Every design for Annecy

The Palais de l'Isle sits in the middle of the Thiou like a stone ship, where the river leaves the lake and runs through Old Annecy. Above it, the Château d'Annecy recalls the counts of Geneva, who held court here from the tenth century, and the counts of Savoy who followed. When Calvinism took hold in Geneva, the bishop moved to Annecy and the town became a centre of the Counter-Reformation; Francis de Sales served as its bishop, and his relics rest in the cathedral.

What makes Annecy unlike anywhere else is its water. Three canals and the Thiou thread through the old town, earning it the name "Venice of the Alps", while the lake in front and the protected Semnoz behind kept the city compact for generations — the "Pearl of the French Alps", as Raoul Blanchard called it. The same canals once powered silk manufacturing; today the Animated Film Festival fills Bonlieu's cultural centre.

Home, for anyone from here, is the walk along the canals at dusk, past the castle walls and down to the water's edge, with the mountains standing guard.