Lac d'Annecy

What makes it special

Start with the water itself. Near the shore you can see the bottom several metres down, and the colour shifts from emerald green to slate blue with the hour and the season. Visibility often passes eight metres, which is rare for a lake of this size.

That clarity is recent. Until the 1950s the towns around the shore emptied their sewage straight into the lake, and a ring of collector pipes built in the 1960s and 70s now carries it away.

The lake is 14.6 km long, up to 80 m deep and never more than 3.2 km wide, and it divides into a big lake and a small lake. Take a cruise or ride the bike path to see both.

Visiting

In July and August, start on a beach, then add a boat or a bike. The Marquisats, on the west shore, is a grassy beach about 200 m long, free all year, with showers, free toilets and a snack bar in summer.

The most central beach is a long stretch of grass and gravel by the Impérial Palace, so check locally whether it charges for entry in summer. On any beach, swim inside the marked area while the lifeguards are on duty.

For the boat, the Discovery cruise takes one hour round the big lake, and the Evasion takes an hour and a half round both lakes. Commentary is in French, and English and other languages play on your phone from a QR code.

To cycle, follow the bike paths, which run almost the whole way round. On the west shore the path keeps to an old railway bed through Sévrier, Saint-Jorioz and Duingt, and the only hard stretch is the steep climb at Talloires on the east shore.

Tips

Come on a weekday rather than a Sunday in August, when the beaches are at their most crowded. In high summer, arriving around half past five in the afternoon still gets you a swim with far fewer people.

Watch the sky after lunch, because a clear morning can turn stormy by four. Leave the water the moment a storm warning is given, not when the rain starts.

The water reaches about 24°C in a hot summer, which makes July and August the easy months to swim. For a change from the town beaches, Talloires has a large supervised swimming area and good swimming from the rocks below the village.