French countryside looks rather featureless for addicted travelers like me. I spent 4 days in Rhône-Alpes, Departement Haute Savoie, more precisly in Beaumont just beyond the French border when leaving Geneva. There, I visited several places worth sharing:
That is a small country town on a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. You can enjoy a walk around it. My recommendation is to hire a row boat for an hour and enjoy the lake side. Avoid midday hours, otherwise you can get sun burn there!
After rowing for an hour, you can go in the old town for a relaxing walk. There are a lot of small cafes and restaurants, but the best thing to eat there is an ice-cream – it will be hard to choose only one ball through the enormous variety. Forget for your diet when you go there.
The best way to get a bird’s eye view of Geneva is to get to the top of the mountain Saleve with the cable car. You have to buy a guide about the routes starting from the final station in advance. There are no good maps at the top station but all routes are marked accordingly. On every milestone you can see the hours to the next one – very useful. You can make a round trip and get back to the teleferique (closing at 6 p.m.).
My recommendation is to spend a day there and to prepare a good plan in advance:
- start with the cable car;
- choose your favourite trip – guides contains detailed description of the difficulty of the tracks;
- calculate the time and add an hour for taking pictures;
- organize someone to pick you up from one of the small villages around the mountain – I love Beaumont.
Bread – you will love buying homemade bread in any village bakery. You can find fresh baguettes and home made cakes as well.
Market place – ask your host (or anyone local) about the nearest marketplace. You will be surprised by the variety of fruits, vegetables, home-made cheese and bread you can find there. Best season – end of spring / begin of summer time. French cuisine is famous with its quality, however be mindful of the quantity of calories (some dishes are rather creamy).
Sport
The best place for swimming is Vitam parc. When you are travelling with kids – that is a perfect place for you to relax and for them to have a lot of fun.
My recommendation for burning the calories (after a bakery visit) is power walking or jogging in the spare time. The roads are quiet and there is enough space for people and cars and you can choose round trip trough the villages. The houses around the road worth seeing and the gardens and flowers will inspire you to start your own!
If you find these tips useful, don’t forget to post a comment!