Cubicle Dreamin': L'Hot�l Imp�rial Palace Annecy

June 19, 2007 at 9:22 AM | by barbarab | Comments (0)

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.

In this episode, Hotel Maven barabarab fantasizes about a lakeside Alpine getaway. Enjoy.

The one and only time I visited the French Alps, I camped for days in a tent on a slope of a mountain outside the medieval village of Briançon. The closest body of water was a tiny stream. To return to the region and stay at L'Hotêl Impérial Palace d'Annecy on the shores of Lac Annecy would be, to say the least, an exquisite study in contrasts.

Admittedly, I was seduced hook, line and sinker by the hotel's website. It's a primitively animated affair, a nod no doubt to the International Animated Film Festival that takes place in Annecy each June.

The website "opens" with fireworks above the hotel and sailboats and swans gliding along the lake and, let's not forget the sky, balloons and hangliders and dragonflies. It's flight-of-fancy magical to say the least. For its part, during the festival the Hotel Impérial Palace hosts the Mifa, apparently the only trade fair in the world devoted to the animation industry. Maybe next year?

I realize this is an exercise in fantasy. If I could not be there right now, I'd consider the first weekend in August, for La Fête du Lac d'Annecy. The 99-room hotel sits on the lake's edge, on its own peninsula. The lake is described as the cleanest in Europe. (Just curious: Who's administering the white glove test on that one?) On Saturday night, there's a two-hour fireworks display. As one who's spent a Bastille Day in Antibes and another in Paris, I can vouch that French fireworks rock.

During my stay, I would gamble at the on-site casino (à vos jeux!), take a boat ride on the lake, swim in the lake, and, last but not least, hop over to Annecy. The medieval town is built around a 14th century chateau and is laced with canals and streams, great for strolling and camera-clicking. Caveat clickster: Getting there apparently involves taking a taxi or, if you've got them, your own wheels.

The rooms at the Hotel Imperial Palace have a distinctively Beidermeier vibe to them, with sleek art deco furniture and loopy lamps. That's fine by me, but might unsettle anyone with a low tolerance for cognitive dissonance in hotel décor department. Doubles start at 300 Euros, Suites at 500 Euros.

In a random closing note, Annecy is making a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. They're already conjugating verbs over it. Olympliquons-nous!

[Photo: Leshopper]

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