.
Elyse Rivin: Which is totally unexpected. I tried understanding how this worked, but I could not figure this out, because it didn’t look like it was because of some war you know, it was like trading off pieces of area.
Annie Sargent: Who knows? We don’t.
Annie Sargent: We don’t.
Annie Sargent: We certainly don’t.
Elyse Rivin: We don’t know.
Annie Sargent: Somebody knows, but we don’t.
Elyse Rivin: Somebody. So Annecy, believe it or not, it went through this period where first it was connected to Geneva, then it was connected to the Kingdom of Savoy, and then it was connected to the Kingdom of Savoy and Sardinia, and Sardinia is really far away. And then after the French Revolution, which affected the city of Annecy, even though it was not part of France, it was not yet part of France at the time of the French Revolution, it was right on the border, I mean, you go to the other side of the lake, and you’re in France. So, there were French troops during the revolution that stationed themselves in Annecy.
Elyse Rivin: I don’t understand this, I really don’t. But the people apparently there were very sympathetic to what was happening in France and were sympathetic with the ideas of the French Revolution. And so, they basically annexed themselves informally with France, and when Napoleon came, he basically decided that Annecy should be part of France. But it was not made official until the restoration and then the empire in the middle of the 19th century. And so, actually, Annecy and the region around it are only officially part of France since 1860.
Annie Sargent: Wow.
Elyse Rivin: Which is when Nice became part of France.
Annie Sargent: Right. Right. Yeah.
Annie Sargent: You know?
Elyse Rivin: Except that when you go to Nice, you feel it’s a little bit Italian.
Annie Sargent: Correct.
Elyse Rivin: You know, when you go to the old city of Nice, you can feel the Italian quality that it is the architecture and even the food. And Annecy doesn’t feel like that at all.
Annie Sargent: No, it does not. It does not.
Elyse Rivin: It feels French.
Annie Sargent: Yes, it does. To me, it does.
Elyse Rivin: So, we need to find somebody who has ancestors who go back 5,000 years in Annecy to understand how that happened. But it is in spirit and in style, it is French.
Annie Sargent: It is absolutely French.
(Mid-roll ad spot)
Elyse Rivin: So, why don’t you talk a little bit about what you liked when you visited the different things in the old city center?
[00:24:57] Visiting Annecy’s Landmarks
Annie Sargent: Well, okay, so the Palais de Lille, which you mentioned, is actually pretty small. I mean, if it’s called The Palace, you think it’s going to be big. No, it’s not. It was just a small little thing. It does look like it used to be a prison, for sure.
Annie Sargent: You can visit it for a few euros. I thought it was interesting. But again, I was only there for a short time. I didn’t spend all sorts of time in there. I went to the Chateau d’Annecy. Going up the hill was a little bit steep, but it was worth it. You’re rewarded with a beautiful view from the top.
Annie Sargent: There are some things in the chateau, but it’s not a fully furnished chateau with a lot of stuff. It’s used for temporary exhibits, it’s used for performances. It’s used for a lot of stuff, but nothing was going on when I was there. But the view is absolutely beautiful, and I’ll share some video with patrons or something. I’m not… because I took some video from up there. It’s really a beautiful, beautiful site.
Elyse Rivin: You can go inside the chateau?
Annie Sargent: Oh, definitely. Yes. Yes. You can visit the inside. The chateau is big.
Annie Sargent: The Palais de Lille is small, but the chateau is big. I’m sure they have weddings, and receptions, and things up there because it looked like it was set up for that kind of events.
Annie Sargent: Obviously, the old city that you mentioned is gorgeous. It doesn’t take forever to visit it. There was a street market, an open-air market going on when I was there. So, there were also a lot of vendors and you know, it was very nice. Everybody packed up by 12:30–1, like they normally do.
Annie Sargent: So that was very nice.
[00:26:40] Le Jardin de l’Europe and Outdoor Activities
Annie Sargent: Then the other things you can do around there, there’s a thing called Le Jardin de l’Europe. So that’s a big garden for a stroll along the lake, and there were a lot of people. I saw paddle boats, I saw canoes, I saw bikers, I saw… I would say that the population, I mean, the people who go visit are overall perhaps a little older in the town, you know, in the city center. But as soon as you get out to the lake, it’s younger people with families.
Elyse Rivin: It’s much more active.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
[00:27:15] Paragliding and Water Sports
Annie Sargent: There are a lot of water sports that you mentioned, and the paragliding. So, I didn’t see paragliding, or at least I don’t remember it. But you said it’s a big center for that?
Elyse Rivin: It’s a big center. Actually, it’s on the western side, the side we came down from to get to the border of the lake. There were two or three schools and centers up there. And they leave from up there, you know? It’s known for being one of the centers of paragliding in France. And my husband, and this is the… When we were there was a number of years ago, but he had always wanted to do it but you have to be under a certain weight.
Annie Sargent: Ah.
Elyse Rivin: And at the time he was not, you know?
Elyse Rivin: Now he’s beyond the point where in his life it would be something he would be able to do unless he did it with somebody else because they do… The first time you do it, you… And the second time you do it with somebody, they go with you, you know? But it’s lovely to watch.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, I would never do that. I’m a chicken.
Elyse Rivin: I mean, I like watching it from where I am, you know?
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Elyse Rivin: It’s very beautiful and there is a lot of wind surfing on the lake.
Elyse Rivin: The fact that they have these two sets of mountains on the eastern and western side creates a kind of wind that funnels up through the lake. So, it is very beautiful, but it’s good for those kinds of sports as well, you know? And that’s why people like to go there. Most of the people I know who are not old or retired people who go there, they go there for doing the sports on the lake.
Annie Sargent: Right, and you can also do winter sports. There are ski resorts not very far.
Annie Sargent: Annecy is not a ski resort, obviously, but there are ski resorts not very far.
[00:28:49] Michelin-Starred Restaurants and Local Cuisine
Annie Sargent: They have some Michelin-starred restaurants.
Annie Sargent: If you want to enjoy that.
Elyse Rivin: They’re known for having good food and good restaurants, and because it is a city that is considered to be very chic and is really on the scale of things relatively expensive, expensive for renting, expensive for living, it is also known for having some very high-class restaurants.
Annie Sargent: Right, so I think one, the Michelin star restaurant is called Le Clos des Sens. Then you have L’Auberge du Père Bise.
Annie Sargent: So it’s lakeside dining with gourmet French dishes.
Annie Sargent: Chez Mamie Lise, traditional Savoyard fare, you know, in a cozy setting.
Elyse Rivin: That sounds nice.
Annie Sargent: Mamie Lise, that sounds like a nice person.
Elyse Rivin: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: And Philippe Rigollot.
Elyse Rivin: Rigollot?
Annie Sargent: R-I-G-O-L-L-O-T. He’s a pastry chef, award-winning pastry chef. There are some very big hotels along the lake.
Annie Sargent: I’m sure there are some as well in the city proper, but the ones in the city proper, like, in the old city of Annecy would be very small compared to the ones along the lake. There’s one called Imperial Palace, which has spa facilities and things. Les Trésoms Lake & Spa Resort, again, with a panoramic view, and L’Abbaye de Talloires, huh? So this is an historic abbey turned into a hotel.
Elyse Rivin: Those are usually gorgeous.
Annie Sargent: Yes, those are very, very gorgeous.
[00:30:23] Cheese Delicacies: Fondue, Raclette, and Tartiflette
Annie Sargent: Now let’s talk about the food a little bit.
Elyse Rivin: Neither of us will have any problem talking about. Well, as you can guess, because we’re talking about the Alps, cheese is very important.
Annie Sargent: Yes.
Elyse Rivin: You have fondue.
Annie Sargent: Yes, la fondue Savoyarde, that’s what we call it in French.
Elyse Rivin: Yes.
Annie Sargent: Because, if you do fondue Bourguignonne…
Elyse Rivin: It’s just with the oil.
Annie Sargent: … it’s oil and meat.
Elyse Rivin: Right.
Annie Sargent: Fondue Savoyarde is cheese and bread.
Elyse Rivin: And white wine. When they melt the cheese, they mix it in with this delicious, delicious white wine that comes from the Alps, which is absolutely wonderful to taste. And so you have two cheeses that are used, and one is called the Tomme de Savoie, and the other is the Tomme des Bauges, I don’t know. The Tomme des Bauges is a cheese that we always buy when we go up to the Alps to visit part of the family, but I don’t eat fondue, but I eat Tomme des Bauges just sliced and put on a piece of bread, and it is absolutely delicious. These are cow cheeses, these are not goat cheeses. This is cow cheeses. And actually, I don’t think there are any sheep cheeses in the area. But they do make… There’s also Reblochon.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Elyse Rivin: … which is very important in making raclette.
Annie Sargent: Correct, yup.
Elyse Rivin: Now, explain the difference between raclette and fondue.
Annie Sargent: All right, raclette is a thing where you melt the cheese, and you put it over a baked potato or a boiled potato, and you usually also add cold cuts.
Elyse Rivin: Mm-hmm.
Annie Sargent: So it’s going to be with ham, cured or not, or boiled ham. You could do with bacon.
Elyse Rivin: Dried sausage.
Annie Sargent: Dried sausage. You could have any cold cuts that you enjoy. Not pate, okay? You don’t spread pate on that.
Elyse Rivin: No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.
Annie Sargent: But we have a raclette set, I can see it from where we’re sitting. It’s a rectangular thing. It has a stone on top. So you have, like, a flat area on which you can slide triangular or rectangular things that… little pans, I guess, and above that, you have the heating element, and above the heating element, you have a stone where you could cook some meat or if you wanted to do it with vegetables, you could, like, do sliced mushrooms would come to mind as would be good.
Annie Sargent: Anyway, and it… what’s nice about having a raclette is that it’s something that you do slowly. It’s a slow meal, so you sit around the table. Everybody prepares their own thing, and then when the cheese is melted, you just dump it onto your potato. And in France, you can buy the raclette cheese already packaged.
Annie Sargent: They will sell you, you know, two dozen slices, or you can buy more for bigger groups. It’s very filling. Like, even me, I’m a pretty big eater, but I can only have so many of that.
[00:33:26] Traditional Alpine Foods and Drinks
Elyse Rivin: Well, I think that raclette and fondue, I mean, basically, the two staples of food from historical times are cheese and potatoes up in these mountains, and it’s to keep you warm because you have cold winters, and you go out, and you’re active and all of this, you know? And so you have to have energy, you know, inside.
Annie Sargent: Right, if you’ve been skiing all day, having a raclette or a fondue is a great idea, but if you’ve been sitting on a boat all day…
Elyse Rivin: Then you will sink into the water once you eat it, you know? You won’t be going very far.
Annie Sargent: Be a little careful with this stuff because it’s not… you know, the calories go up very, very quickly.
Elyse Rivin: It’s really good to eat this stuff in the wintertime and not in the summer. They also have, and it’s very similar to, of course, what’s typical in further up between… this is the Department of Savoie, which is one department, and then you have the Haute-Savoie. So, one is just on top of the other, basically, north-south. But they have very similar foods. You also have these little sausages that are made with smoked meat called diot or diott. I don’t know if the Savoyard pronounced the T at the end. I have no idea.
Annie Sargent: Me neither.
Elyse Rivin: And then the crozets, which are tiny little… Which are made from buckwheat flour, and I have to say, I have to admit, I tried buying a package and cooking them, but I didn’t do whatever it is you’re supposed to do because it was like, “Mm, I’m not sure what makes this different from eating other pasta.” It looks like pasta. It’s cut into tiny little squares, but it’s actually made with buckwheat flour, and this is one of the staples also of the diet in the area.
Annie Sargent: Right, so it’s good for… if you’re…
Elyse Rivin: Gluten-free.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, gluten intolerant. I think some of those they might not be 100% gluten-free maybe. Maybe some of them are, I don’t know, but it’s spelled C-R-O-Z-E-T.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Annie Sargent: And it’s kind of… They’re tiny little squares and when you cook them, they tend to stick. I don’t know. I’m like you. I tried it once and I was like, “Hmm, I don’t know. I must not be doing this right.”
Elyse Rivin: No, and my stepson said that in… Traditionally because he lives, of course, in the Alps, he said that it’s served with meat and a cream sauce. So, it’s another one of these light, I’m being facetious, meals, you know? This is not for people who are on not on, you know, low fat diets, you know?
Elyse Rivin: No. No, no, no, no, no.
Elyse Rivin: They also have the Gateau de Savoie, which is a kind of, it’s like what the Germans call a Kugelhopf, which I love, you know? It’s like a yeast-based cake.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, they’re beautiful. They’re… And they’re tasty and just when there rum in it. Oh-
Elyse Rivin: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Elyse Rivin: And they have a lovely white wine that is a little bit fruity, but really not sweet. We’re not talking about sweet wines. That is called Roussette, R-O-U-S-S-E-T-T-E. There are several white wines in the Alps area, the Savoyard wines, and this one is particularly delicious. Almost like the taste of a dry rose, but not quite, you know? So it’s very, very nice. The hills on the side that gets the most sun, are the ones that have the vineyards that produce this kind of wine. But it’s very typical of the area. Interestingly, white wine and not red wine, you know?
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm. Interesting, interesting.
Elyse Rivin: And then fresh fish, and I’m… You know, me, who loves fish, having freshwater fish is so unusual. It’s very hard to find, and it is one of the luxuries of going to one of the really nice restaurants in Annecy, in the area, is that you usually have freshwater fish on the menu, you know?
Annie Sargent: Nice, nice.
Annie Sargent: Another cheesy dish that you did not mention is the tartiflette.
Elyse Rivin: Oh, the… I’m not cheesy enough, I guess.
Annie Sargent: So, tartiflette is a potato dish with lots of cheese in it.
Elyse Rivin: So, what’s the difference between tartiflette and raclette?
Annie Sargent: Oh, it’s completely different.
Elyse Rivin: Completely different?
Annie Sargent: Completely different. So raclette is something that you, it’s a put together yourself thing, with potato and cheese and cold cuts, and cornichon. Very important, the cornichon. But the tartiflette is more like a baked dish.
Elyse Rivin: Ah, okay.
Annie Sargent: So, you slice your potatoes, kind of thinly and you put some cheese all around there and you bake it. You bake it.
Elyse Rivin: You like that one?
Annie Sargent: Well, I like all of them and that’s my problem. Like, I…
Elyse Rivin: But that’s one your… Is that one your favorite of the three?
Annie Sargent: No, no, no. Of the three, the fondue is my least favorite, because you put your bread in the pot, and sometimes you can’t fish it out.
Annie Sargent: And you twirl it around, right?
Annie Sargent: You lose your bread half of the time and then you end up with a mess of sticky cheese at the bottom of the pot and… No, no.
Elyse Rivin: Okay, okay.
Annie Sargent: I’m done with that. I did that… I did that a few times, I’m not doing that again. Raclette is my favorite.
Elyse Rivin: Okay.
Annie Sargent: The tartiflette is also good. It’s actually a pretty important thing that you can buy when you go to Christmas markets. They often sell barquette of tartiflette. Like aligot, but it’s tartiflette.
Elyse Rivin: Oh, I love aligot. Oh, boy, do I love aligot. Yeah, well, we’re heading into spring and summer and here we are talking about heavy-duty winter foods, you know?
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes, yes. So yes, I would say my raclette is my favorite. I think it’s a perfect meal when you have friends over, because it makes the meal more interesting. And kids, it… You know, if you watch them, they can’t really hurt themselves. I mean, they could stick their hands on the heating element, but most kids won’t do that.
Annie Sargent: No.
Annie Sargent: And you could serve it with a salad, with a nice fresh de la laitue. I don’t know how to say that.
Elyse Rivin: Boston lettuce.
Annie Sargent: Ah yes, Boston lettuce. I would pair it with Boston lettuce, personally. And definitely gherkins or some kind of little pickles, huh?
Annie Sargent: Yeah, pickles of some sort. I love pickles of all sorts. You need that. And a little white onions as well.
Elyse Rivin: Oh, those I like.
Elyse Rivin: Yeah.
Elyse Rivin: Those are good.
Annie Sargent: Little white onions, pickled white onions are also very good. So, it’s a very nice place for food, you just have to go easy with it.
Elyse Rivin: You have to go easy with it, yes. And I do honestly… I mean, this is awful to say because I have such a sweet tooth, but I remember they had two or three wonderful artisanal ice cream places.
Annie Sargent: Aha. Yeah, that’s your thing, yeah.
Elyse Rivin: That’s my thing, okay. So, you can have the melted cheese, I’ll have the melted ice cream, you know? Just…
[00:39:40] Festivals and Celebrations in Annecy
Annie Sargent: Speaking of things that happen around there, you have festivals. You have the Fête du Lac.
Elyse Rivin: Yes.
Annie Sargent: It’s an annual festival. I have not been there during the Fête du Lac, but I bet it’s very nice.
Elyse Rivin: It’s apparently the most magnificent fireworks festival. They say it’s one of the biggest fireworks festivals in Europe.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Elyse Rivin: And it is on the first Saturday of August every year, and what I read says that it is since the celebration of Annecy being annexed to France.
Annie Sargent: Oh, very nice.
Elyse Rivin: So they’re celebrating being French.
Annie Sargent: Good for them. I would celebrate that as well.
Elyse Rivin: I would celebrate that as well, too. And considering that I like fireworks, I would thi-
Annie Sargent: But you’re not French yet.
Elyse Rivin: But I’m not French yet.
Annie Sargent: Go ahead, woman. Do it!
Elyse Rivin: Okay. Oh, my.
Elyse Rivin: But I’m French in spirit mostly, I think.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, that’s why you need the paperwork.
Elyse Rivin: But I want to go to see these fireworks.
Annie Sargent: That would be nice.
[00:40:34] Transhumance
Annie Sargent: Another thing that you can do is the Retour des Alpages. It’s a celebration of alpine traditions. They have music, food, and crafts, and you know, more like a little fair kind of thing.
Elyse Rivin: Is it when they come down or when they go up?
Annie Sargent: C’est le Retour des Alpages, so it’s when they come back.
Elyse Rivin: Okay. If you live in the United States or in Australia, you probably have no idea what this is. It is traditional in France for people who have huge herds of cows and sheep and goats to take them to the high altitudes in the mountains for the summertime.
Elyse Rivin: Right.
Elyse Rivin: And it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal in parts of the Pyrenees, it’s a big deal in parts of the Alps, and it becomes a special day celebration. And of course, it clogs up all of the traffic and, you know, they have to let everybody know ahead of time.
Elyse Rivin: But people come out to watch it because the lead cow usually has flowers around her neck, and there are big bells, and there’s a whole group of people with the shepherds who take them up. And shepherding is still a modern profession in France. I mean, there are people who study to become shepherds or shepherdesses.
Annie Sargent: A lot of women, as a matter of fact.
Elyse Rivin: A lot of women, and they spend the two months of the summer up in the mountains with the animals. And so there’s a celebration when they go up, and then there’s a big celebration when they come back down.
Annie Sargent: Right, so then that way the animals enjoy the very fresh kind of grass that grows up in altitude.
Elyse Rivin: Which makes the best milk for cheese.
Annie Sargent: Exactly. Exactly.
Elyse Rivin: And that’s called the transhumance.
Annie Sargent: Right, down here we call it transhumance. I don’t know if they call it transhumance up there probably.
[00:42:12] Annecy International Animated Film Festival
Annie Sargent: They also have the Annecy International Animated Film Festivals.
Elyse Rivin: Yes.
Annie Sargent: This brings out international animation kind of talent, which is a wonderful thing to do.
Elyse Rivin: Yes. Yes, it’s a relatively well known festival.
Annie Sargent: And I mentioned briefly that when I was there, there was a little market going on. I wouldn’t say it was little. It was hard to tell because it was all along the canals.
Elyse Rivin: Mm-hmm.
Annie Sargent: So along the canals you have these wide sidewalks, but they were taken up in part by the vendors. It was the usual French market things. You had some food, you had some hats, you had some clothes, you had some shoes, a lot of food, and some more food, and again, more food.
Elyse Rivin: Did they have some of the crafts? Because I’ve received as a gift from members of my husband’s family, objects for the kitchen carved out of wood that come from the Alps. For instance, they have little containers for holding salt, and spoons, you know, wooden spoons, that are very typical of the local crafts and parts of the Alps.
Annie Sargent: Very nice. Yeah, no, I did not notice that, but I’m sure there were some. I didn’t look at every single thing. I was kind of in a big hurry to get to the boat. I wanted to do the boat.
Elyse Rivin: She wanted to get on the lake, yeah.
[00:43:27] Cassandre: A French Police Series
Elyse Rivin: And let me just mention, for those people who can stream French series, there is a very delightful police series called Cassandre. That is the name of the police captain, and it’s a woman.
Annie Sargent: You have to spell it.
Elyse Rivin: C-A-S-S-A-N-D-R-E.
Elyse Rivin: It’s a first name from actually mythology, I think. Anyway, it’s a series that’s been on for about six or seven seasons. And of course, a season in France means it’s six or seven episodes, not more. But it takes place in Annecy, and it’s filmed along the lake. And I was just mentioning to you that they don’t usually film inside the old city on the narrow streets, but they film along the lake and on the lake and up at the castle all the time.
Elyse Rivin: So if you want to get a really nice idea of what Annecy and the lake look like and you want to see something in French… Find this series called Cassandre. It’s very pleasant to watch. It’s one of those police series that’s not too grim or anything like that, and it’s got interesting people in it.
Annie Sargent: Very good. Thank you, Elyse. I might have to turn on French television just to find out.
Elyse Rivin: She might have to. She snubs French television.
Annie Sargent: It’s not that I snub it, I just don’t think about it. Unless there’s something like a big rugby game or a big soccer game, or…
Elyse Rivin: Ah.
Annie Sargent: … or, you know, sometimes the president speaks and I feel like I need to listen to him. Although these days, ugh, not so much.
Elyse Rivin: Not so much.
Annie Sargent: But other than that, it’s true that I don’t ever think to turn on French television to see what’s on.
Elyse Rivin: And yet there are some very good things.
Annie Sargent: I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure you’re right.
[00:44:58] Final Thoughts on Visiting Annecy
Annie Sargent: Thank you so much, Elyse. That was a fun discussion.
Elyse Rivin: That was a very fun discussion.
Annie Sargent: I wish you all beautiful trips to Annecy. It’s truly one of the wonderful places to visit in France.
Elyse Rivin: It’s lovely. The air is clean. It’s refreshing, and it’s a joyful place to be.
Annie Sargent: Merci beaucoup, Elyse.
Elyse Rivin: De rien, Annie. Au revoir.
Annie Sargent: Au revoir.
[00:45:19] Thank you Patrons
Annie: Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving back and supporting the show. Patrons get several exclusive rewards for doing so. You can see them at patreon.com/joinus. And a special shout-out this week to my Join Us in France champions, Molly A. McCurdy, Nancy, Marnie McKimmie, Carol McNamara, Hannah Blalock, and thank you, Christine, for going to yearly support.
Annie: Would you join them, too? You can do it for as little as $3 a month, but if you can afford it, I would love to have you pledge more so you can have access to more rewards.
Annie: Go to patreon.com/joinus. And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart.
[00:46:20] Zoom Meetings
Annie: This week, we had our Zoom meetings with patrons where I discussed my adventures/misadventures going to Carcassonne to see the beautiful July 14th fireworks in the company of one of my most wonderful patrons, Dawn.
Annie: And we learned a lot. Everybody needs to learn a lot about this. It’s not a normal event, okay?
[00:46:42] Review of the Montmartre VoiceMap Tour
Annie: Somebody left this review of my Montmartre VoiceMap tour this week, ” I have done many of these tours around the world, and they never cease to amaze me how good they are.
Annie: It’s sometimes hit and miss depending on the narrator, but this specific one, Montmartre, was a great one. Super engaging, and amazing tidbits thrown here and there. We walked past many walking tours, and they were not learning all the things we were learning, so I definitely recommend it. We also did this in the rain, and it was totally fine. Just use a big umbrella and don’t get dissuaded by the weather. We nearly did, and we are glad we didn’t.”
Annie: VoiceMap is like taking a private tour with a human guide who doesn’t forget any of the things he meant to tell you and lets you stop wherever you want, picks up again at your leisure, and even goes to a different point on the map. You cannot do that with a live tour guide.
[00:47:37] Discounts for Podcast Listeners
Annie: Podcast listeners get a big discount for buying these tours from my website. It’s best for me as well because I get to keep more of what you pay instead of giving it to Apple or Google, but if you go through joinusinfrance.com/boutique, it’s not instantaneous like it would be if you bought the tour on the app.
Annie: To use your tour code, open VoiceMap, tap Tour Codes at the bottom right, enter the code, and download the tour. You don’t have to use your tour credit immediately. It just sits in your account until you’re ready. Have a great time in Paris, and do take me in your pocket with VoiceMap.”
Annie: If you’re planning a trip to France and want some expert help, you can hire me as your itinerary consultant. Consider booking early at joinusinfrance.com/boutique. Some months are busier than others.
[00:48:26] Differences between the US and France
Annie: All right, let’s talk about the big differences between the US and France. There are some things that surprise visitors and even long-time expats.
Annie: For a bit of context, I was born and raised in France to French parents. I didn’t even start to learn English until I was 12. But then I went to work in London for a couple of years in my early 20s, back when you could do that easily, England being in Europe, and then to the US later.
Annie: That was a little trickier, but I was a student, so it was okay. I lived in the US for 16 years, and I’ve been back in France for 20 years now. So I kind of understand how things work on both sides of the pond.
[00:49:06] No Giant Billboards on the Freeway
Annie: First, there are no giant billboards on the freeway. You will not see any ads for lawyers or medical treatments plastered on the roadside here.
Annie: In fact, France does not allow medical ads on TV at all or even outdoor advertising like that at all. It makes a huge difference visually. Everything feels calmer.
[00:49:30] Consumerism is toned down
Annie: Consumerism is also toned down. People here keep stuff longer, their cars, their TVs, their appliances. They keep them for 10 years or more.
Annie: We don’t gut the kitchen every time a new trend comes along, and we move a lot less than Americans in general. Most French people live in the same region their whole lives.
[00:49:53] Work-Life Balance
Annie: When it comes to work/life balance, French people take their vacation time very seriously. It’s not really optional, and nobody wants to answer work emails after hours. That’s even protected by law.
Annie: Now, let’s talk money. Prices are generally lower in France, and so is crime, especially violent crime. Mass shootings are incredibly rare.
[00:50:18] No tipping Pressure
Annie: There’s also no tipping pressure. There are some places in Paris that are very touristy that are trying to change this, and not just in Paris.
Annie: Anytime where it’s super touristy, they will try to tell Americans that the tip is not included, and that is not true. Tips are included. If you want to give a little more, you can, but you don’t need to. You know how in America you order a coffee, and on that little tablet, it’s asking for 20%?
Annie: Yeah, that does not happen here, at least very rarely.
[00:50:48] Shops and Restaurants
Annie: Big box stores. We have some, but not that many. Chains do exist, but mom and pop shops still dominate, especially in food. Same with restaurants. We don’t do giant portions or free refills, but you get a proper three-course meal if you’re hungry.
Annie: France has adopted Black Friday, but it’s more controlled, and sales are regulated. Again, this is kind of changing a bit, but we’re hanging on. We’re hanging on.
[00:51:20] Credit
Annie: Credit is another big one. French people don’t typically carry debt, at least not consumer debt. If you want a revolving credit line, you meet with a banker, and you prove that you don’t live beyond your means.
Annie: Nobody gets offers for, you know, zero interest credit cards for a year and then 30% for the rest of your life.
[00:51:44] Holidays
Annie: Holidays like Christmas and Halloween don’t drive the same shopping frenzy that they do in the US. More and more people are buying local, choosing repairable over disposable.
Annie: It’s just a different rhythm here, slower, more deliberate, less loud. And for many of us, that’s part of the charm, but you should know if you’re used to a frenzied pace of life, France, if you move here, will feel very boring, okay? At first, it feels boring. And then you adjust, and you go, “Ah, ah.”
[00:52:24] Paris Baloon
Annie: Okay, let’s talk about the Paris balloon that’s doing its part to understand our increasingly crazy climate, and that balloon is in Montparnasse.
Annie: You can see what Paris looks like from 150 meters in the air, and you can also see what the air you’re breathing in the city really contains. You can experience both by taking a ride on the Ballon Generali de Paris. It’s a one-of-a-kind attraction in the Parc Andre Citroën in the Montparnasse area.
Annie: It isn’t just a fun hot air balloon ride, though it is that, too. It’s a flying laboratory that tracks greenhouse gases like CO₂, methane, and even water vapor.
Annie: The balloon is part of a European scientific program called ICOS City, I-C-O-S. It monitors how pollution moves through urban environments, and in fact, Paris is now seeing a 25% lower emissions than before, and this balloon helps keep track of these improvements.
Annie: Most cities in Europe are making similar sorts of studies and improvements, which is very important because air quality matters. When you fly, you’ll see real-time climate data displayed on the inside of the balloon.
Annie: Things like average global temperatures and European warming trends since the pre-industrial times.
Annie: It’s a wonderful reminder of the stakes of climate change, but also of the role that technology and cities can play in responding. The balloon operates daily from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM weather permitting.
Annie: So this is really important. No reservations are needed, you just show up and buy your ticket, but before you go, you must check their website to make sure it’s flying that day, the site is ballondeparis.com. I checked this morning, it’s not operating this morning because of wind, and, you know, this is in the middle of July, so always check.
Annie: Tickets are 20 euros for adults and 15 for kids age three to 11, children under three fly free. The ride lasts about 10 minutes with unforgettable views of Paris and its landmarks all while helping researchers understanding how to fight climate change. So if you’re visiting Paris between spring and early fall, and you want a unique experience that’s fun, educational, and good for the planet, go see the Paris Balloon at the Parc Andre Citroën, there are no lines, no stress, just the joy of rising above it all. And I’ll put the link in the show notes, it’s a fun place, uh, to, to go.
Annie: My thanks to podcast editors Anne and Christian Cotovan who produced the transcript.
Annie: Next week on the podcast, A Tale of Sisters Exploring Paris and the French Countryside with Casey Amistad. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together. Au revoir.
[00:55:30] Copyright
Annie: The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent, and Copyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance. It is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.
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Episode PageCategory: Lyon Area