After breakfast I walk out the back of our hotel and take this photo of the white flowering bush. Never did find out what kind it was.

Then we walked near the Midi center again to pick up a sandwich for lunch. Our bus picked us up at noon and we were off, leaving Chamonix and Mont Blanc behind.

There are 14 of us on this bicycle trip, the four of us plus couples from California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey. We are headed for Saillon, Switzerland and a G7 conference was about to get underway just near the border, so there was always concern about traffic backups crossing the border. But, we had no trouble.

Our route was over the Col de la Forclaz Pass, from Chamonix to Montigny, Switzerland.

This area has been used in the Tour de France many times and we saw several bicyclists on the road today. They had some dandy hills and curves to traverse.

We reach the pass and stop here to eat our lunch. There is a shop nearby to buy drinks and also souvenirs. Out front are some tables where we eat and across the road is another restaurant as well as a German bunker left over from World War II.

This sign near our stop shows several hiking routes.

Jim checks out one of the paths.

Lots of traffic through here including motorcycles.

Back on the bus we continue and down, down, over the housetops we see Montigny.

After about two hours, we reach our very modern hotel, the Les Bains de Saillon in Saillon. I think this was our favorite hotel of the trip for many reasons. One was the functionality of our rooms, another was the wonderful breakfasts, and third was the thermal baths. We did walk a lot and when we arrived, we were first given a tour of the hotel. Then we got our room keys and were able to change into bike clothes before meeting for route review.

Today was to be a warm-up ride only of about 4.3 miles and we met our guides to review the schedule for the rest of the day.

Because the majority of us were on e-bikes, they also explained some of the basics of shifting for us. We had eco, tour, auto, and turbo settings and they suggested we ride mostly in auto. Turbo was our friend for hills and passing on busy bike paths. We would get a chance to try out turbo that very afternoon.

Our guides are two Frenchmen, Jean-Marc and Philippe. We had Jean-Marc on the Bordeaux to La Rochelle trip and were glad to see him again.

The bicycle for this trip is a 40-pounder and I had a real love-hate relationship with it. The thing I really disliked was no top tube. Twice I stopped to take photos and lean my bike against me and of course it crashed to the ground. The second thing I disliked intensely was the width of the handlebars. Always felt like the thing was out of control. Accustomed to a road bike and that position, it was very uncomfortable to sit up so straight with my arms outstretched. The thing I liked was Turbo. Got up a couple of hills that otherwise I would have walked. This thing looks more nimble in the photo than it really is. At 40-pounds, it took some effort to start pedaling every time I stopped. We learned to be sure it was in a lower level of assist whether we had to start. Just was wearing over time. I think others loved the bike so this was just my reaction.

Not really any photos from the first ride. It was mainly on flat roads and paths in the area giving us a chance to check out the different gears but we did end up going up a very sharp hill into the town proper. Then we had a mile or so walk up to the ruins of an old castle. Got up the hill okay – turbo worked fine – but didn’t finish the climb to the castle ruins. I told Philippe, a fan of George Hincappie, that George’s philosophy was if you weren’t riding your bike you should be sitting down, not walking up hills. George and I agree on that. Save your energy! Anyway, we saw an eagle in a barn and a cemetery and then rode back downhill on another route and back to the hotel.

Dinner was a group affair where everyone got to introduce themselves and tell where they were from, etc. Looking forward to tomorrow.