Annecy

Annecy is a small town in Haute-Savoie at the head of a lake, with the Alps behind it and a medieval centre cut through by canals. It is 40 km from Geneva, 140 from Lyon, and it is on most lists of the prettiest towns in Europe — deservedly, and with the crowds that implies.

Half a day covers the old town comfortably. The lake is worth a second half.

The old town

Annecy grew around the river Thiou, which drains the lake and runs through the centre in a set of channels — hence the inevitable nickname, the Venice of the Alps. The houses along them are ochre, pink and pale yellow with arcades at street level, and the whole thing is a few hundred metres end to end.

Palais de l’Île

The building everyone photographs: a triangular twelfth-century house standing on an island in the middle of the canal, shaped like a ship’s prow. It has been a customs post, a mint, a courthouse, a prison and — under the Occupation — a prison again. It now holds the town’s architecture and heritage centre, and you can visit the cells at water level, the chapel and the courtroom.

Château d’Annecy

The castle on the hill above, home of the Counts of Geneva until the fifteenth century and then the Dukes of Savoy. It survived remarkably intact and combines the blank walls of a real fortress with some much more refined later building. It now houses the town museum and temporary exhibitions.

Streets and churches

• Rue Sainte-Claire — the arcaded main street of the old town, and the spine of the market
• Cathédrale Saint-Pierre — sixteenth century, Renaissance outside and Gothic within; Jean-Jacques Rousseau sang in the choir here
• Église Saint-Maurice — fifteenth-century Dominican church with a remarkable painted funeral fresco
• Notre-Dame de Liesse and the Basilique de la Visitation on the hillside, which holds the tombs of François de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal and gives the view over town and lake
• Hôtel de Sales and the eighteenth-century Maison Gallo — the grander private houses, with Italian influence in the detail

The lake

Lac d’Annecy is often called the cleanest lake in Europe — the result of a decision in the 1960s to stop discharging into it, which was radical at the time and is why you can swim in it now.

Things to do on it:

• The lakefront park — the Jardins de l’Europe and the Pâquier lawn, immediately behind the old town, with the Pont des Amours between them
• Boat trips — an hour round the lake, running most of the year, with commentary
• The cycle path — a converted railway line runs 33 km along the western shore to Doussard, flat, car-free and one of the best rides in France
• Beaches — several public ones round the shore; the water is properly cold until midsummer
• Paragliding from the Col de la Forclaz above the far end, which is why there are always canopies in the sky

The Venetian carnival

For a weekend in February or March, several hundred costumed figures in full Venetian dress — masks, brocade, feathers — move slowly through the old town and pose along the canals. There is no parade and no schedule: they simply walk about and let people photograph them. It is free, it is genuinely strange, and it is the best time of year to see the town if you do not mind the cold.

Eating

Haute-Savoie cooking is mountain cooking, which mostly means melted cheese:

• Tartiflette — sliced potato, onion and bacon under a whole reblochon, baked. The regional dish, and it was invented in the 1980s by the reblochon marketing board, which does not make it worse.
• Raclette — melted cheese scraped over potatoes and ham
• Fondue savoyarde — usually Comté, Beaufort, Gruyère de Savoie and Abondance in some combination
• Diots and crozets — local pork sausages cooked in white wine, and small square pasta baked with Beaufort

A warning worth taking seriously: these are winter dishes. Ordering fondue in 30-degree heat marks you as a tourist and will ruin your afternoon. In summer switch to the lake fish — féra, omble chevalier, perch fillets.

Two more things to do here: buy artisan cheese from a proper fromagerie rather than a supermarket, and eat an ice cream — the lavender-honey one from the old town’s glacier is worth the queue. And génépi, the local herb liqueur, exists specifically to help you digest all that cheese.

See the cooking of Rhône-Alpes and French cheeses.

Markets

Tuesday, Friday and Sunday mornings, 7:00 to 13:00, through the streets of the old town. Tuesday is mostly produce; Friday and Saturday bring the craft and textile stalls — the chalet-pattern tablecloths, the painted baking dishes. The Sunday market is the big one.

Getting to Annecy

• By train — direct TGV from Paris in about 3 h 45, and regional trains from Lyon (2 hours) and Chambéry. The station is 10 minutes’ walk from the old town.
• By air — Geneva is the practical airport, 40 km away, with direct coaches taking about an hour and a quarter. Lyon Saint-Exupéry is the alternative.
• By coach — long-distance buses from Lyon, Geneva and Grenoble, cheaper than the train.
• By car — the A41. Park outside the centre; the old town is pedestrian and the lakefront car parks fill early in summer. See parking in France.

Everything in the old town is walkable. You only need transport for the lake and the mountains.

Around Annecy

• Gorges du Fier — 9.5 km west: a gangway bolted to the rock inside a gorge 3 to 10 m wide, with the river roaring below. Under an hour to walk, and one of the more startling things in the French Alps. Train or bus to Poisy, then 1.5 km on foot.
• Château de Montrottier — beside the gorge, with an eccentric collection
• Talloires and Menthon-Saint-Bernard — the eastern shore, with the fairytale château at Menthon
• Le Semnoz — the mountain immediately above town, drivable, with the view over the lake and Mont Blanc beyond
• Geneva — 40 minutes, and Chamonix and Mont Blanc about an hour and a half
• Lyon — two hours west

When to go

June and September are the sweet spot — the lake is warm enough and the town is not yet impossible. July and August are very busy indeed. February and March bring the carnival and clear cold air. Annecy also has the world’s main animation festival in June, which fills every hotel: check before booking.

See the most beautiful villages in France.

Where to park in Annecy

Weather in Annecy

Updated: 1 September 2026