Lake Annecy
— the green a lake turns when it's been left alone.
Not only on a wall.
“A long glacial lake in the French Alps, north of Albertville and south of Geneva. The cleanest in Europe by reputation, after strict protections beginning in the 1960s, and the colour shows it: a green that shifts to turquoise where limestone shelves come up shallow. The town of Annecy holds the north end, with the small Palais de l'Isle set into the Thiou river where the lake spills out. La Tournette stands over the east shore. From the Col de la Forclaz the paragliders come down through the morning, slow as a thought.
Lake Annecy, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Lake Annecy lies in the Haute-Savoie department of eastern France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, about 35 kilometres south of Geneva and 100 kilometres east of Lyon. The lake is roughly 14.6 km long and covers 27.6 km², a body of glacial origin formed as the Würm ice retreated roughly 18,000 years ago. It sits at 446 metres above sea level, ringed by La Tournette (2,351 m) to the east and the Semnoz ridge to the west. The town of Annecy occupies the northern tip, where the Thiou river drains the basin. Smaller villages sit at intervals along the shore: Talloires, Veyrier-du-Lac, Sevrier, and Duingt with its small offshore château.
The lake's reputation rests on its water. After serious pollution in the 1950s, the surrounding communes formed the SILA syndicate in 1957 and built a perimeter sewer system, completed in 1976, that diverts wastewater away from the basin entirely. The project is widely cited as a model for European lake protection. The result is exceptional clarity and a colour that runs from deep emerald in the open water to pale turquoise over the limestone shelves of the southern bays. Three rivers and the underground spring of Le Boubioz feed the lake; the Thiou is its single outflow. Swimming is permitted from municipal beaches and free shore-access points along most of the perimeter.
The town of Annecy is reached in about 40 minutes by TGV-connected rail from Geneva-Cornavin, or by car along the A41 motorway. The lake stays accessible through every season, with swimming from June through mid-September when the surface temperature climbs into the low twenties Celsius. A paved cycling path, the Voie Verte du Lac d'Annecy, follows the western shore for about 33 kilometres from Annecy toward Doussard. The Col de la Forclaz above Talloires is one of the most established paragliding sites in Europe; launches begin shortly after sunrise on still mornings. Annecy's old town, with the Palais de l'Isle built in the 12th century, is the Friday-morning market town for the region.