The Lac du Bourget is the largest natural lake entirely in France, a long blue trough in the Savoie Prealps, and the shore at Tresserve, just south of Aix-les-Bains, is one of the quiet places to see it. Beneath the water here lie the remains of prehistoric lake dwellings, villages of timber houses built on piles along the shore thousands of years ago. The site is part of the UNESCO-listed Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, a series of more than a hundred settlements in six countries. There is nothing to see above the surface, but knowing it is there changes the way you look at the reeds and shallows.
The lake has a literary fame too. Alphonse de Lamartine met his great love, Julie Charles, in Aix-les-Bains in 1816, and after her death he wrote Le Lac, one of the most famous poems in the French language, about the lake that saw their happiness. Across the water, on the steep western shore, the Abbey of Hautecombe sits by the water at the foot of the Mont du Chat, burial place of the princes of the House of Savoy.
Aix-les-Bains is an old spa town, with Belle Époque hotels, a casino and thermal baths, and it makes an excellent base. The riding around the lake is superb. The road along the western shore, below the Dent du Chat, is narrow and winding, with the cliffs on one side and the water on the other. Above it, the climb to the Mont du Chat is steep and tight, with long drops on the outside of the hairpins and no room for daydreaming. On the eastern side, the road up to Mont Revard climbs in long bends to a plateau with views over the lake and, on clear days, Mont Blanc.
The lake is a place to swim in summer, with beaches and lidos around the shore; the water is clear and warms up well by July. Mornings are often hazy; afternoons can bring thunderstorms that roll in over the mountains.
Aix-les-Bains has fuel, garages and every kind of food, from lakeside cafés to restaurants serving lake fish such as lavaret, a whitefish found in the Alpine lakes. Tresserve, the residential village above the shore, is quiet and green. Park by the water, take off your helmet, and listen to the lake.