Annecy, Aix-les-Bains & Grenoble Travel Guide | Rhône-Alps Part 2

In Part 2 of our Rhône-Alps series, we continue beyond Chamonix and talk about spending time in Annecy, Aix-les-Bains, Chambéry and Grenoble.

We talk about what Annecy feels like once you’re there, how crowded it can get depending on timing and why it stands out compared to other lake towns we’ve visited. We also talk about Aix-les-Bains and Chambéry as quieter stops, how they felt in comparison and why they worked well without needing much planning.

We end with Grenoble and how different it feels from the alpine towns, shaped by its setting and the way the city interacts with the mountains around it.

usic: Seize the Day by Andrey Rossi via Uppbeat
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back. I'm Lisa. And I'm Erin. And this is the Getaways Podcast. Hey, so today, instead of doing just a city, we're going to do a whole region of France. And it's going to be a long one. So we're going to break it up into part one and part two. Here's part two.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Yeah, we're going to move on to Ansey.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Which we've also been to several times. We only stayed there once, but we've done a few like day visits, day trips kind of thing there. And it is just adorable as well. It is they call it the the Venice of the Alps, right? Because there are the all the canals. Yeah. And if we can post the building that's on the corner that's surrounded by a canal. Yeah, I mean that's what the like the Instagram moment, right? It's a very, very famous place. And there's good reason because it's pretty, it's cozy, it's ridiculously cute. Same kinds of food, really. I mean, it's the fondue racolet, like comfort, warm, cozy food.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Because we we always go to that fondue place there too.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Which is delightful.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yeah, it's called La Fretti.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

And then go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah, we stayed in a dumpy hotel. Yeah. But everything around it was nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

And we weren't there except to sleep.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Have we must have stayed there twice? Because was that time the first time we stayed there? Is that the time I fell over in the park? I feel like we stayed there a second time, but I don't know where we would have stayed. Because remember I was sitting on that thing while you guys were racing bikes or something, and I leaned back and I just fell right over. Oh yeah. Was that the first time we were there?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

I think so. Okay. Because the other time we were with Katie.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah. All right. So there's a giant, beautiful lake that has tons of parks and you had like bike bike races, just bikes out there for kids, just out there. Not just for kids. Not just for kids. For the like late 40s crowd, too. Um and then there's a very famous gelato place there, or glace.

unknown 2:01

Right?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Is that what it's called? Glass. It's called Glos Glacier Glacier? Glacier d'Alps.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Glacier d'Alps.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Well, you say it in the proper French way. Glacier d'Alps. Oh, glacier. Oh, so it's not a glacier. Not in French, no. Oh. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

So yeah, and that park over on that side that's along the lake, like it's it's where everybody goes, it's like Central Park, right? Yeah. It's where everybody goes for their walks, for their runs, for you can rent little boats to go out on the lake. There's tons of cute restaurants. I mean, it's it's social hour for sure over there, and so much to do, and you know, lots of kids and dogs, and just overall just overall a good time.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yes. So that that building in the middle of the canals is called Palace de Lyle. I would say like the Palace Island. Is that how it would translate?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

I'm not sure what I like that spelling of Isle is maybe it is. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Um so that's that's what it's called. It's stunning in the day or night.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah. And it's you know, you don't need to spend more than a day there. And I think you can can you ski from there too? I know you can from Chamonix, obviously. But can you ski from?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

I'm sh I know people stay there to go skiing, but I don't think you can ski like from the town.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

But you can walk up to the Chateau d'Yannise, which we did not do. It's around on the other side of the lake. It's beautiful. Yeah. It's beautiful. Um, you can swim in the lake because Lake Anasi is considered to be one of the cleanest lakes in Europe.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Yeah, it's gotta be cold as sin, though, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Maybe not in the summer. Maybe in the summer it's a welcome treat, right? Maybe. Maybe you can't swim there because there were strict environmental protections introduced in the 1960s. So uh I'll put that on the website. So, but yes. And like the Lefretti, Lafretti, is that what it's called? Yeah. Yes. I highly recommend Lepretti because we have eaten there at least twice. Right. I want to say maybe three times, but at least twice. And the fondue is also equally as good as Shamani.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yeah, no, it's great. And it's a it's a you've got a nice outside area, and then you've got the inside, and then you've got an upstairs, which is where we ate with Katie. Yeah. So it's actually like, you know, if it's a crowded night or if it's a busy time, like you've got a shot at getting in, which you don't always have to do around.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

And when you sit on the inside, it's very like cozy ski cabin vibe. Yeah. With fireplaces. It's so nice. Yeah. It's so nice. So that is Honise. And then we have stopped in Chambri, which is what we should talk about next. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Yeah. We stayed there once. We stayed there. We well, we stayed just outside once, and then we stayed in city center once, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, and we stayed in first. Yeah. It's our first time.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

A great little hotel.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Fantastic hotel. Felt like Ralph Lauren built the hotel. Yes. So and the breakfast was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah, no, it was a really special place called Petit Hotel Confidential. And it is, it was definitely worth it. And I don't think that that was more than like 120 euros a night. But we had a huge room we shared because Dylan was pretty little then. Yeah, because remember, I had it was me and the dog on the big like pullout couch in the living room, and then you guys had a room in the back.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Vaguely. But when I was looking over it to refresh my memory and I saw the rooms, I was like, oh, this hotel.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

This hotel is good.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah, no, it was nice. And we like the hotel much more than we like the city, to be perfectly blank.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yes. It's very close to a monoprix, which I appreciate.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

But the brush Monoprix is like a French department store, but like a less expensive than like a Gallery Lafayette.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

It could be Targety because some of the Monopries have grocery stores in the bottom. They have clothes. They have all sorts of it's I love a Monoprix. But yes, this the city it it was not my favorite. It was not my favorite. We did have a good dinner.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

We did. We had a really nice dinner. So Rex was with us and he was under the table. Do you remember that? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it wasn't that there was anything like egregiously wrong. It just didn't, it didn't. And probably because we've been to the other two before.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

They just blow you away, and this place it did not blow us away. But we did love the hotel. And then the next time we came was for my birthday. Was it my birthday? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

It's for my birthday, and we stayed at a chateau de candy.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Yeah. And it's a little bit outside in the countryside and incredible grounds. Like, I mean, we walked around and ran and it was it's Rex, I think. Because Red I've Rex went to Candy, okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Not to the hotel.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

So they would run through the vineyards and like I mean, the the property was beautiful. Our room was ginormous. It is expensive.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

It was a birthday present.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah. But we had a huge room. You have a huge room downstairs, and then Dylan and I had a whole uh loft upstairs with like four different beds in it. Yeah. And two bathrooms. It was really, really nice, and there's a lot of different options to stay there, but it is it is a treat. It is not it is not your standard under 150 euros. It's many, many more.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yeah. And we stayed one night.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah. But they also have a really nice restaurant that has a price like a fixed menu that actually wasn't super expensive. I think our lunch was like 30 euro, and you got like three courses. Yeah. And dinner, I think, was four courses, and I think it was like 40 each.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Maybe it was great. And we got we got cocktails. Like I got Kira Royale, and that wasn't expensive either.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

No. And that was like we were in a little library. Yeah. It was so nice. So cute. Yeah. But yeah, no, it was great to just walk around that area and a lot of, and we got to taste like the regional food and the cheeses of the area and all the sort of local stuff with being in this sort of special, special hotel.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yes. Now, an interesting fact, my interesting fact about Chambury, or Chambury, whatever, Chambury is that it was the formal capital of the, and I don't know how to say this word, Duke, Duchey, Dukey, Duke. Dukey, really. Duchy. Well, something of Savoy, which eventually moved to Torino. Oh, okay. It's not Dukey. It's not Duke, but you know. So, yeah. So historically important, but quieter and less visually dramatic than the cities that surround it.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Yeah, absolutely. And then our next city is somewhere that we is like the perfect spot to stop and stretch your legs when you're on a road trip, which is Aix-les-Bains. And we stayed there one night at a really nice hotel.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

We stayed there one night at the Novatel. At the Novatel. And we had stopped there just for a pit stop once before.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

And just walked around the lake.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

But there is a huge lake with a lovely walk around it that you could probably do in a couple hours. I mean, it's it's not small, but very relaxed, very lovely atmosphere, lots of cafes, lots of places to stroll.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

And we didn't really go into the town though, did we?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Well, I I don't think there's much of a town there. I think it's just we drove through it. We did? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

There's supposed to be a lot of like termes there.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Well, yeah, because that's what it the name means baths, right? Oh, okay. So it's no original. What does that mean? There? I have no idea. Um so that's like a Roman time spa city.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

So are they still spas there, you think? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we need to go back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

But yeah, they call them termes in a lot of Europe, and well, like depending on what language you're in, but it means like a hot, like thermal bass, right? And they're supposed to be all over there. But we have we have not partook partaken in that yet. But very pretty place to be. Very easy to just jump off the freeway, stretch your legs, get a snack.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah, yeah. So some interesting facts about Ex Le Bon. Le Bon? Le Bon. Is it's located on Lac du Bourgier. Did I say that right?

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Du Bourguer. Yeah. You put in another syllable there, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

It's the largest natural lake entirely within France.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah. Yeah. So it's not sharing with probably I would assume Switzerland. I would assume is Lake Geneva partly in France? Yeah. Okay. And it's known as a spa town since Roman times because of its thermal waters. Wait, does that mean that the lake is warm? I don't think it is.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

I'd want to stick my toes in and find out.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Got anything else? Okay, that's all I've got for X and Le Bombs.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Alright, so Grenoble. Or Grenoble. So we stayed at a perfectly fine hotel. Perfectly fine hotel. I don't even remember what it was.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Was it an It was in the A la Cour family, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

So probably around 100 Euros a night.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

And we had good, we had fondue there too.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

We did have fondue there at the cutest restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah. Really, really cute town. Again, not the same. Like if we're going in order of like just pure aesthetics, the first two are gonna be my favorite. But there's something kind of like cool and artsy, and there's a lot of medical schools in Grenoble. So there's kind of a young vibe of education and university vibe to it.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Definitely. Definitely. We went there, we stayed two nights, and we had it was after spending the entire summer in Sardinia, and we had taken the ferry back, and I believe we stopped in uh Monaco. Oh yeah. And then Grenoble was our stop on the way back to uh Rotterdam. And so but we spent two nights there because there's quite a bit to do.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

There is. There is in a much bigger city than the others. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

It is like Lisa said, it does have a lot of medical school-y atmosphere there. Because we stayed a little outside of the center, so we saw a lot. Is that where we went hiking? Did we go hiking there? Where did we go hiking and we got chased by a giant animal? I think it was there. That weird cat, right? Yeah. Well, we think it was a cat. Well, yeah. And we both fell.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Yeah, that was sometimes we should just stay home. But um, we went, we found this area to hike. A great, beautiful area. Yeah, it was super pretty. And you know, it's nice for us to get out, but it's also the castle. We were, I don't know if we were just tired or stupid or what, but we both of us fell and like kind of inner injured or busted up my knee.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

And yeah. You tripped on a on a on a stick that jumped up. You were on the trail, at least. I was just on the gravel sidewalk.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Well, and I have a fool dog that sometimes gets excited. Yeah, we were assumed.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

And on our way back, after we both injured ourselves, there was something. Yeah, there was some giant animal. I'm gonna go with lion that jumped out of a tree, never came out of the shrubs.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

But but we could hear it stalking us like as we were walking, and we could hear it coming down. Could have been a bear. Getting could have been a bear. But I mean, it was it was weighty, whatever it was. It was, and it was it wasn't like hissing, it was just like stalking. It was that's why I guess that's why I thought it was a cat because it felt very feline-y, the way it was kind of just like stalking us.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, it was creepy. Thank God it was at the end, and we were close to the car back then.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Because I I was like, oh my god, I don't know how big this thing is, so I need to pick up Rex, or do you need to pick me up? Yeah, it was it was weird, but but there are lovely, there is lovely hiking there.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

We do tend to go out on some really remote hikings, and people would never find us. No. Dylan's sleeping in the room, and he's like, I don't know. Poor guy are my people.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Um But Anna, in the city we did lots of like walking around and shopping, and then we took that what is it?

SPEAKER_01 14:28

It's what is that thing called? It's a cable car. Is it a cable car? But it went over the street, so it's kind of like a it's a cable car, but a gondola. Yeah, but what's the other word for it?

SPEAKER_00 14:39

There's another, there's a word that like the one in in Slovenia. It's called a funicular. Yes. That's what I was trying to think of. Yes. So we took a funicular.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

We took a funicular up to the Bastille. Uh-huh. That means jail.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

I don't know what the actual name Bastille means because like Bastille Day is when like they were when France freed themselves when they fought back.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

It's also a really good band. But Bastille means Oh, it just means medieval fortress. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

So we took it up there and we walked around. There was also like little cafes, lots of shopping, and a lot of stuff for the kids to do. That's where he did that, like he did a weird escape room kind of thing. Well, it was more like a fun housey kind of thing, wasn't it? Did you go in with him? No, because there was a lot of climbing and I don't do that. Yeah. And he had a great time. He had a great time. And there was like three and there were cameras so that even if you didn't go in, you could still watch your kid in there. There's a lot of parks up there.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

There's definitely a lot for kids to do. A lot of hiking trails we didn't even get to.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah. But yeah, I I think that there's, you know, I didn't really expect a whole lot. We knew that there was stuff to do, but I didn't expect a whole lot. But I think it's definitely somewhere, you know, I don't think it's a destination, but if you're doing a road trip, it's a great place to stop and spend a couple of days because there is adorable shops. Yeah. And good food. And good food, yeah. And something for everybody. So I think that it's definitely like And it is in France.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

And you really can't go wrong in France, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

With everything or just in general.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Just with life.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Nothing bad can happen in France. But yeah, that's do you have any fun facts? I do.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

I have some fun facts, some interesting facts. Grenoble is often called the capital of the Alps. Okay. Don't know why. And it's surrounded by three mountain rangers.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Rangers.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Ranges. The purple ranger. Um it's Vercourt. Okay. Okay. Chartreuse. Okay. And Belladonna. Okay. Those are my facts.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

That sounds very nice.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

I will say that one thing that I did notice is park in a safe place because we did see a lot of broken windows. Yeah. So and one thing I can say about France, especially France, is that if you're traveling and you have a top on your car, you're gonna be very hard pressed to find parking in garages because they're all under two meters.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah. Well, and just to clarify, when she says park somewhere that's safe, that's that's kind of our gauge is somewhere that's like a real parking lot that's like you have to have a secure entrance and exit. Because street parking can get a little sketched.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Anywhere, anywhere in the world, street parking can get, but we just noticed it a lot there. We saw a lot of broken glass and a lot we actually saw broken windows in cars.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

We parked next to one and then yeah. So yeah, that's just something to be aware of. But I mean, again, if that's the worst thing that happens, yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

But we always travel with a box on top of our car because I have a very small car. And but like I said, it's France, it's France, especially, it's very hard to find parking garages that will take us. All right. So take away from this region. You got anything?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

You got anything left?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

No, it's a great region. I I love stopping there when I'm ready to go back.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Chamonix is just pure magic.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah. No, I mean that's if if I had to pick one place for sure that would be it. Number two, I'd be honest. And, you know, we've been there all like all of these places, all different times of the year. Yeah. So, you know, it just depends on kind of the vibe you want. If you want the the snow and the ski and whatever, obviously winter, but there's kind of no bad time either because spring, you get lovely hiking and everything is starting to bloom. You know, every every season has something to offer, and it's not like there's a real down season for any of these places.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

So and it's it's it's one of the routes that you could if you were if you were tripping, road tripping through France for Paris. Huh? Through from like Paris down to the French Riviera. It's it's one of the routes you could go. So it would it definitely places that you should stop.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

That's what we got, man. There you go. There you there you see Rhone Alps, minus Lyon. Minus Lyon, and probably minus some other really cute places we just didn't.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

No, I'm sure, but that's that's those are the places that we've hit and we know pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Stay in an Airbnb kind of in the middle of nowhere in the Rhone Alps, and and which was a great Airbnb with a hot tub. Didn't somebody fall in, said hot tub, or have a hard time getting out, said hot tub. I don't remember. I don't know. But we and we went skiing, or Dylan and Katie went skiing. Lisa and I went drinking, and and Katie and Dylan went skiing at like Mon what was that ski place called? It was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

I don't remember, but there's a lot of places like within you know half hour.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

And you're very close to Geneva, so you can just hop right into Switzerland.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Well, you can hop right in if you buy the$40 thing to drive in. You need a Vignette for your car, which you they sell like like gas stations and stuff, but it's like 40 euro, not forty francs.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

For a year.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

For a year, and you need to put that on your car.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

But when we were in France and we were like, oh, let's go to Geneva for lunch. That sounds fancy life, isn't it? It sounds very fancy. That's how we roll. We were driving from France into Geneva, and they were stopping cars if they didn't have any, and you had to buy them right there on the spot.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Yeah. And but all the countries that have it are pretty intense about it.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Really? Okay, well, thanks for tuning in. Be sure to check out part one if you missed it.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah. So the Roan Alps gets a big thumbs up and thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Check out the website www.thetawayswithaz.com. And we'll see you next time. Yeah. Bye.