DEPARTURES TRAVEL GOURMET GETAWAY 32 Annecy’s Allure Alpine views, historic hostelries and a remarkable number of Michelin stars per capita make this Savoyard enclave the perfect weekender destination. By Alexander Lobrano NESTLED AT THE NORTHERN tip of the leaf-shaped lake with which it shares a name, the handsome Alpine town of Annecy has recently emerged as one of the leading gourmet destinations in France. Annecy has been a genteel and rather confidential resort ever since France annexed Savoy in 1860, bringing the railroad soon after. The multifarious charms of Annecyle-Vieux – the old quarter of town The spectacular Alpine setting of L’Auberge du Père Bise known as “the Venice of the Alps” for its canals – as well as the striking sapphire waters of Lac d’Annecy and snowcapped peaks of the Alps on the horizon began to seduce artists from John Ruskin to Paul Cézanne in the 19th century, . The French bourgeoisie built elegant lakeside holiday villas, and several plush hotels opened to cater to a clientele of well-heeled, and often titled, British, German, Italian and Swiss visitors. The waters of the town’s namesake lake, France’s third largest, are so clean you can drink them and so peaceful that you want to. But now a constellation of some the best restaurants in France has become the latest attraction to Annecy’s traditional pleasures of boating, hiking, kite- and wind-surfing, sailing and swimming. In the 2018 Michelin Guide to France, for instance, chef Marc Veyrat, 68, won a third Michelin star for his cooking at La Maison des Bois, a rustic auberge in the nearby hamlet of Manigod, while FRANCK JUERY
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