Annecy, France - Day 2

Hi everyone!!

I haven't posted for a couple of days because I was traveling in Amsterdam! But before I fill you in on that trip, I wanted to finish telling you about my family trip to Annecy! Hope you enjoy!

A picture of me sitting on the wall of a castle that we visted!

Given as it was our second day, we were ready to do some more exploring outside of central Annecy, so we set out to see a river gorge and a castle.

Our first stop was Gorges du Fier, in Lovagny, France. The gorge dates back hundreds of thousands of years to the start of the river that is there today. When the river first formed, it was level with the ground around it, but over time it cut back at the limestone around it, eventually giving way to a sinuous, deep gorge, now with the river at the bottom. I didn't know what to expect, but it was absolutely breathtaking. The rock walls overshadowing the river stretched way above and below the walking path, which was anchored into the side of the slope. The river flowed past below, clear and unpolluted.

The entrance to the gorge...

Inside the gorge (taken from underneath the walking path)...

And another from inside the gorge (taken from the walking path). This picture is interesting because of the distinct line you can see cutting across all of the rocks at the same height. This is because the river held this position for long enough to cut away at the rocks a bit more than everywhere else, leaving a distinct trace of its history.

We walked the rest of the path (probably around a mile in total), then headed back to our car to go to the castle.

Living in Switzerland, I have seen my fair share of castles, but this was one of the best that I've come across.

I mean seriously...it screams fairy tale. I felt like Rapunzel was about to send her hair tumbling out of of the tower.

The castle courtyard was no less impressive than the outside, especially since it was set around a round tower. I don't know how many of you watch Game of Thrones (WATCH IT!!!), but this could easily have been the tower that a certain young Stark fell out of.

The castle gate...

A view of the tower taken from outside of the courtyard wall...

The view from the top of the central tower.

Of course, we had to get to the top of the tower (refer to last picture), but we didn't quite realize what that required. I have never seen so many steps. And what's worse is that as you climb, there are very few windows, and the staircase is a tight spiral, making you feel disoriented and making the stairs seem endless. But anyway....

We made it!! And I got that cool view of the courtyard plus a picture of the stairs for proof and an awesome view of the surrounding French countryside:

The stairs of death...

And the gorgeous view!

To top off our tour, my sister and I got to pretend we were in Game of Thrones ourselves.

Winter has come.

With that, day two was complete - another excellent day exploring France!

Stay tuned for the next two days of my trip to France, shortly followed by a very honest couple of blogs about my time in Amsterdam! ;)

As always, feel free to drop me any questions/comments/suggestions, etc., and hit me up with an upvote, resteem, or follow!! ;) :D