We will be in Lyon for 4 days in January following time in Chamonix and Courmayeur while our son skis. We've made several trips to Lyon in the past (including two to see their Fete des Lumieres), so we'd like to split our 4 days there this time between Lyon itself and a couple of day trips by train. One day will be devoted to Annecy where son has not been and where we have a favorite restaurant. I'm now debating where to spend the other day out of the city and have narrowed it down to Grenoble or Chambery with a possible stop enroute in Aix le Bains.if we decide on Chambery.

From my research I know that Granoble is about 3 times the size of Chambery, that both have nice sounding museums and good markets (I'm sort of a market freak), and that both are about an hour and half train ride by TER (although that can be reduced to a little over 1 hour to Grenoble by TGV)

I would like to hear from folks who have been to both with their recommendations of how to break the tie between these two day trip destinations. Thanks for any guidance you can provide.

Annecy and Chambery are both midway between Chamonix and Lyon.
If you like Roman stuff (theatres, open air and covered museum) ypou may be interested in Vienne too.
As to the choice between Grenoble and Chambery, all depends on your interests.

We've stayed overnight in each of them - plus a day trip to Chambery when we stayed in Annecy for 2 weeks. We found Chambery to be more interesting than Grenoble. Aix was only so-so, IMO.


Stu Dudley

Thanks for the replies. Helps to hear from folks who have been there. Chambery requires a slightly shorter train ride than Grenoble and gets a Dudley endorsement. Sounds like that's our stop. J

Reporting back: We took train from Lyon to Chambery and really enjoyed our day there. It was Sunday and very quiet so we felt like we had the town almost to ourselves. It's delightful with old streets and some new renovation going on in the area near the train station. We had our pick of what looked to be several delightful restaurants and settled on a raclette pig out which was perfect for the cold day it was. As we rounded one corner, I realized that we'd been in Chambery before but it was enroute to Annecy or elsewhere in the area so we had a quick lunch and left immediately. Glad we stopped and smelled the cheese this time. It was a swell day trip for us. Thanks for the good advice.

Could you share your favorite restaurant in Annecy? Will be there in July

We like L'Alpin. It's small with modern decor but has terrific old-fashioned alpine food, including raclette that they melt in tiny charcoal fires on your table. Great food IMO . Hope you have a wonderful meal there.

Read a bit further in my notes and found that we did not have raclette, but rather reblochonnade--and I noted that it might have been the best meal of the trip. on an old-fashioned charcoal burner with 1/2 inch think slices of reblochon and 1/2 saucisson chaude all with melted cheese spread over it and boiled potatoes This followed an appetizer platter of 4 different spreads on toasted bread. I gave the meal an A+ Enjoy!