Annecy

The water is clear enough to see the bottom in summer, and marked bathing stretches are run by the council. It comes off the mountains, so the first step in is cold even in August. A cycle path on an old railway runs beside it and barely climbs.

A stone building shaped like a boat stands midstream in the channel, put up in the 12th century. It served long as a court and a prison, and the narrow cells are still inside. The bow only reads as a bow from the bridge upstream.

The castle holds the hill and now houses displays on the lake and the Alpine region. The courtyard can be entered without a ticket, and the water shows over the rooftops from inside it.

An iron bridge links the gardens with the lakeside, and from its middle the channel runs dead straight so the picture comes out symmetrical.

Shops sit under arcades along these lanes, and the market runs on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. Tuesday brings food alone; Friday and Sunday add clothes and household goods. It starts at 7am and folds by 1pm.

Thirty minutes up by car brings you to a ridge with the whole lake and Mont Blanc in one view. In winter the snow piles up and blocks the road, leaving only the ski side reachable.

A bay on the east shore where the water stays flat, which suits rowing or a swim. The rock viewpoint above is an hour up through the woods.

An iron walkway is bolted over a channel squeezed between rock walls, the water running under your feet. It has taken visitors since 1869 and runs about two hundred and fifty metres. High water closes it, so check after heavy rain.

The pass sits southeast of the lake, and people step off from more than 1,200 metres up. It has been a launch site since the 1980s, so on a good day the sky is full of canopies. The landing ground is at the lakeside: you jump above and meet below.

A wooded garden wedged between the water and the centre. Trees more than a hundred years old carry name plates by species.

Pointed turrets crown this castle over the east shore, home to one family for nearly ten centuries. Saint Bernard, founder of the Alpine pass hospices, was reputedly born within. Rooms open spring to autumn, summer included; winter shuts them.

A 1930s basilica halfway up the rise behind the old town, keeping the relics of Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal. Its tower holds a carillon of dozens of bells. From the forecourt, tiled roofs and lake spread below, worth the uphill walk.

Begun in 1960 and held every June, it ranks as the largest and oldest animation film festival. In the evening a big screen goes up on the lakeside lawn and anyone can sit and watch. Rooms in town fill early that week, so book ahead.

A mountain village in the Aravis range, some 70 minutes by bus east of Annecy. Ski slopes in winter give way to summer walks up to the Lac des Confins. Farms around it make Reblochon and sell it at the farm gate.