September 12

Slept well and woke up to a quiet Annecy. The weekend traffic has thinned considerably. We all got up and headed out for breakfast. Found a wonderful place to have eggs, yogurt and coffee. Decided this was the day to hike up and see the lake from the top of Mount Veyrier. We found a hike on All Trails that looked like it was good for all of us. Rated moderate and only 2.7 miles with less than 1000 feet of elevation gain. We dressed for the hike, took a little water and headed out to the trailhead. The first issue was that Google Maps took us to someplace that was not the trail head. Some glitch in the system. So we reloaded with Apple Maps and headed back out. The views along the drive were so incredible. The lake was glistening aqua green and everywhere we looked was so beautiful. Mountains surrounding the lake and people picnicking with runners and swimmers everywhere. Just a lovely sight. Found the trailhead but there was a problem. The last mile was closed. We thought that was ok with us and found a place to park after several family discussions about what made the most sense. David of course won as he was driving and felt strongly about where we parked. We checked the map and thought that there was a shorter way to join our hiking trail then following the road. So off we went. Well, after Georgia and I found a tree for our business. The first part of the hike was absolutely treacherous, over rocks and literally straight up. We took it in stride and kept right on going and eventually joined the trail we had meant to be on originally. The hike continued to be very steep with crazy terrain, slippery rocks and tree roots. We were all wondering how in the world All Trails called this a moderate hike. Nothing about it seemed moderate. But we kept going and were rewarded with views at the top that were beyond belief at the first viewpoint, Mount Baron. The lake on one side and towering mountains on the other. Just took your breath away. We enjoyed the sights for quite a while and then headed to the top of Mount Veyrier, which was about 15-20 minutes of further hiking. This was very difficult hiking along slippery rocks with full exposure to the cliff on the other side. David opted not to go to the top as he was hiking with a sore foot from plantar fasciitis. There was not much to see from Mount Veyrier and we turned around quickly and headed back. We continued on and the hike was so difficult and so frightening. We spent much time holding on with our hands and going down rocks on our back side, using our hands to steady ourselves. We stopped at the last viewpoint and were rewarded with views of Mount Blanc on one side and the glistening lake on the other. Hard to capture and hard to describe. Bone numbing beautiful. We were all pretty thirsty by now and the amount of water we had brought was insufficient for the extra miles added by not being able to drive to the trailhead. The hike eventually became more of a rocky road and was very steep downhill but less treacherous. On and on we went. Just wow. Finally completed the hike about 4.5 hours later. We had planned for one more swim in the lake but we were exhausted and hungry so we headed back to Annecy. 

Stopped at a market and bought a few snacks as we knew dinner would not be served for a couple of hours in Annecy. Headed back to our place and started laundry, took showers and ate snacks. Of course, this AirBnB has a dryer but it is a European dryer without outside venting and it works pitifully. I finally hung clothes all over the apartment and am hoping all will be dry by morning. 

Headed out for dinner and ate at a crepe place. Good food but not my favorite. I find myself wearying of all the rich food. I forced myself to get a glass of wine as I've had no wine the whole time we've been here. It wasn't very good and I probably won't get another. Finished dinner, finished laundry and am going to fall into bed. Great day. Headed to Aix-en-Provence tomorrow.