May 2022
Annecy, France is one of those towns that simply stepped right off of a movie screen. It has an historic district that sits on a clear blue lake and hardly seems real.
Annecy is billed as a city of Art and it does have a considerable amount of lovely public art, but I also believe that nickname came from its very classic architecture. Brightly colored old buildings sitting upon charming canals, bedecked in flowers and criss crossed with small bridges, it seriously is a little too perfect.
In the heart of the old town, the Île palace, a former prison and the Palais de Justice (law courts).
On the left is the Île palace sitting in the middle of the river
The castle of Annecy is the former residence of the Dukes of Genevois-Nemours. It looms over the city and is an eclectic museum with art exhibitions and galleries dedicated to archaeology, ethnology, history and the life of and on alpine lakes.
The castle of Annecy
Through the ages the castle had many masters which gave it a rather interesting architectural style. A blend somewhere between medieval defense and elegant French Renaissance. Used as a military barracks until 1947, it was acquired by the town in 1953 and turned into an art gallery, tourist attraction and cultural center.
Looking out a window of the Castle of Annecy down upon the town
The large hall in the castle and some of the art that found a perfect setting in this huge room
In 1939 anti-aircraft shelters were dug into the rock under the castle.
Lake Annecy with the Alps in the background
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Public Art in the Jardins de l’Europe
Somehow artists just get it.
A fun fountain in town
I was there when the crowds weren’t too bad, but add more people and I think I would have mistakenly thought I was in Disneyland.