The greenway
Tens of paved, car-free kilometres on an old railway line.
Carsten Steger — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Chabe01 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Yes, and swimming is one of the best things about it. There are many **free public beaches** around the lake and **equipped municipal beaches** with a small entry fee, lifeguards, facilities, grass and parasols. The water is **very clean and cold**, being snowmelt and spring fed; in July and August it becomes comfortable, in June and September it takes either nerve or a wetsuit. For families, the equipped beaches are far better, with a shallow area and a lifeguard on duty.
**By bike**, without competition. The paved greenway follows an old railway line along the western shore with almost no gradient and no cars, so families and children ride it safely, and it passes villages and beaches so you stop where you like. Hiring a bike in Annecy is easy and reasonably cheap. The second option is **the boat**: a scheduled crossing shows you the steep eastern shore the road never reaches. The third is going up to **the Col de la Forclaz** to see the whole thing from above.
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It is called Europe's cleanest lake, and the label is not tourist marketing but the result of a decision. In the 1950s the lake was choking on sewage from the towns around it and its colour was beginning to change, so the lakeside communes agreed on a scheme unusual for its time: a **ring collector** encircling the entire lake, gathering every outflow and carrying it out of the basin instead of into it. The plan worked, and the water today is clear to a depth where you can see the bottom. The lake sits at about 447 metres above sea level among the Savoy mountains, ringed by peaks on every side — most strikingly the rocky **La Tournette** to the east, which passes 2,350 metres. It runs some 14 kilometres long, and its two shores could not be more different: the western one is flat, carrying the towns, the road and the villages, while the eastern is steep and mountainous, its slopes dropping straight into the water. Three things are the best of it: **swimming** from its many beaches (some equipped and charged, others public and free), **cycling** the paved greenway that follows an old railway line along the western shore for tens of car-free kilometres, and **the boat** — scheduled services linking Annecy with the shore villages such as Talloires and Doussard. The water stays cold even in summer, fed by snowmelt and mountain springs; July and August are its warmest.
Tens of paved, car-free kilometres on an old railway line.
Free public ones and paid equipped ones along the shore.
Scheduled runs to Talloires, Doussard and the shore villages.
Lac d'Annecy, Haute-Savoie