Grenoble and Annecy

Having been home after our February Half Term road trip around Poland, after a week or work and school, we were off again for another weekend adventure, this time to France!

I picked Tiger up after school at 17:45 on Friday 28th February and we did our now familiar trip to the Luton Town Premier Inn, which allowed us to have free car parking for the weekend in the NCP car park next door. It was also one of the cheapest nights we had had at this Premier Inn as it was just £28!

I was quite nervous of the super early start as our flight to Grenoble on Saturday 1st March was due to leave at 05:40 so I booked a taxi for 03:45 (£17.50) and we were through security by 04:10! I had debated paying for fast track which at Luton is £7, but didn't. There really is no need to at that time. Our flight was also the first flight of the day. We boarded on time, saw the sun rise, and landed for 08:50. And the cherry on top? The flights for both of us with Wizz Air were just £25.98!

The costs came once we landed as despite the super cheap flight price, we had to take a bus transfer from Grenoble Airport to Grenoble Gare with Actibus and that was 54 euros (£45) return for both of us! We had a little wait in the tiny airport for the 10:15 bus, but just had a coffee and snack (£11) and a little rest. It was then a 35 minute bus ride to Grenoble Gare.

After we got out of the bus, we had to walk the length of the station (towards and past McDonalds) to get Tram B from to the Notre-Dame Musée stop (tickets from the machine). And it was then a 5 minute to the Téléphérique aka Grenoble's cable car!

Riding the famous "bubbles" cable car to Bastille Fort was pretty special (if a little scary for me) and we both loved panoramic views over Grenoble and the Alps. Our cable car return tickets were 9,60 euro for me and 5 euro for Tiger (£12). There was even a free art show at the top and we had an ice cream!

After the cable cars, we retraced our steps with tram B and had lunch in an extremely busy Grenoble Gare McDonalds (£12) before our TER train 15:32 – 17:15 to Annecy. I had bought the tickets on the Trainline app on my phone and they were just £13 for the two of us on a 'promo vacances' promotion - bargain!

From Annecy, we then walked to our Airbnb in about 10 minutes which was £85.52 and worth every penny. It was in a perfect location (12 Rue de l'Île, Annecy), in an area full of restaurants and very close to the lake. Having checked in, we literally dropped the bags and went straight out at 18:00!

Straight away, I fell in love with the cobbled streets as we walked towards the gorgeous Annecy lake. As the sun went down, Tiger enjoyed dancing to music by a Polish 'bubble man'. It was just idyllic. Unfortunately I had absolutely no cash to give him but he was gracious about it so if anyone reading this goes to Annecy and sees the bubble man, we owe him 2 euros!

As night was coming, we started to look for somewhere for dinner, along with buying an Annecy bunny toy and a bottle of wine from a Tabac called Le Brazza (£27). We chanced upon what I first took to be an Italian restaurant called The Little Italy but it turned out to only serve pizza which Tiger has now declared she doesn't like. Still, they also served wine and chocolate ice cream so all was not lost!

On Sunday 2nd March, we had a nice restful morning leaving the Airbnb at 11:00 and were surprised to find ourselves in the middle of a Sunday market right on our doorstep! We didn't actually buy anything but it was fun to see it. We then walked back to the train station and had a little snack at a cafe outside Annecy station called Pains et Copains (£9) ahead of our 12:43-14:27 train from Annecy back to Grenoble (£13 again!).

We grabbed a bit more McDonalds in Grenoble Gare station - and this time with plastic reusable packaging which I honestly think is a gamechanger in France before our return Actibus at 15:30, returning to the airport at 16:10. It was even pretty amazing even just waiting for the bus with the mountains in the background.

Grenoble airport is really small with not a lot going on - it seems to be mainly popular with skiers. And although we arrived back at 16:10 ahead of our 50 euro (!) 1h50 minute flight with Easyjet to London Luton due to depart at 18:15 we had loads of time to chill out, outside, looking at yet more sunny mountains before we actually had to head into the terminal.

Back on UK soil at Luton for 19:15, I wasn't messing around and we jumped straight into a black taxi (£24), got the car back from the NCP and drove the 1.5h home so we were back for 21:30 - perfect! A gorgeous weekend in France!