Annecy, France

At this very moment I'm on a bus headed back to Geneva to catch my flight back home to London and I am pretty close to tears to be honest. I want to move to The South of France and never leave again. We stayed at a best western again which was such an amazing hotel. Something I've learned that I think is so valuable while independently traveling through different countries is to always stay in an American based hotel that you've heard of before. And if you want to stay in a bed and breakfast really do your research. It is so nice to stay somewhere that you just know what to expect and to be able to speak to people who know enough English to help you at least get on your way. Anyways, Annecy. It's this very old town that has canals running through the most colorful buildings with flower boxes and shutters over the windows. I feel almost bad because there really isn't anyway for me to describe the beauty. The water in the canals is turquoise and completely clear. I have been to Paris and it is all in all pretty dirty so I'm not sure I expected the rest of France to be much different but I was wrong. It is so clean just like Switzerland. Each street has these bridges where you can look back and see the old town and I promise you we stopped on every single one each time we passed just to stare at the beautiful scenery. Over the passed week and a half I have been in 5 different countries and it is the easiest thing in the world for me to say that Annecy, France is my favorite. It's the most incredible and beautiful thing in the whole wide world and I have never laid my eyes on anything better. Which is why leaving today is so sad :( I cannot wait to come back here, hopefully one day soon. They also have this lake at the base of these French alps that's just called "Lake Annecy" that again had water that makes you think you are in the Grand Cayman or something. Certainly different than what you would expect from lake water. We spent a good amount of time on land exploring all of Annecy but for the remainder of the two days we had here  we really just relaxed and did lake things. Something I felt like I was giving up this summer to come here (I know what you're thinking you're not giving anything up you're in Europe) was my summer of swimming and being tan and all of that. So it was so nice to just relax. We kept saying it's so quiet and nice and we can hear the birds! I got sunburned yesterday and I was so happy. I kind of let myself get burned on purpose because I was so desperate for color! The food was amazing (mostly) as expected from France. We had so many crepes and waffles and things filled with Nutella every single day not to mention a good amount of ham and cheese baguettes. It was heaven. Also, I've never been to Italy but I'm a little scared because of how much gelato I've eaten while I've been here is any indication I'm sure I'll eat my body weight over there. One night we sat down for fondue because it is a very Swiss meal and we didn't have a chance to eat that while we were over in Switzerland and my friend candance and I were going to share that with friends and also get what we thought would be fish and chips to share. In reality they were deep fired little baby fish with eyes included and we didn't eat one bite. In fact I had to get up and leave and I was gagging. Some of them still had their cute puckered fish faces and I couldn't even considering plopping one into my moth.

I know this is all redundant but the best thing we did was rent stand up paddle boards. It was so fun to get out and look back at the town of Annecy! And it was so relaxing to paddle out there jump off and swim (or in my case fall off) and to just get some vitamin c. I said this on my Instagram and I meant it whole heartedly I haven't ever been somewhere more beautiful than Annecy. No matter in the states or abroad I haven't been somewhere that I love as much as this place. I know this is kind of a stupid thing to say but it's a place that you could just fall so in love with life and just be so happy which is why I'll need to go back one day!