Le Bourget-du-Lac to Annecy

May 29, 2025

Breakfast this morning was very good, though Al missed his egg. Cereals were available on a side table; everything else including a big pitcher of hot milk to match the carafe of coffee was brought to the table. We couldn’t eat nearly all the food we were given.

Stuffed, we freed our bikes from the garage (used for storage, not cars), loaded up, and headed towards Aix-les-Bains on the well-developed cycleway. Well-developed and very well-used. We had noticed this yesterday with many people clearly heading home from the beach to beat the weather; today looked to be a very fine day and everyone was out: cyclists of all sorts, runners, walkers, roller-skiers… Even off the bike paths, I think we saw more cyclists today than in our previous trips combined.

Our hotel, taken this morning as Al loads his bike.

Compare this photo, from our visit in June 2017.

We worked out way through Aix-les-Bains mostly on quiet streets, thanks to RWGPS. Then we were on the same road to Cusy that we’d descended in the rain 8 years ago. Nothing tweaked a memory. About a km after leaving Cusy, we took the turn to Pont de l’Abîme, bypassing the “Route Barrée à 1 km” signs and plastic barricades. Thanks to Keith and Kathleen Classen, we knew what to expect and that was why I wanted to go this way.

I love old bridges and really wanted to see (and cross) this one.

There was just the matter of those very serious-looking concrete barricades.

I’d done a bit of research and apparently some corrosion was discovered in one of the cables during an inspection in the fall of 2023. It certainly didn’t seem that the weight of two cyclists was going to cause a collapse. It seemed more to be a CYA move.

Waiting for Al to decide whether he wanted to cross.

I reminded Al that the Classens had lifted their bikes over the barricades and we saw a few pedestrians climb over. Finally, we decided to go for it.

It really is a prettier view from the east side

After I took the photo above, as we were getting on our bikes to ride up the road, a French family (parents, 3 kids) were walking down and asked us if we’d crossed. Yes, we said, and got a thumbs-up as Dad started boosting the kids onto the barrier.

The road must have been an important connection when the bridge was built in 1887.

Where D31 (the road that crosses Pont d’Abîme) meets D5, we noticed that the sign still indicates the Annecy/Aix-les-Bains cycle route goes that way.

Next decision point: should we turn left and continue to follow the Classens’ route in reverse, which they designed to be short due to bad weather, or should we turn right and ride to Col Leschaux for a spectacular descent to Lac d’Annecy? It was still early…

As our track shows, we decided on Col Leschaux. It wasn’t a hard climb, but it seemed very long as I hadn’t had lunch.

The col sign is there, behind the construction barriers. Photo taken waiting for the alternating-traffic light.

There seemed to be one place open for food in Col Leschaux but it looked very busy. We figured we could continue downhill to Saint-Eustache or somewhere to eat. It was a surprise to discover the col sign might be at the top of the saddle but our road went up some more. This is how it goes when you just wing it.

Then it was a nice descent with glimpses of the blue lake when there were openings in the trees.

I stopped in La Chapelle-Saint-Maurice because there were so many bikes by the road. Lots of cyclists milling around but the food source wasn’t obvious. There was a fountain to fill bottles, though, so I refreshed one of mine.

The place to get a view. I hope the farmer turning his hay on the hillside behind me appreciates it!

Saint-Eustache was cute, but all buttoned up against invading hungry cyclists.

We finally connected with the lakeside cycleway and it was rush hour, even though we were about 8 km from Annecy. We passed a giant supermarket (closed) and missed an open café just before we reached the path because it was behind a hedge on a steep descent and we saw it too late. There would be more, we thought. We came to another bar/café right on the path but too many people! We left the path in Sevrier to look around and finally found prepackaged quiches and cold drinks as a little Vival. We carried these to a grassy park on the lake path.

The path into Sevrier, on the right, is short but steep!

Then we merged on to the bicycle freeway to continue our ride into Annecy. The path was solid with cyclists, on everything from lightweight road bikes to upright rental bikes to heavy cargo bikes and kiddy bikes, with electric versions too. Speeds ranged from slow and wobbly to relatively fast riders zigzagging through. Traffic was too heavy to stop and get my phone or camera out and I can’t get my phone out of my jersey pocket while riding, nor can I operate it with one hand. So you’ll have to take my word for it. Neither of us had ever seen anything like this. Full attention was required. (We went back on foot the following afternoon but it wasn’t as crazy, probably because the temperature was noticeably higher.)

We escaped the bike path for the relatively quiet streets just north of the old town to ride the few blocks to our hotel, the same family-run traditional place we stayed at in 2017. The only place I can remember where guests drop their keys at the desk when they go out. Yes, the little Hotel des Alpes still has a 24-hour front desk.

It also has a new leader in the tiny-lift competition. We took it for fun, though our room was only one floor above reception, which is one floor above the street (and the lift is only from reception up).

Rather like a human-sized pneumatic tube.

Later, we braved the old town for a dinner that was nothing special. More on the old town tomorrow.

Preceded by a terrible version of a Caesar salad, the steak was just okay.

The tarte aux myrtilles was okay but not nearly as good as the one I had earlier in the tour.

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Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 421 km (261 miles)

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Patrick O'HaraOur journal this year is going to be so boring....we're covering much of the same territory as you both. We, too, were in this region in 2017. Like you, it's drawing us back for another look this year!
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