France is well known for its bike culture, especially for its world-renowned race, Le Tour de France. Unlike many French stereotypes which we’ve found don’t actually check out (think berets and black and white striped shirts), the French really do love biking! And about a month ago I had the opportunity to benefit from this love of biking!
About 30 miles from Albertville, there is a beautiful city called Annecy which is situated on the northern end of Lake Annecy. There is a nice bike bath that runs almost the entire way between Albertville and Annecy so two friends and I decided we would try and make the trip there and back.
We left on a Saturday morning around 8am and we had an absolutely gorgeous day for biking. There were hardly any clouds in the sky and the temperature was in the low 80s. The first twentyish miles went by rather smoothly so when we hit the southern tip of the lake, we decided to take a turn to the east so that we could do a lap around the lake which we knew would include some hills. The hills were quite tough, but the view on the top of the lake was gorgeous! Also, the next couple of miles coasting down the slope was amazing! We stopped in Annecy for lunch and ice cream (they are known for their ice cream) before heading back.
We ended up doing the ride in about 4.5 hours and it was a really fun experience, especially since it isn’t one that I expected to have before coming to France. While on the trail, we must have seen a couple hundred other bikers, most of which travelled in groups of 10 – 20. I will say that we definitely stood out as foreigners as we rode our mountain bikes and wore normal athletic clothes while pretty much everyone else was on road bikes and wearing full racing uniforms.
To add to this, in a just a few days, Le Tour de France will actually come through Albertville. The 11th stage of the race starts in Albertville and we plan to go down with the kids to check it out. Stay tuned for another blog post on this experience!
– Adam
See below for some pictures and videos of this trip.
