2. Flight and Annecy Arrival September 17-19, 2026

Thanks to our great friends Howard and Joan Tillman, we got a great ride to the Asheville airport to launch this new adventure. Luggage and the bike case fit perfectly in their SUV, so we arrived at AVL in time to clear security, eat a snack, and learn our flight to Atlanta would be delayed. So delayed that we would miss our flight to Paris. So Lynn swung into action, changed our flight from Atlanta-Paris to Atlanta-Amsterdam with KLM! With newly reserved seats back by the toilets in the Boeing 777! This ended up a blessing, because we got to spread out in a three-person row with an empty middle seat, lots of leg room, and plenty of space to stretch out, exercise our  legs and sleep on the 9 hour flight to Amsterdam. Once we got there , we easily made the flight connection to Geneva on KLM, and picked up our rental car. Only hitch in the plan: Our suitcases and bicycle case stayed behind in Atlanta! KLM found the bike and got it to us the following day, but we’re still waiting for our suitcases and the supplies therein. 

Once we drove to Annecy from Geneva, we started to unwind a bit and start enjoying this trip. Driving in Geneva AND Annecy required a big adjustment in alertness, as both places are full of motorcycles, e-bikes, and standard bicyclists that appear from nowhere and seemingly ride everywhere. Much caution and attention to mirrors needed to  avoid disaster. 

After checking in Friday evening, we found a nearby restaurant with outdoor seating and interesting specials:  Seafood Paella and Open Ravioli. Lynn’s ravioli wasn’t good ( but she loved the waiter’s recommended Blueberry Beer), and my Paella was too big to finish. So, our new best friend/waiter Antoine brought us some amazingly lethal shots to make up for the specials. Fun night. Needless to say we slept soundly, except for the broken A/C, expected to be fixed next week, maybe 😀

Saturday, we woke up to a perfect atmosphere: clear blue sky, mid-50’s degrees, great breakfast, no rain, so time to explore. Within a short walk, the annual Haute Savoie Festival of Cheese and Agriculture was being held on the lakefront Champ de Mars park. It was an enormous display of tents, tractors, equipment, livestock, and products of every description. Kind of like an enormous County Fair without rides or funnel cakes. My favorite was the Haute Savoie mountaineer choral group that sang and yodeled most of the time we were there. 

Laser cut sculpture of Lac Annecy and it's tributaries

Moving on, we found the commercial lakefront spot where they rent boats, boat rides, etc. The whole place was teeming with families, kids, bicycles, and joy. It’d be really hard to not be happy there today. More walking brought us back to our hotel. My bike arrived in a delivery van, so after I reassembled it we took some nap-time. Still no sign of our missing baggage. 

Cathedral St.Pierre square, with fountain-obelisk pointing up to a gold figure of Jesus 

Panorama pic of the square

Street protest of alleged police misdeeds

Late afternoon: We’ve got to have some clothes and toiletries to tide us over til the bags arrive, whenever that might be. No alternative but to go shopping in “Vielle Ville”, Annecy’s old town. Turns out our hotel is just on the Northern border of that place, so we dove in. Without knowing any better, we ran across some classic Annecy photo-opportunity sites…so we took some! Found the Monoprix store we were hoping for, got our stuff, then looked for a snack and drinks. We ended up with Crepes Nutella in front of some guitarists and a lady vocalist, busking across the street. We didn’t explore any further, as we believe part of our school experience is visiting significant Annecy sites as a group, so we don’t want to spoil the surprise! 

Special thanks for helpers: Antoine, Kevin at the car rental, Pierre and Philip at the hotel, and the young guy at the produce store who patiently walked me through saying the correct numbers (in French) for the price of our purchase of bananas and peaches today! 

That’s it for now, more to report as it happens.