On Friday night, La Clusaz hosted the inter-village games known as Les Gamineries des Aravis which involves participants from the local villages (La Clusaz, Le Grand Bornand, St. Jean de Sixt, Thônes and Manigod) as well as a team of …
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to watch le Tour de France simply by driving five minutes down the road to le Grand Bornand. I could have watched from the end, but I’ll be doing that today in Annecy. Instead, I …
Following the previous weekend’s theme of shiny loud things in La Clusaz, a car rally arrived on Friday night and hung around all weekend. There were loads of lovely old cars ranging from old convertible Truimphs to big old Volvos, …
Annecy was humming with throngs of tourists this week for the annual Animation Festival, now in its 49th year — pretty impressive considering how recent an artform it is. Along with a huge variety of full-length movies on offer, the …
One thing I forgot to talk about after the Defi Foly was this photo. It’s a tractor and it has a cable attached. Leading up to the tractor’s collection bucket at the front is a little pathway. The tractor was …
As promised, here’s an entry about last week’s Defi Foly here in La Clusaz, where people chuck themselves into freeing cold water just for fun. Actually, this year, the temperature was a balmy 8°C—a big improvement after last year’s iceberg-ridden …
Each year, Annecy holds a procession of Venetian carnival costumes, run by an association that links the two cities. I found a place in the sun to watch the people in their beautiful costumes slowly and silently meander past. This …
Nothing says ‘You live in the French countryside’ quite like experiencing the local fairs. If donkey racing at the Fête du Reblochon was not enough, last weekend’s fair in Thônes, the Foire de la Saint Maurice, topped it off. Now, …
The Coupe Icare (Icarus Cup) was held last weekend, just south of Chambéry. So, in our typical disorganised manner, we decided at 1am on Saturday night to spend Sunday watching the paragliders take part in the annual event. Although a …
Last Saturday night signalled the second Balade au Clair de Lune (a walk during the full moon) in La Clusaz, which means all the street lights in the village centre were turned off and the place was lit, instead, with …