Well, here I am back from the second leg of my Summer adventures. And very lovely it was too, despite the intense heat that I know you were all suffering with back here. I, at least, (once I had purchased a swimming costume), was able to immerse myself in the crystal clear waters of Lake Annecy at the end of every long, hot day. I am not a big devotee of ‘wild’ swimming, but it is amazing what temperatures of over 35 degrees will drive a person to. We had decided to take the train to France rather than drive which I am very glad of, to be honest. It meant that we did not feel obliged to go on day trips, because we were limited to wherever we could reach by bus, and it was much too hot to go too far! In the end, we generally went out in the mornings, and spent most of the afternoons in our apartment, behind closed shutters, reading, snoozing and, in my case, knitting. Once it cooled down in the evenings we were able to go to beach and eat dinner outside. Perfect.
Annecy is in the Haute Savoie region of France, in the foothills of the Alps. It is very wild and very beautiful. I do think as well, particularly having lived in Norfolk for so long, there is something magical about the mountainous landscape – the way the sunlight falls on the tops of the Alps and the lake is something very special. Plus, I just love the French way of life and the food. I fell very easily into the pattern of shopping in the mornings – bread, delicious patisserie, terrines, tarts. It was such a joy to have all those shops lined up in a row on the high street and to not have to set a foot in a supermarket for a week. Our daughter was not able to take life quite so easily – she was attending the International Festival of Animation in Annecy and set off every morning to attend networking events and talks, spending the afternoons with her uni mates swimming in the lake. She was very polite, however, about staying with us, and it was a great pleasure to be with her.
The Animation Festival was much bigger than I had imagined – apparently it is attended by everyone who is anyone and the streets of the town were crowded with people from all over the world. It was amazing. Despite that, we had a lovely day in Annecy itself, which has a very gorgeous old town, sometimes called the Venice of the Alps due to the canals running through it. We found what we thought was an out of the way restaurant for a truly delicious lunch, but it filled up with animation people all networking like crazy. I had to be called to order by my husband for eavesdropping too obviously. But it was fascinating listening to people bigging up their latest projects. The reason we chose that restaurant was that it was just over the road from the yarn shop in Annecy, which turned out to be a real gem of a shop, stuffed to the rafters with Lang and Katia wool. I had a terrific chat with the owner, despite my not speaking very good French, and her not speaking English at all. If you ever go, I recommend that you visit – Cote Laine.
While I had so much time on my hands I nearly finished my Alpine Bloom (I didn’t bring the right cables to complete it there), and started on a new shawl in my Fine Soft Sock yarn, which I have designed myself. This is an entirely new venture for me and I was delighted to have had the time to spend on it. I will let you all know when I have finished it, but so far, so good.
Despite having had a delightful break, I am glad to be back in Norfolk and in the shop. East, West, home’s Best and all that!