We had to make a swift exit in the morning before the start of the cycle race so we didn’t get blocked in anywhere.
As we drove around the lake we passed some amazing houses which we would probably need to win the lottery to buy, plus we drove through the village of Orta San Giulio, apparently the most romantic village in the Italian Lakes!
As we left the lake shoreline we had our longest drive for a few weeks ahead of us. We were leaving Italy and heading to a French lake. As we didn’t want to waste too much of our holiday driving we took the quickest route via toll roads and the Frejus Tunnel. There is a cost to speed though and that was a total of €108 of tolls (€59.80 on the tunnel alone, ouch!).
After a few hours driving through some spectacular scenery we arrived at Lac d’Aiguebelette, which is southwest of Lac d’Annecy. It is a small natural lake with emerald green waters and surrounded by mountains. No motorboats are permitted but there are a lot of canoes and paddle boards so it is very tranquil. It all looked perfect! Unfortunately, the first campsite we planned to stop at, although it allowed dogs the only access to the lake was through a beach which was not dog friendly and you had to pay. Needless to say we moved on.
The second campsite was Camping Le Curtelet at Lépin-le-Lac. It is a small campsite with its own lake access which does allow dogs on their beach, but only before 10am and after 6pm. Not ideal but according to the campsite they are the only ones in the area that allow dogs access to the lake so we took it. We did still take Finn out in the kayak during the day, we just carried him over the beach and dropped him straight in the kayak and vice versa getting out. Technically we didn’t break any rules as his feet didn’t touch the beach between the hours of 10am and 6pm.
Weather – warm and sunny but not as hot as Italy
Miles Driven – 222
Miles Walked – 4
Overnight – Camping Le Curtelet 2 nights at €28 a night 45.541509 5.780175
