Hi. We will be in Gorges du Verdon region region for 2 nights (30th April - 2nd may) We haven’t yet decided where we will be staying. Just want to explore the area and maybe get some kayaking on canyoneering experience.

after that we wanted to drive to Annecy to experience the French alps. And stay in Annecy for 2 nights. From 2nd May to 4th may. However, I have been reading threads here and I understand Annecy isn’t a great destination if I want an experience of the alps.

after the alps we plan to drive to Paris but since it’s a long drive we want to break the journey somewhere midway.

i need help with

1) can you suggest a route that’s scenic and takes us through cute villages with views of the alps. We’re more than happy to avoid freeways.

2) do you think Annecy is a good place or would you suggest any other town. We are looking at maybe going for a hike and immersing in stunning views considering it’s spring and hoping everything will be in bloom and green.

3) any suggestions for a one night stop between Annecy or (whichever town you’d recommend) and Paris. We have to return our car in Paris at 11 am. Again we’d rather avoid touristy places.

any help would be much appreciated.
thank you
niv

The shortest itinerary from Castellane to Annecy goes through the high Alps anyway:
Castellane - Digne - Briancon - Col du Mongenevre - Oulx - Modane - Frejus Tunnel - Aiton - Chambery - Annecy.
You may also reach Chamonix directly from Aiton via Megeve.
The fastest route from Chamonix to Paris goes via Annemasse (Geneva) - Bourg en Bresse - Macon - Beaune - Avallon.
That means that a intermediate stop in Burgundy is set anyway: Macon/Cluny, Beaune, Dijon or Avallon/Vezelay.

We actually are stopping at burgundy,?Beaune specifically on the way to Provence and Gorges du Vernon. Hence, I wanted to do a different route or atleast a diff city on the way back to Paris from Annecy.

Last Sept we were in that area, stayed at Chalet Christine, Tolloires area so lovely, so memorable..
tremendous breakfast, views, and parking.

Depending on where you end up staying, Talloires/ Annecy / Briançon, a possible initial route onwards could be through Grenoble and the Vercors, very scenic, then Perouges or Bourge-en-Bresse to Macon or Cluny. But does that put you close enough to Paris for your onward day?

will check out the place. Thank you for the recommendation.
I found a cute Airbnb chalet at praz sur arly. Was considering that. Is that a good area?

I found a cute chalet Airbnb at Praz-Sur-arly. Is that a good area?
the above route upto Cluny looks like it will take 2:45 mins on toll roads and on non toll roads about 4 hours. Would it be more scenic to take non toll roads? From cluny paris is still 4 hours away. I’d like to keep it to 3 hours. So maybe something a little further up from Cluny would be perfect.

An alternative route when Googling Annecy to Paris would lead you to Troyes which has a cathedral, an old town and a museum of 19th century tools and trade as worthwhile sites.

https://flic.kr/p/8pzzHu

Praz-sur-Arly: your guess is as good as mine; certainly there are mountains there.

Michelin paper maps outline scenic routes in green. Their online version at viamichelin.com does the same. Apparently they have restored the “Discovery” route option on their desktop version, so

-fire up that desktop and open the Web site
- enter where you’ll be starting from and where you hope to get to that day, inserting a few intermediate stops if you wish
- click “Discovery route”
- Zoom in to see which are the scenic roads.

At some point in this journey you’ll probably want to hop on to a motorway to make some mileage. Not sure when and where TBH. Some toll roads actually have fine views, such as the A51, but I can’t testify to anything north of Lyon.

Response to your questions in post 3:

most scenic mountain itinerary (open in May):
Castellane - (2300ft) - Cheiron Pass 3000ft) - Lake Castillon - Toutes-Aures Pass (3650ft) - Galange Gorges - Gueydan Bridge (1700ft) - Cayolle Pass (7700ft) - Barcelonette (1100m) - Vars Pass (6950ft) - Guillestre (2950ft) - Montgenevre Pass (6000ft) - Oulx (3600ft) - Frejus Tunnel - Modane - Aiton (950ft) - Albertville - Praz sur Arly (3300ft)
According to viamichelin, the whole distance is around 250 miles and the driving time 8-10 hrs.

this is a great idea. I’ll do that. Thanks for the tip.

maybe we can do parts of it and get on the freeway to make up time. Thank you. I’ll come up with a plan and share here.

I just checked and viamichelin only gives 3 route options. Fast, short and economical. There seems to be no discovery scenic option.
even in filters, it only gives avoid tolls, motorways, leaving the country, but no scenic options.

Drat, sorry, you are right. Someone who’s been following the viamichelin issue posted a couple of weeks ago that Discovery was back, but perhaps Michelin withdrew it to make tweaks again. They have told her in an email that they do plan to restore it.

In the meantime, a combination of “economical” and selecting points that take you past green line routes should mimic Discovery, but sadly will be more laborious.

"maybe we can do parts of it and get on the freeway to make up time."
NO, you can't. the motorway is too far away from the high mountains.