Most scenic route from Aiton to Annecy

Assuming you are planning this before the end of September, if you are happy with mountain roads, on the other side of Mont Cenis, you should not head towards Aiton at all, but take the Iseran Pass road towards Bourg Saint Maurice. It is twisty but well-built and reasonably wide.

In Bourg Saint Maurice, you have 2 options to reach the next waypoint, Albertville:

• 45 minutes, not particularly scenic but not ugly either: the N90 highway

• 90 minutes (or more), narrower than the Iseran road in parts, but very scenic around Roselend lake: the Roselend pass road (D902/D925), also passing through lovely Beaufort

Once in Albertville, the D1212 and D1508 will take you to Annecy, along the western shore of the lake. The D909A, along the eastern shore, is a little bit nicer, but quite a bit slower, so not the best choice at that point of your journey.

If you must go through Aiton for any specific reason (thus skipping most of the above, and taking the A43 from Modane to Aiton), rejoin the D1508 at Faverges after having driven the Col de Tamié road.

Thanks balso!
Beginning of October—do the mountain roads close by then?

Iseran pass is one of the highest in the Alps and typically closes for the season by the second half of October (early November in drier years). So, early October should be OK, BUT sporadic closures due to snow (which then melts) happen regularly from late September up to the seasonal closure date. So you would have to check the status locally! And if the weather is poor/rainy, do not bother with any of the passes.

Mont Cenis is lower, and should still be open in early October, but check that one too.

To check: Google maps traffic view works, or savoie-route.fr

hey hey BJBears
are you spending time in annecy? we were there 5 nights, oct 2019, and loved it. right on the lake with boat rides available, the city center along the canals, many restaurants/shops/cafes/bakeries, people roaming around and people watching, farmer's market twice a week, private taxi tour around small villages on the lake, loved col de la forclaz, hang gliders soaring right above you and the lake with gorgeous views, cows roaming the lush green pastures with cowbells on, concert in the meadow. fondues, went to a working dairy farm for lunch with homemade cheese only from that area, bread, potatoes you place in a pizza oven like, melt and eat right at your table, ice cream for dessert. a totally different experience worth doing.
if you are there on saturday october 8, 2022 the town has a festival of the animals coming down off the mountain for winter time
lac-annecy.com/ retour des alpages annecy
we missed it by one week, traditional and popular event for the community, dressed up in traditional attire, food, music, local artisans.
have a fabulous time, it is one of my favorite cities, the train back to paris for 9 days to the craziness/crowds/noise. plus ex president had passed, memorial in paris, fashionista and paparazzi, world politicians, techno music parade down main avenue, limos, sirens, cops/guns/rifles/tanks everywhere. just sat at many cafes with wine, chacuterie plate, escargot in garlic and butter with baguettes to soak up all that yumminess!! we were happy and contented, not stressing, couldn't get anywhere with the mobs of people and cars.
aloha

Oh wow princess pupule! Yes, that’s when we’ll be there, but we have a 2:40 flight out of Geneva on the 8th. We’re coming in the day before, so not much time to do much, but it all sounds great!

hey hey BJ
are you driving back to geneva to return car. cow parade starts at 9am, maybe sneak a peak.
we took a taxi from geneva to annecy, was about 30 minutes. so easy and the roadway was great. hoping you can sneak a peak.
how long will you be there, i'll send some food places we went to if interested
aloha

We’ll be arriving the day before, lunchtime. Recommendations for lunch, dinner and breakfast would be amazing!
I looked up the festivities online. The parade starts in the early afternoon, so we’ll miss that. Now I’m considering changing our tickets to have an extra day, but oy is that a hassle.

hey hey BJ
creperie ti mad 21 rue royale
yummy sweet and savory crepes
rotisserie du thiou 17 passage de I eveche
this is off a side alley near to canal. we had a fixed prixe fondue lunch with wine. outside table, hole in the wall owned by husband and wife. had the pot of fondue with baguettes, meat, salami, olives. it was so good. there was la freti restaurant , was closed till night time and it was too fuu fuu to our liking and wanted to sit outside
al vesuvio 13 rue de I'lle (across from fountain) on main walkway
it's an italian restaurant. we sat outside along side a table of germans & austrians, enjoyed them trying to talk english or using out hands. we had a pizza, calzone, and green salad with wine or champagne. good food and we wanted different than french. sat for a while, was very busy since it was market day, people and dogs watching, window shopping within the market, stopping to get our desserts. always check times that places open and close, many close during 2-6pm to rest
tuesday, friday, sunday are the market days (7a-1p) with booths inside and out, local artisans and their crafts, produce. we stopped at a small art shop and bought a small picture in frame of annecy.
too bad you don't have more time to spend in the area, one of my favorites.
what about the car? where are you dropping it off at, in annecy or geneva and are you paying a big drop off fee for different country?
if interested in taxi, we used gaelle at taxi-massingy.com
she was born and raised there and owns this service, great communication. the driver picked us up at geneva hotel and about 30-35 minutes to our apartment in annecy 95E. worth every euro to us, the train would have taken 2- 2 1/2 hours, was not a direct route. you do what you need if it means changing day to fly back.
where are you starting off in italy and how long is this trip? we love traveling in october, not off season anymore. it's harvest/festival time all over the place. you may be lucky and learn about other festivals on your road trip. we went to one on lake garda in bardolino that was FABULOUS, ear drink and be merry LOL fun times
aloha

If you just have one night in Annecy, maybe don't take the long way around col de l'Iseran I suggested above... You might prefer to be able to enjoy an afternoon by lake Annecy.
Mont Cenis is already very scenic and will give you plenty of Alpine views - the Mont Cenis lake is impressive!
Then, just take the A43, then A430 to Albertville, and towards Annecy via D1212, D1508 and D909A.

Balso, yeah, good plan. Thanks again!

Thanks again princess pupule!
We’ll have 3 weeks to travel, starting from Geneva, so returning the car from where we rented it. We’re covering a lot of territory in Italy, but no farther south than Campania, where both my family and my husband’s is from.
I’m already planning, in my head, the next trip. More time in the French Alps is a must next time around.