I went on a walk up the hill to the old center of Annecy-le-Vieux, then went down to the lake, passing through a few parks along the way.
After crossing the Pont de la Caille, I went back to Annecy on foot, following trails I found on OpenStreetMap.
La Croix-Rousse is the second major hill of the city of Lyon, as well as the name of a neighbourhood located on this hill. After crossing the Saône from the Fourvière area, I walked up the “montée de la Grande Côte”, a street that links the Place des Terreaux with the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood. I then went down towards the Rhône on the east side of the hill.
After leaving the Lyon Confluence area, I walked along the Rhône on the way to the Old Town of Lyon (Vieux Lyon), making a few detours here and there.
Lyon Confluence is the neighbourhood of Lyon located south of the Lyon-Perrache train station, and north of the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers. Until not very long ago, it was an area solely dedicated to industry and full of warehouses, but after a few years of construction and millions of euros in investment, the urban-renewal project has brought new shops, restaurants, offices, housing and a new museum (Musée des Confluences).
Above, Le Cube Orange.
Collex-Bossy and Ornex are two small towns located next to each other but on different sides of the France / Geneva border. Last Christmas, I went on a short walk in the area.
Above, an old border stone along the path.
After Vallon du Fier, I continued walking and, after a detour through a trail along Nant de Calvi, I reached Poisy, a village northwest of Annecy. My goal was to cross the Montagne d’Âge, a small mountain that is part of the Jura mountains, from the north to the south on the way to Château de Montrottier and Gorges du Fier in Lovagny.
The Vallon du Fier is a large park and nature reserve in Annecy, located between the Fier and Viéran rivers. It has many paths suitable for walking or biking.
After I reached the Passerelles neighbourhood in Cran-Gévrier and the end of the path along the Thiou river, I kept walking on the road until the start of the Parcours Nature Fier et Erbe (Fier & Erbe Nature Trail). It is a path in the forest that follows the course of the Fier river at first, then the Erbe, a brook that flows into the Fier. Here is a map.
The Thiou is a short river (3.5 km) that flows from Lake Annecy to the Fier, which is itself a tributary of the Rhône. Starting from the Old Town of Annecy, built in the middle of canals formed by the Thiou, there is a series of paths along the river that go all the way to Cran-Gévrier, slightly before it joins with the Fier.