One evening in Chambery, capital of Savoie, en route from Verona to Paris. It was quite a pleasant spot – our soulless but comfortable hotel, the Mercure, was right opposite the railway station. I got the feeling, wandering round in search of food, that there were a lot of people having fun somewhere, but just somewhere else. I found a ‘pub’ – complete with beer and signs, confusingly in English, and had a Savoyard speciality called (I think) a tartine, which was a sort of ham-cheese-potato concoction. Nice, but not very summery.
The rail journey down from Chambery to Lyon was just beautiful, through cloudy mountains and high meadows. Nearby is Evian-les-Bains, home of that water.