Flora and fauna around Annecy

The town of Annecy, France has been on my visit wish list for a while now. Having seen pictures of it here and there in recent years, I felt the need to experience its beauty. Located on Lake Annecy in eastern France fairly close to the Swiss border and not far from Geneva, it sits in the Alps within a reasonable drive/train trip to well known Chamonix and Mont Blanc.

While we didn’t make it to Chamonix, Steve and I were fortunate to spend a few nights in Annecy over the Easter weekend (very busy with LOTS of tourists) before heading back to Paris for our flight home. As you see in the header photo, the natural beauty is gorgeous. Below are a few images of just a bit of the flora and fauna we saw.

Red crested pochard

I had never heard of nor seen a pochard - we saw many of the red crested member of the species swimming around near the shores of the lake. The male is above and, as is often the case, the female (sorry no photo) is rather drab brown.

We also saw Eurasian coots a plenty. We had trouble getting a decent photo - they kept turning their backs on us. Below is a good image from Wikipedia to give you a great look. Not the most exotic looking water bird but still one we’ve never seen before.

Every where we traveled in France we were treated to many examples of spring floral beauty. Annecy and its environs were no exception.

This next one was along the trail at Gorges du Fier just outside of Annecy (you can read more about our adventure there on Steve’s blog). I wasn’t sure what this was when taking the photo but, using my handy PlantNet, I learned it’s Euphorbia (wood spurge) - has an alien, outer space vibe going.

We are now safely home. I’m working on a new FAVE post and hope to have it ready soon. Meanwhile, our own spring flowers welcome us.

The tulips had already started poking through the ground when we departed on March 28th. I thought for sure we would miss them but . . . . they waited for us!

Here’s a small weeping cherry just outside our front door.

Hope to be back with you soon. There’s more to life than just baking!