Wednesday July 25, Camping Solitaire du Lac, St Jorioz, Lac du Annecy

Lake Annecy

Matt and Ange, neighbours from Lake Tarawera had been planning a motorhome trip in France for months, and we often joked about meeting up with them. The plan was hatched to rendezvous at Lake Annecy for a few days after they had spent a week mountain biking at Morzine, in the French Alps. We had pre-booked a site at a campground as this is peak holiday season, and Annecy is an extremely population destination.

This morning we arrived soon after midday after a really good drive through the hills with the alps barely visible in the hazy distance. We negotiated the really busy town of Annecy before heading around the lake to St Jorioz where Matt and Ange had already arrived. Just great to see them. We settled into a very long French lunch with baguettes, cheeses and pates…and of course a few glasses of French bubbles to celebrate.

They had a great time, although their bodies were feeling very tired after 6 solid days of mountain biking, taking the chairlifts up and then following the extremely steep bike tracks down the sides of mountains. Sounded insane to me, but not to them, the adrenaline was running high!!

The afternoon got hotter and hotter so togs on and we headed to the lake for a swim, about a 5 minute walk from camp to a nice little beach, picture perfect with huge mountains rising up on the far side and even a chateau on a promontory. The water was very warm and we spent a perfect half and hour just cooling down. It was a bit like Lake Tarawera on steroids with people everywhere, enjoying themselves.

We got the bikes out and Matt and Ange had a bit of fun on the “olds” bikes, quite a change from what they had been on for the last week. And had Matt to work….the boiler had developed a small annoying drip over the past few days and Ian was struggling to get down into it to find where it was coming from. Grateful to Matt’s plumbing skills as he soon found the leak, a split “o” ring, and with no spares on hand they used a bit of kiwi “can do” attitude and a tube of superglue and repaired it. Job done! After a wee siesta it was time for another cooling off swim, shower, a shared barbecue and making plans for tomorrow.

And thanks to everyone who has left comments on the blog, so appreciate reading them.

Busy roads in Annecy

Catching up on the other side of the world!!

Great place to cool off.