The Annecy Paysages art festival is currently taking place in Annecy until the end of September. Like the previous years, it features installations from a few dozen artists, scattered around the city center and the shore of the lake. Most are new but there are also a few that were already there last year (or that have now been installed permanently). Here is a map of all the art pieces and below are photos of some of them.

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During winter 2020, I went on a short walk from Cran-Gevrier to the center of Annecy.

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Last year, after visiting Turin, I continued eastwards to Milan, also taking a Flixbus. I spent one week there walking around and visiting the highlights of the city. I also went one day to Lake Como, north of Milan. After that week, I took another bus back to France.

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The Turin Cathedral (Duomo di Torino or Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista) is a church in Turin built at the end of the 15th century. It hosted the Shroud of Turin from 1578, when it was moved from the Holy Chapel (Sainte Chapelle) in Chambéry, to 1649, when the Chapel of the Holy Shroud (Cappella della Sacra Sindone) next door was completed. It currently hosts it again since the fire of the chapel in 1997.

The cathedral has a bell tower (Torre campanaria), separate from the main body, which can be visited. It is quite high (63 m) and offers a great view on the city of Turin and the surrounding mountains. Tickets can be purchased at the entrance of the Diocesan Museum of Turin (Museo Diocesano di Torino), on the other side of the cathedral from the tower. After that, there is an underground passage to reach the tower then stairs to get to the top.

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Parco Italia ‘61 is a park in the Lingotto area of Turin, not far from the Po river. It is built on the location of Expo 61, the international labour exhibition held in 1961. Italy expanded the event with an exposition celebrating the centennial of Italian unity and the Expo is remembered as Italia ‘61. The park is split in 2 parts, Giardino Corpo Italiano di Liberazione and Giardino Giuseppe Levi, separated by the Palavela, a building that was used during the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics.

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The Church of Santa Maria al Monte dei Cappuccini is built on a hill overlooking the river Po in Turin. That hill has a great view on the city and is a popular place to watch the sunset.

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Back in October, I headed to Italy starting with Turin, the former capital of the Duchy of Savoy, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Kingdom of Italy. I went there by direct bus from Annecy through Flixbus. It took about 4h and just €15, passing through Chambéry and Tunnel de Fréjus on the way. I stayed in Turin for one week and did a lot of visiting. The weather was not that great but I still had a good time. Here are a few photos I took with my new Sony RX100 VII I had bought before the trip. I will soon make more in-depth articles (once I have cleared the backlog of hikes from the summer / early fall).

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The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg is a large catholic church in Strasbourg and one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. It was built between 1176 and 1439 in the gothic style. Next to the main tower, there is an observatory (accessible by stairs only) that gives a good view of Strasbourg.

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La Part-Dieu is a neighbourhood in the 3rd arrondissement of Lyon, located around the Lyon-Part-Dieu train station. Beyond its importance as a major transport hub, La Part-Dieu is also the second-largest business district of France, with many office skyscrapers including Tour Incity, Tour Part-Dieu or Tour Oxygène. It also contains France’s largest shopping mall, La Part-Dieu Shopping Center.

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