Annecy

Annecy, France has to be the cutest little town EVER.  And it was all the cuter at Christmastime, complete with a traditional European Christmas market  This, of course, meant LOTS of vin chaud (hot wine) and gaufres, (a popular dessert waffle with everything on it from honey to sugar to nutella).

Most visitors to Annecy are there for its noteworthy lake and mountain sport activities as well as the incredible regional food (think Haute Savoie specialties like fondue, raceltte, tartiflette, and bilberry tarte) and splendid scenery (jagged, snowy mountains surrounding a a lake as turquoise as the Caribbean).

We were also there for all of these reasons, although I must confess that I found Annecy rather cool for other reasons too. Like, for instance, architecturally, it's a really well preserved medieval village.  And it was the refuge for the bishop of Geneva and other Catholics during Switzerland's Protestant Reformation in the 1530's (Annecy was part of Switzerland at the time, and wouldn't permanently become part of France until the 1860's after Napoleon). 

Boring, I know. 

Hmm, but not really.

Here's Doug and I doing the obligatory selfie in front of Annecy's most photographed scene:  the 12th century prison, Palais de l'Ile, on the Canal du Thiou:

Two important people in French history took up residence in Annecy:  the bishop, Francis de Sales and the philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau.  De Sales arrived in the early 1600's.  He intellectualized the town and contributed to the building of many of its important churches and monuments (still standing today), and was later beatified as the patron saint of writers and journalists, a bit of trivia of interest to me.  :-)

Rousseau, of course, is famous for being considered the father of the French Revolution, due to the widespread contemporary resonance of his Social Compact theory.  At one point, our family stood on the steps of Saint Pierre cathedral, a provisional cathedral for Francis de Sales, while looking out to the building where Rousseau attended choir school and and had music lessons one hundred years later.  It was a tranquil moment, considering a tranquil time in the life of Rousseau, who eventually went mad.

Abby and Reese on those steps:

At the Christmas market . . . we basically ate our way through town:

The most delicious brioche ever, in the cutest town ever.

Gaufres!

Poutine, a nod to our Quebecois friends.  Some of us liked it more than others:

A boat ride around Lac d'Annecy, beacause it's beautiful and there's a medieval chateau to view at every turn along the way:

A game of Rochambeau along the way: