The Venetian Carnival at Annecy

Today David and I went on an excursion put on by ISEFE (the group through which David is taking classes) to go and see a Venetian carnival at Annecy, a nearby city located in Haute Savoie (we are just in Savoie). It was about a 45 minute bus ride to get to the carnival, and once there we had quite a bit of fun. Here are some pictures to tell you our story:

David and I in the famous Venice-looking "ancient city". There were canals running throughout and it was really pretty. There was also really nice weather today, which made everything even more beautiful.

"David and I within the castle walls. This castle overlooked the city and the lake and allowed us to get some cool pictures of the landscape. Also, we encountered many of the Venetian "characters" I will call them, while strolling about.

A picture of some European rooftops and the surrounding mountains.

David and I by a church, celebrating the sunny day.

Unfortunately, even though it was sunny, it was only about 60-65 degrees, and not quite warm enough to lift the fog that accumulated over the lake and around the mountains. The Annecy Lac is the clearest in France  and was just amazingly gorgeous. In fact, in this picture you can see some rocks through the water a distance away. 

We ate a picnic lunch in the "gardens" the park where the majority of the Venetian festival was being held. I took this picture of the chateau that we climbed up into earlier. 

Here are some of the costumes that we saw. They had the most stunning masks and every costume is handmade, and as far as I know it is always handmade by the person wearing it. They spend all year conceiving and producing their costumes for this three day festival. I tried to choose some of my favorites to show you though I took about 75 pictures of different "characters"

The family in black was simply stunning. I can only imagine how much those costumes cost to make... and the masks!!! But they were truly breathtaking.

This woman got into her role and amused some of the children admiring her costume. It is quite a photographic event. All of the personages walk around very slowly, then stop for minutes at a time and pose, so that everyone around can take pictures. 

Though this one was less ornate, it certainly caught the eye!

This group of four made quite an attractive ensemble. If you can, open up the photo in a new tab and look at how ornate the shoes are of the guy on the right. They really think of everything while planning their outfits.

Go Blue!!!

Her outfit was particularly stunning, and she put a little iPOD thing in her purse that played music to add to her "theme". We heard some of the presentations put on by the carnival and each person designs their costume with a motif in mind. 

And here are David and I in the masks that we bought to celebrate. The ended up matching what we were wearing really well so we look like a gold vs silver act. 

However, all was not perfect in our day. David and I bought Paella from the open air market (it is a Spanish seafood fried rice dish) and by the end of our time in Annecy, we were both feeling rather ill. David actually threw-up before getting on the bus, but I had to sit there for 45 minutes riding home, with a bag on my lap just hoping I wouldn't, knowing that David already had. It was probably the worst (and longest) bus ride we have ever endured. The good news is we made it, the bad news is neither of us is really feeling all that spectacular and we are both wanting our money back from that vendor. But I guess every day can't be perfect.

To end on a brighter note though, neither of us had a morning class tomorrow so we will get some good rest! Love to everyone in the US! (And PS, if you are having awesome weather like we are having, then grill for us because we miss BBQing immensely.