SURELY some mistake, I thought, as I surveyed the clouds swirling round the mountains and the rain lashing across the lake.

We had travelled to Annecy in the French Alps expecting warm sunshine, as well as beautiful lake and mountain scenery and a picturesque old town.

But the weather felt more like the Lake District on a bad day, and proved you should never take sunshine for granted, even if you have driven most of the way across France.

Fortunately, we were staying in a Eurocamp mobile home, which stayed warm and dry whatever the weather. And there was indeed spectacular and picturesque scenery wherever we looked - mountains that soared thousands of feet into the sky, with snow still lying on the higher slopes, meadows packed with wild flowers, and Lake Annecy with its extraordinary turquoise waters.

My family was staying with our friend Sarah and her son Josh, at Les Fontaines, some ten miles along the lake from the town of the same name. It was a small terraced site nestling between the lake and a mountain range.

The best facility by far was the outdoor pool complex, featuring a waterchute and slides, which certainly kept the children amused when we got a brief hot and sunny respite. We also enjoyed family games of table tennis until the ground got too soggy.

The games room was still not fully up and running during our stay in early June, which was a shame considering the weather. But we had been warned in the brochure small print that the bar, shop and restaurant would not yet be open.

Annecy was a delight. Narrow, arcaded streets of historic buildings, bedecked with flowers and with a clear, clean river running through it. There was a good museum in the Palais de L'Isle, an ancient building situated in the middle of the river.

The town also boasted an excellent street market and my daughter was able to buy her favourite French takeaway - her beloved crepes.

We took a boat trip out onto the lake to get a different perspective on the mountain scenery. We also enjoyed a visit to Conflans, a little medieval hillside town some 20 miles from Annecy where the sunshine briefly broke through the cloud, and to Talloires, a lakeside town.

But the highlight of the holiday, particularly for my son, was a 60-mile trip to Chamonix and a cable car ride up Mont Blanc.

We were warned before we bought our rather expensive tickets (about £25 per adult to go to the highest point) that there was "nil visibility" because of cloud cover, but it was still fascinating to shoot thousands of feet up into the air to up above the snow level.

I got to an area where there were still patches of old snow from last winter. My son got to a point at about 13,000 feet where it had only just finished snowing some hours before, and where the oxygen was thin and climbers emerged out of the cloud and snow on a treacherous ridge like actors on a film set.

As we returned north, the sun broke through (days later, I heard temperatures at Annecy had shot up into the 90s after we departed) and we spent an enjoyable couple of nights on another site at Joinville, between Dijon and Reims.

The campsite was well run and set in an area of woodland and rolling hills full of wildlife (we were hugely excited to see a fox cub stand and stare at us from not ten feet away).

There was also a warm indoor pool in a converted barn, and just ten miles away were Roman remains, including a recreated ampitheatre and one of the largest complete mosaic pavements in Europe.

How we got there...

There's only one way to get to the continent from York if you want to take your own car with you and avoid a long and stressful drive along the overcrowded motorways of England. You drive for one hour to Hull and take P & O's overnight ferry to Zeebrugge.

The long and leisurely journey on the Norsea (which recently underwent a multi-million pound refurbishment) was a definite highlight of our holiday for the children, from the meals in the restaurant and the film in the ship's small cinema to sleeping in bunks in our cabin with its en suite shower and toilet and porthole. There are also some good shops on board.

And we arrived refreshed and ready to hit the road on the continent at 8am.

Fact file:

Eurocamp can be contacted on 01606 787878

P&O can be contacted on 0870 1296002

A fortnight's Eurocamp holiday at Annecy will cost between £771 low season and £1,675 peak, including Dover-Calais crossing

Approximately £300 extra for Hull-Zeebrugge crossing

Updated: 09:47 Saturday, December 28, 2002