Elvis Has Left the Building

this pic is from the game friday night. realize it's hard to see the crowd, but trust me, there were TONS of swiss fans out that night. took this photo outside the masses only because not only was i w/o other short asian people, but i was also THAT person taking photos for no particular reason. didn't need anymore stares than necessary...

as a result of korea's loss to switzerland friday night, i felt the need to leave the country. so i went to france.

annecy, france is a short hop from geneva. it's about 45 mins away, and since i wanted to make it as easy as possible, i opted to hop on a bus rather than rent a car. really, can you see me driving over here? i didn't think so. and as it turns out, the bus was actually really nice. hardly anyone was on it, i didn't have to drive, and for CHF31 round-trip (~US$25), i got scenery like this to stare at. not too shabby...

annecy is this ridiculously cute town that sits on Lac d'Annecy with the french alps as a backdrop. needless to say it's a bit of a touristy spot, but that was to my advantage. still can't speak the language...

at the lake you can rent boats, bikes, or just sit and people watch. i chose to be the nerd that took pictures of everything.

here's the lake.
and more of the lake. it's not as big as one of the Great Lakes, but it's big enough!

near the lake is Les Jardins de l'Europe (below), a cute park that juts out into the water.


the other big attraction here is the canal. Le Thiou runs from the lake thru the old town portion of annecy. it's so cute... almost make-me-puke cute...

this is the canal on on the west end of old town. restaurants and cafes line it so the lunch hour is a bit busy...

and on the wknds there are TONS of stands w/people selling antiques. old town had LOTS of old stuff.

thru annecy's old town, the big tourist attractions are the churches and Palais de I'lle, which sits right in the middle of the canal's west end

this is Eglise Saint Francois

Cathedrale Saint Pierre

Eglise Notre Dame (which was way too big to get in the photo). this was by far, the most amazing building i've seen yet. too bad i couldn't take pictures inside.

after wandering thru to the other end of old town and stuffing my face w/an uber yummy apple strudel the size of my head, i happened to end up near a shoe store (i know, SO convenient) so i did a little window shopping before heading home. pretty sure after this visit i'm going to want to leave geneva again next wknd!