Abbaye De Talloires - Talloires, France 

We stayed at the l’Abbaye de Talloires for 3 nights in early June. We loved our stay here and are looking forward to returning. We had a deluxe room with a balcony view of the lake. It was the one pictured on their web site with the spear hanging from the wall. The hotel grounds are a delight with beautiful flowers and gardens. The hotel is quite a way outside of Annecy, and would not recommend staying here without a car. It is hard to describe the beauty of the area with the lake and the Alps. We did not eat in the hotel restaurant since it is quite expensive, does not have a view, and had a menu that didn’t appeal to us. It was closed the first two nights, and we ate in La Charpenterie (another hotel in the village) the first night and had a great fresh fish dinner at a very reasonable price. We ate at the Cottages, which is next door and had a good dinner with a great view with average service for an expensive price. The hotel buffet breakfast was nothing special at all, and was not replenished when we were there. The downside to our room on the 3rd floor was that with no lift, it was up 45 stairs each time we went to the room. Overall the location and the quaint charms outweighed the other things.

Lovely old abbey renovated in all the right places. The setting on the lake is beautiful- we couldn't stop looking out the windows! Our room was smallish but comfortable with a newly renovated, well-stocked bathroom. Staff was friendly and knowledgeable about local restaurants (the hotel resto was closed for the off-season). Only one small critique is the lack of sound-proofing between the rooms. This was not much of a problem since the hotel was nearly empty, but with near neighbors there might not be much privacy.