Annecy

On Saturday, October 9th, three of us headed to Annecy, located 1.5 hours north east of Grenoble by train. The scenery resembles somewhat like Venice with canals running through the town and somewhat like Banff with a glacier clear lake with snow capped mountains surrounding the lake.

The town was celebrating its 39th Retour des Alpages, festival featuring their traditional farming culture and society. The entire city centre called "vieille ville" turned into its venue, and the tiny streets were filled with farmers, peasants, animals and tourists like us. We grabbed a glass of traditionally pressed apple juice and a bag of roasted chestnuts, and walked through hundreds of extremely joyful and happy people. For lunch, we enjoyed a tortiflette, a potato cheese casserole from the region looking at the Lac d'Annecy. We had a lovely day, and we cannot wait to visit there again and do a proper visit of the town.

Having a dog when traveling is a bit of a pain, but it also gives you a great advantage. People will talk to you. Chana, with her mohawk and long ears, she gets commented and smiled at quite a bit, and when she wears a "Head Collar," people will not leave us alone. As some of you may know, Chana does not know how to walk properly as humans want her to. She pulls, sniffs, lunges towards some amazing discovery…and it is very annoying to walk with her particularly in the crowd. We have often used "head collar" also known as "gentle leader" which gives us a better control on her movement. Unfortunately, this tool is often mistaken for a muzzle. People do not hesitate to ask "why does she have to wear a muzzle?" or more directly, "does she bite?" Each time, we explain using our limited French, "she pulls and it is easier for us to walk, blah blah." It is a race now, whether we learn how to explain this better in French or Chana learns how to walk properly!

Here is a shot of Chana with her head collar, and her friend donkey who also wears one.