2 stops in walking order

City

Annecy-le-Vieux was a former commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France. On 1 January 2017, it merged into the commune of Annecy. It was the fourth-largest commune in Haute-Savoie in terms of population, and was located on the northeastern shore of Lake Annecy. It was essentially a residential suburb of Annecy, being less than 3 km from its centre, and was sometimes known at the 16eme arrondissement of Annecy. The last mayor of Annecy-le-Vieux was Bernard Accoyer, who served from 1989 until December 2016. A doctor by profession, he was also the député of the district and was President of the National Assembly of France from 2007 to 2012.

~20 min at this stop

City

Annecy is the prefecture and largest city of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Geneva, Switzerland. Nicknamed the "Pearl of the French Alps" in Raoul Blanchard's monograph describing its location between lake and mountains, the town controls the northern entrance to the lake gorge. Due to a lack of available building land between the lake and the protected Semnoz mountain, its population has remained stable, around 50,000 inhabitants, since 1950. However, the 2017 merger with several ex-communes extended the population of the city to 128,199 inhabitants and that of the urban area to 177,622, placing Annecy seventh in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Switching from the counts of Geneva's dwelling in the 13th century, to the counts of Savoy's in the 14th century, the city became Savoy's capital in 1434 during the Genevois-Nemours prerogative until 1659. Its role increased in 1536, during the Calvinist Reformation in Geneva, while the bishop took refuge in Annecy. Saint Francis de Sales gave Annecy its advanced Catholic citadel role known as Counter-Reformation.

~20 min at this stop