Annecy

Annecy is the prefecture and largest city of the Haute-Savoie, at the northern tip of Lake Annecy and 35 kilometres south of Geneva. Raoul Blanchard’s monograph nicknamed it the Pearl of the French Alps for its position between lake and mountains, and the town controls the northern entrance to the lake gorge. A shortage of available building land has kept the old town tight and canal-threaded. The lake is clean enough to swim in and ringed by a cycle path, which is how most of a summer day here gets spent.