Castillo de Annecy, France

First up this morning was a walk up our steep street to visit the Chateau d’Annecy, which is a restored castle built between the 12th and 16th centuries. While it is impressive to be able to enter these ancient buildings, this one wasn’t that inspiring. It is now the site of the Museum of Alpine Popular Art with numerous regional sculptures and paintings and while they were nice to look at, I think we were hoping to get a glimpse of the castle’s original feel and features.

Probably the most interesting was the collection of domestic and functional furniture of the region, dating from the 15th century. The workmanship in these pieces was impressive.

“Modern Art” was scattered throughout the castle, including one piece that was a pile of dead leaves and a clear plastic bowl on it. Seriously who determines this as art. Sometimes it is so pointless and ridiculous.

The observatory is now the L’Obervatoire regional des lac alpins which exhibits include archaeological evidence of the first lakeside inhabitants, the history of boating and fishing on the lake, birds from the region and the skeleton of a “mermaid”. It is actually a great education space for school kids.

The views from the lawn and standing in the castle turrets with the four meter deep walls, was good to experience. It may not be “our thing” but we learnt from it and got to experience something differentRead more