Travel from the Provence to Lake Annecy in France

We did the same thing. It was our intent to tour Orange, Vaison La-Romaine and Grenoble before our mid-way stay in Lyon. Howver, despite an early start out of Avignon, we spent too much time in Vaison La-Romaine and had to skip Grenoble. We did spend the night in Lyon which is a bit out of the way but it worked just fine. If you do spend the night somewhere along the way, don't miss Aix Les-Bains on the way to Annecy. That was a pleasant surprise for us. Quite nice to have lunch and browse a few shops. There's a nice parking garage near the center of the city. If you are staying in Annecy and you like fine dining, most of the nicer restaurants appear to be in the hotels. The restaurants along the canals appeared to us to be a bit touristy. However, we found La Villa des Fluers in nearby Talloires (from our Frommer's book. Yes, we did have our RS book as well). Quiet, smaller elegant restaurant, views of the lake and great food. It's about 15 minutes from central Annecy.

Thanks to all of you for your advice and input. We have heard great things about Annecy, but finding most places to be quite touristy. Would we be better off staying in Aix-la-Bains?

We always look for Logis de France inns, which are family-run small hotels all over the country. If you google "logis de france d'isere" I think you will see lots of choices near Grenoble.

Norma, thank you for the info! We are spending a month in France this June, and will be travelling mainly in the south - Dordogne, Aveyron, Provence, and the Alps. I am going to look into these hotels in other regions as well. Thank you so much for the tip.

We never stayed at one we didn't like and another plus is that almost all of the Logis de France hotels have on-site parking at no extra charge. Often the hotel has an excellent restaurant where the owner-chef shows his skills at dinner. Have a lovely time in France.

We also have stayed at many Logis brand hotels. Even though the hotels are privately owned, there is the advantage of the central booking. One of the problems in only using the central booking is that the "normal" rooms are usually shown and the upgraded suites may not be shown. We found that to be true in Languedoc-Roussillon area. In that case, it might be better to use the hotel's website. You can get a book with all the Logis hotels listed. Pick one up at any Logis hotel. We found it was very nice to have the restuarants on site...no problem with drinking wine with dinner and then driving. Not all the hotels have restuarants but will serve breakfasts. The Logis books show the number of "chimneys" for the hotel quality and the number of "casseroles" for the meal quality. We did have problems with some of the hotels closing for the end of the season in October. They use the "down" time for cleaning, renovations and vacation time for the owners. That won't be any problem for you in June. Have fun!