Thanks to the recent gas crises — due to the strikes at oil refineries 30-40% of the gas stations have shortage of at least one type of gasoline — Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes announced last week that all regional trains and buses were free this past weekend. We though about taking our bikes on the train somewhere and then riding home, but were a bit worried about how full the trains would be, since the weather forecast for the weekend was also very promising. Eventually we left the bikes home and just went for a short city getaway in Albertville. It turned out that not everyone knew the trains and buses were free. On our way out on Saturday there was plenty of space from Brignoud to Montmélian to Albertville, but on the return trip on Sunday from Annecy (* due to some miscalculation on our part) to Chambéry the train was packed to the last seat, and some travelers with bicycles were left behind.
We spent the Saturday afternoon strolling in the downtown Albertville. We had driven and ridden through Albertville a few times, but had not realized that there was an idyllic old center — it was rather small, though, and quickly explored. It is quite surprising that such a small town — current population is 19,500 — hosted winter Olympics 30 years ago. However, except of ice skating events the sport competitions were organized elsewhere in the Savoie region.
On Sunday we climbed to the medieval town of Conflans on the other side of the river Arly, and hiked the 2.6-kilometer loop of Chemin de la Poterne des Vignes. We were not really prepared for hiking, so we were surprised that the hiking route that started on a comfortable paved road turned into steep and rocky trail that traveled in a ravine.
(* When we were done with the sightseeing in Albertville there were several hours until the next train left home, so we decided to take a bus, leaving immediately, to Annecy that was only 45 kilometers away so that we could catch much earlier train from there. What we didn’t realize was that the bus ride took almost two hours, so we missed the earlier train and had to spend about forty minutes at the railway station waiting for the next one.)