Palais de l'Isle from the Pont Perrière at first light

The Palais de l'Isle sits in the middle of the Thiou, a twelfth-century stone building whose pointed end divides the canal like the prow of a ship. It has been a residence, a courthouse and a prison, and it is the image the whole town is known by: pale stone, small barred windows, geranium boxes on the buildings either side and green water running past on both flanks.

The Pont Perrière gives the classic head-on frame, with the prow centred and the canal receding on both sides. Walk thirty metres either way and it changes completely — from the Quai de l'Île the building goes broadside with the arcades behind it, and from downstream you get the whole old town stacked above the water. A couple on the bridge with the palace behind them is the frame people book Annecy for.

First light is the entire trick. Before eight the canal is still, the stone takes warm early sun and there is nobody on the bridge; by ten the same spot is a slow-moving queue of visitors and the water is broken by the day's traffic. In winter the low sun reaches further into the canal and the crowds simply are not there. Overcast is fine — the stone and the flower boxes carry the picture.

Practical: the bridges are narrow and are working thoroughfares, so keep to one side and expect to yield. The canal walls have no railing in places. And the building is a museum in its own right, with its own opening hours and ticket — check them if you want interiors as well as the outside.