Annecy - the Venice of the Savoie

We visited Annecy, France near the end of our vacation. It is a beautiful town located in the Haute Savoie region of France. Annecy (pronounced an-si) is on the northern tip of Lac d'Annecy (Lake Annecy) and is between Grenoble and Geneva (35 km to the north).

 

"Annecy in the North of the French Alps, is the Venice of Savoie -- a well deserved title. The medieval town centre built around a 14th Century Chateau is dissected by small canals and streams running out of Lac Annecy, which is clean, fresh and a wonderful azure colour. Annecy is also the prefecture of the département of Haute-Savoie." (Wikitravel)

In the summer it is a tourist destination for water sports, cycling, hiking, hang gliding and for its beautiful scenery and cuisine.  It is busy in the winter too as it is close to several winter sports resorts.

 

The area is famous for its cows and produces numerous cheeses (Beaufort, Savoie Gruyere, Reblochon, Tamie, Tome (also Tomme) des Bauges, Tomme de Savoie (a favorite of mine) and Brie).

The area also produces wines from the Gamay, Pinot Noir and Mondeuse grapes.

So great scenery, food and wine; is it any wonder I wanted to visit Annecy. Some of these pictures are just begging for me to paint them.

View of the old town through a Chateau window

Did I mention the food? Well the pastries were wonderful, there were many ice cream shops, one in particular seemed to have a line up no matter what time of day we went by. We had a cheese fondue, seated by the window overlooking the river; delicious, all 3500 calories (it felt like) of it.

I picked the Myrtille (blueberry) Pastry: excellent

There was a large market on the Sunday morning featuring something for everyone.

Almost endless olive and tapenade selection

Luscious fresh fruits

Great selection of cheeses

The light on the river and the canals creates magical reflections that change with the time of day.

There are many water birds, but the swans gliding around the edge of the lake were my favorites.

This is a picture of the reflection in the furniture store window across the narrow street from where we were having a glass of beer; if you look closely you can see us under the Milton Pub awning.

I started with a window and decided to end the same way, so here is a window reflecting the chimneys from across the narrow street of the old town.


We were away for a few days this week, so I don't have much to share from my studio. I did complete this drawing though:

It is a Chickadee that I saw and photographed on Gabriola Island last fall, it is done in graphite (pencil) and I have called it "Perched".

It will take me a couple of days to catch up on things here at home and to get around to visiting all my blog friends, until then, take care, and thanks for dropping by.

Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week ................

Critter comments

Sometimes pictures just cry out for comments, like these that I took at the Parc de la Tete D'or in Lyon, France last month. The park has many pathways around a lake and through a rose garden and is open to the public. We enjoyed a stroll, sat on shaded benches and of course I took a few pictures. We caught sight of this little fellow and I expected him to run away, but he was just as curious about us as we were about him.

Got anything for me?

This red squirrel was looking for handouts from passersby but was so cute that we couldn't refuse. My husband found a cracker for him. Bright eyes and look at those tufty ears and claws !

Pretty please.

Gee, thanks this isn't too bad.

Yes, this is actually quite good.

Any more where that came from?

No! Well nice to meet you, I'm out of here then.

I think this little cutey had a dedicated following, as we were watching him another person approached and he responded by rushing over to her, maybe he sensed she had a treat for him or maybe he recognized her.

I hope you will excuse me today as I indulge in a little anthropomorphism; great word, it is the giving of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to other animals or  non-living things. Today it's all about animals and birds.

"As a literary device, anthropomorphism is strongly associated with art and storytelling.... Most cultures possess a long-standing tradition with anthropomorphised animals as characters that can stand as commonly recognised types of human behavior." (Wikipedia)

Here is a link to a squirrel fable "Once upon a time there lived a squirrel named Cynthia ....."

These ducks were lined up on a log preening, I especially like the triangle of light on the top duck's face.

Hey, can we have a little privacy here.

There were a few families of mallards, and the ducklings were so small and very cute.

Boy, towing Mum is sure hard work.

This isn't as easy as it looks.

OK, let's get organized here!

Good, that's better,  now I have my ducks in a row.

"If you keep your feathers well oiled the water of criticism will run off as from a duck's back." Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards

Yes this is a Moorhen crossing, didn't you see the sign?

I think I'll just settle down here, so comfortable, so ........ zzzzzz.

I was thrilled to see these baby moorhens, a first for me. They are all fluff and have very large feet for their size. This little one below seemed to be having trouble tripping over his feet.

I'll just try to blend into the background here.

Wait, if I can just get onto the bank, I'm sure I can get used to these feet.

There must be a manual to go with these feet, maybe I should have read it after all.

In this picture I liked the position of the bubbles in the water behind the little guy.

Very funny, she has me pictured as a wind up toy now.

Oh, that was embarrassing, I think I'll stand still for a while.

The kids had a sleep over last night, I didn't get a wink of sleep.

We saw a pair of crested grebes with two babies.

Oh, oh, where did the kids get to now?

Hey, tell Dad to wait up.

This mother was between the path and her brood.

Who me, just sitting here pay no attention.

Oops, I see you spotted the kids after all.

Yeah, aren't they lovely they are almost as big as me now, I'm so proud.

Ha, ha, you can't get a good picture of me! And he was right ....

These Greylag geese were grazing, when the signal came for them to move,and  the whole group marched down and across the path. You can tell the young ones by the paler colour of their beaks and feet (the adults have pink feet).

OK, group let's move!

Are we there yet?

It's all peaceful now but a moment or two ago ...

Mum was chasing the interloper (the coot) to the far end of the log.

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable." Joseph Addison

I hope you got a few chuckles from these pictures. Our walk was just ducky, thank you.

I tried something new (to me) this week, a painting of a bird with a  poured background a painted bird. I took some pictures of the process. There were 4 pours for the background, each time I poured yellow then red then blue waited for them to dry completely, applied masking fluid and then poured the colours again. I took pictures of the first three pours:

After the first pour:

Here's the second:

...and the third:

Here is the final work with all the masking fluid removed and the Chickadee painted, I have called this one "Sweet Serenade". The inspiration for this one comes from the bird bath in my back yard which has a small stone bird on the edge and the red maple behind it.

"Sweet Serenade"

Glad you dropped by, and a special thank you to everyone who commented on my last post, your comments are very much appreciated.

Hope you enjoyed today's post, glad you dropped by, Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week ............