St Jorioz by Lake Annecy (and a study of swans)

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It rained all night long. Pitter patter and at times, hammer hammer, on the roof of the Tandy and when it finally stopped at 10am we realised it had been raining non-stop for 40 hours. Worse, for those on the mountains though, where the rain turned to snow. Not surprising then that it was pretty chilly all day, exactly as forecast, the temperature barely made double figures. No surprise either, therefore, that we decided to forgo a swim in the tempting campsite swimming pool.
We didn’t rush to get up but waited until the rain eventually fizzled to a stop. We found our way to the lake, across the road from the campsite and down a couple of roads, and went for a walk along it. Would be really beautiful with a blue sky and white snow-tipped mountain backdrop. Still very good spot for a stroll today, albeit with heavy low cloud obscuring the high mountains and not a spot of blue sky to be seen, only dark ominous grey. Annecy is a lovely lake with very clear water and the shores of the lake are very carefully maintained and protected. Several spots had small boats moored and eventually, we came to the swimming beach of St Jorioz. We were entertained by two sets of swans along the way, first of all a couple with a pair of young and then just a father who, we decided, had brought a single offspring to some rocks on the shore for a grooming lesson. Really quite funny to watch, as it seemed that the cygnet imitated all his father’s actions. At one point the father looked as if he had managed to get his beak out of his bottom but though the cygnet tried as well his neck simply wasn’t long enough.
We found our way to the town but nothing there really except a handy boulangerie. Only one bar in town at the local hotel so we had coffee there before walking back, a far shorter distance than the way we went via the lake, along the cycle route.
Rest of the day spent inside the Tandy, mostly with the heating on !

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