Annecy Fete du Lac 2008

The first Saturday in August is not a good afternoon to drive to Annecy: the Fete du Lac — involving ninety minutes of fireworks — ensures the roads are busy from midday, with some central roads blocked off later in the day. The fireworks, however, are well worth the traffic. Grandstand seats are constructed around the city end of Lake Annecy and for those lucky enough to get a seat (they’re expensive and they sell out quickly), an abundance of entertainment happens along the lakeside, invisible to the masses of people without a grandstand seat.

I was lucky enough to view the fireworks from the closest apartment block to Lake Annecy — on a floor high enough to see the fireworks from the lake up. This year’s theme was fireworks around the world. The Australian fireworks went off to the sounds of Kylie Minogue and AC/DC, while Scotland, of course, had bagpipes. The French used red, white and blue fireworks to match their flag, but I wonder how they feel about those colours also being used on the fireworks for the US flag, the British flag, the Australian Flag, the New Zealand flag and the Netherlands flag, just to name a few.

I captured some of the fireworks with my camera, although the long exposure I was using meant that the loveheart fireworks did not really look like lovehearts. I did, however, capture a wall of gold, fireworks that glittered or shined on their way down (not that you can see this in a still photo), fireworks that had mini balls of fireworks explode at their ends, and the grand finale that lit up the sky for ten minutes and left a cloud of smoke when the courtesy lights came on for those in the grandstand to depart. The night costs millions of Euros and I have truly never seen such amazing fireworks as those displayed each year at the Fete du Lac in Annecy. Thank you, France.

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