About Annecy

 

Yesterday I watched a cooking show on TV, that is not something I would normally do but as it was about French cooking I was curious to see more and then when the presenter/chef announced that he would be in Annecy I decided to stick with it as I have just recently been sharing photos from the area.

It was nice to see the sights that I remembered from my visit as he drove along the same roads I had driven along. As the presenter sang the praises of the local produce, artisans and food I thought that my next post (this one) would focus on the town and its restaurants.

However, although I have some nice shots of the town, as I hope you will agree, they were all taken fairly early in the day so the restaurants were not open or had not yet started serving lunch and everywhere was pretty quiet, save for a few people taking a coffee break at a local bar. Given how cold it was it was surprising to find even these few people sat outside. 

Nevertheless I think these images do show what a beautiful place Annecy is and why it is worth a visit, whatever the weather.

A Cabin in the Valley

 I really hope that you have enjoyed the pictures I have shared over the last few days of the Red Kites, I have sorted few some more that I will post in the week ahead but for today here is something a little different.

After photographing the birds I was heading back to the car park and I took a slight detour off the track and I happened across this stunning view.

I have given each of these images different treatment in Lightroom, please let me know what you think and which of the two images you prefer.

Across the Lake

So here we are at the end of our second day in France. We have been staying in Sevrier on the shores of Lac d'Annecy in the Haute Savoie region of France. It really is a beautiful area and like everywhere else we have visited on our roadtrip we simply haven't had the time to explore properly or see everything.

The first picture is a panoramic shot taken during a cruise along the lake this afternoon, it has been quite cloudy here, yesterday we had yet another cracking thunder storm, so the scenery has been quite dramatic.

Thus evening things have brightened up a little and the second shot was taken from the jetty at the local rowing club 2 minutes walk from our apartment. As you can see the sun was obviously setting behind me and  lighting up the mountain top on the far shore of the lake. I like the way the wisps of cloud are blowing across the peak like smoke.

I would quite happily spend a few more days here just relaxing but tomorrow we are heading north to Alsace, with a short detour  through Switzerland. We have just two more full days before our roadtrip ends and then we will be heading home.

Making a Splash

I love this shot of the lower slope of Glwyder Fawr overlooking Llyn Idwal. I love the rugged slopes, the thin streak of snow lingering on the distant ridge and the clear blue sky, I also love the super splash courtesy of my rock throwing daughter to whom this shot is dedicated.

Cool Blue

On Saturday I posted an almost identical view to this but in black and white. I think it is a great shot but I can't decide whether I prefer the colour or the black and white image so I would like to know what you think, please leave a comment below or on the facebook page to say which is your favourite.

Rising With The Sun

In the past week I have missed posting to my blog on a couple of days because I went to Birmingham and then to Manchester to see my absolute favourite band The Cat Empire in concert. Their recent album Rising With The Sun is fantastic and full of energy, all their music is really and it's well worth a listen. Anyway these early morning pictures of Snowdon lit by the rising sun seem fitting.

Reflections On Llyn Llydaw

The first of today's pictures was taken from the spot where I had camped in 2012, it is a lovely view across the lake and is a really tranquil scene.

The next two images were taken from different vantage points around the lake with some lovely clear reflections.

The pictures show how changeable the conditions were with the clouds moving quite quickly across the tops of the mountains yet the surface of the lake remained calm.

Along Route Napoleon

From the Mediterranean to Le Verdon, a reservoir in the Alpes-Maritime.

In an afternoon's drive along the D4085 or Route Napoleon in Provence we left the coast at Juan les Pins behind and headed into the mountainous region of Alpes-Maritime and Var to the Gorge du Verdon.  It was a spectacular drive with monumental views which you can see from today's selection of pictures.

Attersee

The reflections in yesterday's blog seemed to go down well so I have picked some more lakes and mountains pictures for today. (If you didn't see yesterdays click on the link to have a look, you won't be disappointed).

These were taken in the evening light around the shores of Attersee in Upper Austria, north of Salzburg.  There were a number of lakes in this region, Attersee being the largest, and it was huge. It was beautifully calm though so provided some lovely reflections.

We also stopped off to skim stones and make a splash as you can see in pictures 3 and 4.