Annecy, France

Today was international independence day for me. I woke up about 8:00 am, smoothed my hair out, brushed my teeth, checked email, and then set out on the awakening town. I grabbed my grocery sack of dirty clothes and my bag with my book, detergent, and other travel essentials. I followed some rough directions and fond a laundromat, where the attendant only spoke french, and I spoke none. He walked me through the whole process though, helped me get my clothes in the washer and let me know I had about 36 minutes till I needed to come back. I left, found a cafe, ordered a croissant, an apple pastry (one of my favorite things to eat here) and an orangina and sat down and read, watching the street for passer-bys, and enjoying my french breakfast.

I then retraced my steps, took a small detour by one of the cities quaint canals, watched the little ducklings swimming around, and then stopped in at the laundromat again for a few minutes and let my clothes dry. I now have clean clothes (yay!) a full stomach, and have officially ben up for about 3 hours now, and the only other person I have seen this morning from our group so far has been brad, the producer for the documentary.

I really enjoy walking through this little town, especially as it wakes up. I love strolling through the streets, underneath towering stone archways, over cobble stone streets and past cafe awnings as they are being let down over their portion of the sidewalk. The clinking sound of chairs being placed around tables and the bubbling sound of the water as it rushes over a drop in the small canal/stream that crisscrosses through the city greet me at every turn. Cars are sluggishly driving through narrow streets, pedestrians are few and the sun is still yearning to peek over the top of several buildings, just to warm the streets that were rain-laden the night before. It is such a refreshing feeling.

The view from my hotel in Annecy, France.