Today, we took another of the tips proffered by the hotel proprietor, and went to explore the area known as Du Massif de Bouges, a mountainous area to the north-east of Chambéry. The roads were narrow, twisty and steep (ideal Tour de France country), but not too difficult (if you're in a car!). One disadvantage of this, however, was that it was virtually impossible to stop and take any photos of the rugged mountain scenery on the way up. Once we got to the end of the Tour de France course at Col de Plainpalais, we took to an even smaller road and were able to safely pull over onto the side of an unfenced field.

The scenery was now not as rugged as on the way up, because we had reached the high plateau at the top of the mountains, but nonetheless it was still impressive. So impressive that it was impossible to capture it all in one panorama photo.

While we were there, Rita did her best impression of Dr. Doolittle when she went over to "talk with the animals". The cows were all very interested in this creature wandering across the field, yodelling.

Too soon, we were on our way again, but because there was so little trafffic around, we were able to stop at will to go for a walk or take photos of the surrounding scenery. I was very surprised and impressed by the beauty of the high plateau.

In the late morning, Rita spied a nearby lake on her Google Maps, and wondered if it might be a good place for a swim. Since there was no chemical factory in the vicinity, we decied to go explore, and soon found the lake near the town of Lescheraines. It was not only suitable for swimming, but it also had a camping ground and a cafe/bar/restaurant. But, first things first, Rita went for a swim, while I found a shady tree, enjoyed the scenery and checked my emails.

By the time Rita had finished swimming, it was indeed time for lunch, so we decided to give the cafe a try. This turned out OK, and Rita made friends with Grandma and Grandson at the next table. We then hit the road again and climbed up out of the lake valley to the high plateau again. Along the way, we saw an older farmer raking hay the old-fashioned way!

Somehow, we found ourselves on a very minor road, weaving our way through very small villages on even smaller roads, often with farm machinery coming the other way. However, just as we were about to admit that we were lost, our Google Maps lady told us that we had made the right decision and were now on the quickest route, because we had avoided the roadworks on the main road. Go figure! At this point, I was almost ready to forgive her for her terrible pronunciation of French town names in her Australian accent. Surely, she must know that Chambéry is not pronounced Chamber-ree, while Aix-les-Bains is not Hey-Les-Baynes! But one of the advantages of the backroads was the scenery, especially when you had time and space to take a photo. I particularly liked this one, which looked to me like the scenery one sees constructed for model railroads, with pretty little houses and trees. All I was waiting for was the model steam train to go choofing through the landscape.

We rejoined the main road 10m from where it was closed off for the roadworks, and now continued down the mountain to Annency, which brought about another complete change in scenery. Now we had the big rugged mountains again, plus a big beautiful lake.

As soon as the road began to run alongside the lake, we turned right in order to get closer to the water, and found a little lane that led to a rest area and marina, where we found a parking spot literally 1m from Lac d'Annency! We walked a further 100m and found the small marina and swimming area.

While Rita took a dip in the lake, I found a bench from where I could contemplate the state of the world!

After Rita returned from her swim, and we both sat on the bench and worked out the problems of the world, we decided it was time to go home. So, after we had tried to get a drink at a local cafe, but realised that they were too expensive and had too many Poms speaking very LOUDLY, we jumped in the car and joined the crowd moving along the lake shoreline (because of the heat, everyone in Annency was trying to swim in the lake at the same time) until we reached the edge of Annency proper, where we turned left to go to Chambéry. A 40 minute drive saw us back at the hotel, after going to the local SuperU supermarket to get some ingredients for tonight's dinner and tomorrows's lunch.  After dinner, we went for a walk around the local lake across the road from the hotel, to dump some recyclables and bottles. The lake and swimming area in the park had a great backdrop of the mountains.

We returned to the hotel in time to see a lovely sunset from our window, to round off a memorable day.