French Alps 2026 Day 2: Annecy to Chambèry

This morning we got a much better look at the canal and the tourist friendly parts of Annecy that we rode through in the evening yesterday. Nicer with the sun on it.

Getting there took some doing. We slept in a bit (8:00), ate a few of the morsels left over from last night’s Monoprix run, and then extricated ourselves and the bikes from the labyrinthian corridors of the hotel. Harald had a boxed soy latte drink of some sort to get going. I had half a caffeine tab.

The caffeine situation was thin, but we knew there was a coffee bar/restaurant near the summit of the first climb, and the first climb was waiting for us more or less at the hotel door.

That climb (Semnoz) was about 1200m and had us holding a pretty solid effort the whole way up. Once we started we didn’t stop, except at about 1km from the top when I pulled over to put on a jacket. By then we were in the clouds again and the temperature had dropped a good deal. Good climbing temperatures, actually, but I didn’t want to get cold the minute we stopped. We figure it took about two hours.

Dozens of cyclists passed us in both directions, all day riders as far as we could tell. Mostly locals, probably, though there was a bit of Italian in the mix too.

Just shy of the top was the restaurant. There was a world where we could’ve ended day one here, but train schedules took that off the table!

We ordered espressos, drank them standing at the bar, and went on our way.

At the actual summit we skipped the photo because it was thronged with other cyclists. Next time, maybe!

The descent was cold. For me, the last couple of days have been warm while climbing and chilly or cold at every other moment, and it’s hard to navigate the extremes. Thankfully it wasn’t raining on the way down today, so windblocker gloves and my windbreaker were enough. As per usual, Harald was out of sight pretty quickly and I took a more relaxed approach.

I’ve really been enjoying the descending on the gravel bike, which has very capable disc brakes. When Harald and I rode Switzerland and Italy in 2024 I was on a different bike with rim brakes only. Now my hands don’t get tired and I can brake as hard and fast as the tires will let me.

Speaking of tires: I have big, comfortable, smooth 48mm tires on this bike and I top them off to 30psi in the morning. That gives me a very luxurious ride and a lot of confidence on the twisty stuff. Let’s look at those tires one more time!

Eventually we came to the bottom, which was pretty V shaped: almost immediately we’d be starting back up the next climb. But first we wanted to find water, maybe a snack. Lucky for us there was a frites cart, so we enjoyed some salty carbs and a Coke.

While we waited, a big old dog and her owner came over. The dog “Umi” could tell I was in withdrawal, so lots of hip checks and scrunchies were exchanged. (No photo of the dog. I know.)

Still on our way out of frites-town (Le Pont) we stopped at the public restrooms and ran into another tourer, Marcin, who is from Poland and riding from Geneva to Nice.

It was fun to chat. The roadies doing the climbs don’t have much to say to us as they whiz by but we share an ethos with Marcin. He’d started in Geneva the day I arrived, so he suffered through the heat, then suffered the entire day of cold rain yesterday, and a pretty chilly day today too. He’s ready for some sunshine!

The second climb of the day was nicer in every way.

Temps were better, the sun peeked out, it was shorter (a bit over an hour) and we were largely alone as we paralleled a busier road toward Chambèry.

Here’s a little YouTube clip from it:

We made the top.

Then down we went for another 20-30 minutes or so. A much warmer descent. In Saint-Jean-d’Arvey we found a water spigot next to a really nice public bathroom and a bakery, and that’s where we sat down and booked our hotel in Chambèry.

We arrived in town around 3:00 and found the hotel in a lively district near a university, with plenty of people and places to watch. After the obligatory laundry and showers we walked around the mostly pedestrianized center and stopped for a beer at the cafe next to the hotel. Finally, grocery shopping for the evening. More soy chocolate pudding, delicious walnut bread, some Italian-spiced veggie patties, lentil soup, juices, soy yogurt, I could go on!

Tomorrow we’ll make Grenoble, or a bit past it, laying the foundation for some big climbs over the weekend. Tomorrow itself is no slouch either, with some exciting stuff planned. Similar in scope to today, maybe a few more wrinkles. 

43 miles, 6300ft of climbing, and about 5 hrs in the saddle!