A year ago, we visited the kingdom of the French Alps, hitting a lot of must-see spots. We saw the lovely turquoise Lake Annecy. We visited the wonderfully sweet Chamonix and rode the cable cars up to Mont Blanc. It was wow. It was stunning and truly special.
But this time, after a rather long trip through the Swiss Alps, we felt like finding some rest. To enjoy the peace and abundance that only French villages know how to offer. The scenery was already there, waiting for us to show up. So we did.
Our apartment in the village of Vacheresse
We had already chosen a lovely apartment in the village of Vacheresse whose name no human tongue could pronounce.
I had a feeling this would be something special.
A Pinterest-level lovely apartment. So much thought put into the small details.
The girls walked into their room, and a minute later came out dressed in a bunch of costumes that had been waiting for them in a chest. The whole house was dressed in sweetness and charm. Giant teddy bears, rugs, curtains. What can I say? A home. An Alpine home of wood and lace.
The apartment’s owner, Jacqueline, one of the gentlest and sweetest women we’ve ever met, gave us jam made from her garden’s yellow mirabelle plums. (Do you know them? If not, look for them at the markets when you’re in Europe, please. They’re small, yellow and sweet, and they need to come in a brown paper bag, otherwise they’re just not as good).
We instantly connected and announced that we’d be guests from hell, meaning, we’d never want to leave.
We decided that in the last three days of our family trip, we deserved to take it easy and be lazy in an over-the-top, thoroughly enjoyable way.
The nearest supermarket was a 15-minute drive away, and we went there every morning. Because why on earth would we eat yesterday’s baguette?
Pfff. Non merci
Recommended places to stay near Vacheresse
If the apartment in Vacheresse isn’t available, here are a few other decent options:
The stunning nature of the French Alps
With Jacqueline’s help, we discovered that in this part of the Alps there are trails everywhere, walking routes for the whole family, according to her. She clearly hadn’t accounted for my sprained ankle and our laziness at this point in the trip.
Anyway, almost everywhere you turn there are trails leading through stunning, moving nature, and it’s simple. Full of green. Full of trees, some already showing patches of fall color. Nothing grandiose, like huge mountains or turquoise lakes, but breathtaking, and it warms the soul. We felt a peace we’d barely found anywhere else on this whole trip.
We sat on the patio at the entrance to the house. We listened to the sheep bells on the nearby hills. We breathed in the scent of the countryside. Truly healing for the soul.
On Jacqueline’s recommendation, we tried two short little trails, with our trusty car. A dazzling success.
A hike near Vacheresse
We stocked up on a bunch of tasty snacks to keep in the car, just in case, water, and hot chocolate in a thermos if you want to indulge, fruit, vegetables, you name it. After all, it’s only a fifteen-minute drive. (Hikes are a business that needs a lot of feeding, all the time.)
We typed into Waze: “refuge de bise,” wiped the camera lens, and off we went.
It’s really important to lift your head up from your phones at this point. It’s absolutely worth the effort.
The whole way is full of magic. Little cottages, cows and their bells, and green everywhere you look. At the end of the road, which is simply stunning, there’s a small barn, and a bunch of farm animals so indifferent, because their lives are so good.
We arrived right at sunset, just as the farmers there were bringing the animals in from pasture to their shelter.
We watched the farmers let out a big whistle. A few moments later we saw, from a distance, a small family of donkeys, also wearing bells, trotting down enthusiastically from the hills and forests around, heading home to the feeding trough. It looked exactly like our own family when we’re called to the table. Oh, the joy.
The farmers there invited us inside the small barn.
The barn was spotless, and the cows stood in two neat rows facing the wall, where the trough was full of good things, with their hindquarters facing the center of the room. Picture us making our way through this “walk of fear,” slowly and reverently, between two rows of well-fed cow backsides. Luckily, the cows weren’t too bothered by us, and we made it through the whole thing safely, without any unnecessary, smelly encounters.
By the way, there’s also an inn and a restaurant there, if you’re interested.
Lac des Alpagnes
The second trail, also about a fifteen-minute drive from our apartment, is no less beautiful.
Little Jacqueline told us it’s a path leading to a small, pretty lake that you can walk all the way around.
Type into Google Maps: lac des alpagnes.
Run through the snack procedure just like on the previous trail, and drive there with great pleasure.
Around the lake, and on the way there, you’ll find huge Alpine houses that were originally built to house two poor families each. Today they usually house very well-off families, or serve as vacation rentals and cottages. These houses are extremely old, and it was fascinating to see that on the renovated ones, the year the house was built is carved or engraved into the stone (your jaw will drop when you see how far back the date goes: your great-great-grandfather wasn’t even born yet), and next to it, the year of a later renovation or rebuilding is carved as well. The lake itself is lovely too, with a path circling it and a small bridge.
For those of you who like a bit of luxury, there are restaurants and even an Alpine inn here, remember, this is France. Book ahead, and remember what French restaurant meal times are like.
As far as I understand, there are also hotels and chalets right out in nature, along the trails themselves.
From the lake there are trails for serious hikers, and trails for families who’d rather take it easy.
I have a feeling that if we hadn’t been the latter type, plus my sprained ankle, we would have discovered a lot more stunning nature along these trails.
Too bad, but we left something for next time.
Évian (Évian-les-Bains)
When we weren’t busy lazing about happily, we visited the town of Évian. (Yes, that Évian, the one from the water bottles.) It has a small, pleasant market, on Wednesdays I think, a casino, and an air of old money, and Lake Geneva, which on the French side is called Lac Léman. There’s also a cute little pedestrian promenade running parallel to the lakefront, and that’s about it.
(In my opinion, not a terribly fascinating place. A bit too fancy and bourgeois for my countryside soul.)
Recommended places to stay in Évian
The Francophile’s note: As a kid, I once lived in Évian for about a week, and I actually remember it as a charming town that we used as a base for all kinds of trips. It also has an excellent spa, and quite a few people come there just to enjoy the mineral waters.
If you take my advice and decide to stay in this town, here are a few recommended hotels:
Hôtel Continental – Boutique Hôtel (** stars)
Yvoir
The town of Yvoir. This is a town we really loved. Medieval and pretty as a jewel. A delightful scent fills the town, coming from its many restaurants. Lake access and boat rides if you want them, a relaxed atmosphere of the good life. And pretty great ice cream too. Its one downside, because of its proximity to Switzerland, is that prices there masquerade as Swiss prices, but the wonderful atmosphere makes up for it. (By the way, for those interested, I also spotted a Michelin restaurant with a lovely view of the lake. The smell was wonderful, at least until we got there.)
Recommended places to stay in Yvoir
Hôtel Restaurant Du Port (**** stars)
Hotel Restaurant Le Jules Verne (**** stars)
And for those who find the hotels there a bit pricey, here are two pretty decent apartments:
One evening, Jacqueline and her husband Richard invited us over for a pre-dinner aperitif. Their house is a converted barn, once used to raise cows, and the result is stunning. We couldn’t stop gushing about how charming the house was. We chatted happily for a while and shared stories about our love of nature and travel around the world.
They told us, from their point of view, about beautiful France, its upsides (croissant in the morning) and its downsides (people who are a bit too square and too similar to one another, and a bit boring, because everything is just a little too picture-perfect). We noticed that for us, it’s really the opposite. The downsides: no croissant in the morning. No proper baguette either. The upside: here, everyone is different and colorful. And it’s never boring for a moment. We left that vacation completely smitten.
If Switzerland left a bit of a bitter taste because of a serious lack of human warmth, then Jacqueline and Richard restored our faith in humanity. Their beautiful way of life, full of a genuine wish to make others happy, infected us with that goodness, and we were left thirsty for more.
Birds of Prey Show
It’s also worth noting that there’s a birds of prey show in the town of Sciez, also just a short drive away, but like most attractions in the area, the show was closed. You need to visit during tourist season to experience things like that, and mid-September isn’t considered tourist season by the French.
We also missed out on the crazy zipline, the fantasticâble, which had already entered its renovation and preparation season ahead of the winter tourist season, along with a bunch of other closed attractions and cable cars. I’m guessing that anyone traveling in July or August will find a lot more attractions open in this part of the Alps as well.
To sum up, after you’ve seen everything in the heart of the French Alps, and you feel like falling in love, tasting a bit of real, non-touristy, not-too-polished country life, full of magic and peace for the soul, I highly recommend this area, because it’s wonderful, and especially Jacqueline and Richard’s apartment.
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