Today was a moving day so we had to really hustle this morning. Had to get dressed, get packed, put our suitcases outside the door, go downstairs to eat breakfast, come back upstairs to get our bike helmets and bike bags, go back downstairs to check out at the desk, and come back upstairs for route review.

Our ride today is about 19 miles in the morning with another 4 miles after lunch, taking us into Montreux, Switzerland. We will be riding along Lake Geneva as the Swiss call it, and Lac Léman, according to the French. Going to be a hot, sunny day with a little wind.

During our review, our guides point out the difference between the Swiss flag and the Savoy flag; the cross on the Savoy flag extends all the way to the edges. Philippe also talks to us about Switzerland and how the country functions as a democracy. He said they vote on everything. They’re either voting on something on the local level, on the Canton level, or on the country level. Today there was to be a vote about whether or not to cap the number of people who could live in the country as Swiss citizens. We later found out this was defeated. Each Canton has a number of representatives based on its population, and the president is selected from seven of those representatives and serves for one year. The president, however, serves more as an ambassador for the country rather than having any real authority; power is mostly in the hands of the citizens and their votes on specific endeavors.

Today we do not start riding at the hotel but at a location about 20 minutes away. So, we go outside to wait for the bus and Ross has to show that he has on a Swiss bicycle jersey this morning.

We also take a photo with Philippe.

After the bus ride, we get our bike bags and water bottles strapped on ready to head out.

Our guides take turns either driving the van or riding with us usually as the sweep. Sometimes the one riding with us will take the lead to get us through a busy area. And today Philippe leads us out of town and through a couple of roundabouts until we are on the bike path.

Once again, we are cycling along the Rhone River.

Our GPS directions also told us we had two opportunities today to adopt a Swiss dog and indeed we do go by a couple of shelters. Here’s a photo of three friendly guys.

We passed a couple of horse farms and stables and I stopped to ask this girl about her horse. She said it was still in training as it was only three years old and it would be awhile before she could compete with him.

We also had a chance to ride by a nice poppy field

Our snack break is after about 10 miles and is at the UCI headquarters in Switzerland.

We go inside the building, mainly to look at the Velodrome. There are also some old bicycles on display, including a bike ridden by Eddie Merckx in the Tour.

Back on the bike path we are still riding along the Rhone River.

We see this harvester and have to research what it is – a carrot harvester.

We eventually come to a bridge, which is accessed via a ramp. I’m the first up and take Ross’ photo as he approaches on the bike path.

The bridge could be ridden across, but our directions said to walk.

On the other side, we came up upon a water tank with a faucet and Emily fills her water bottle.

Then a man comes along with a dog that promptly jumps into the water tank and has a good time.

The path starts to become more shaded by trees

And we soon enter an area that is so dark it’s hard to see with our sunglasses on. This must be part of the natural reserve area on our route review map. Thankfully, it’s a short section of path and we are soon out in the open again. Another bridge crops up and this one for sure has to be walked across. It has two steps to walk up plus a ramp to take the bike up on the bridge.

We reach Villeneuve and stop at a small sandwich shop to pick up ham and cheese sandwiches and Diet Coke to take along with us for lunch later when we reach Lake Geneva. In France, ham and cheese sandwiches always have the bread buttered and I am looking for mustard, not butter. Our guides told us that mustard is not used on sandwiches with cheese because it ruins the flavor of the cheese. Then I remember that this is the country with over 400 or so kinds of cheese.

We soon arrive at the path along the lake.

Then we see the Castle of Chillon in the distance.

We continue riding along Lake Geneva and find a nice bench with a great view to eat our lunch.

A photo on the bench.

Soon after getting back on the bike path, we have to get off our bikes and walk down a short cobblestone stretch of path.

We continue to ride through Montreux and it’s hard to describe how busy it is. The path is a combination bike and walking path and on a very nice weekend day, it was very crowded. There were frequent stops and starts to get around people, through crowds and this probably lasted for about a mile. Didn’t take any photos during that time, but this one from online may give some idea of the people we had to weave around.

It becomes very hard to steer through the people and other bicyclists. We do make a stop, however, to take a photo of the Freddie Mercury statue.

It is still crowded past the statue for awhile and we continue weaving in and out among people but eventually the path becomes less busy.

And we see Chillon from the other side.

The bike path widens or at least there are a lot fewer people on it as we continue on towards our bus pickup spot.

At 3 PM we meet our bus and drop our bikes off to be taken onto the next hotel. So our total ride today was 23 miles. We have a two-hour ride on the bus before arriving in Annecy, France, but our hotel is further along down the road. We are staying in Talloires. Our hotel is an old monastery that is over 1000 years old. Fortunately, the bath has been updated.

Our room is on the second floor.

We have heavy, old-fashioned keys to let us into our rooms and the locks can be tricky as Jim is finding out.

Rooms are smaller than at the previous hotel but adequate for our needs.

We have a group dinner outdoors tonight and near Lake Annecy.

Our set dinner menu includes trout and kimchi. Kimchi was very good.

Us at dinner by the lake.

Back in the room for the night, we’re busy organizing suitcases and doing some laundry. Tomorrow’s ride is supposed to be around the lake.

This tour was important to Ross because it includes so many of the towns and general areas of the Tour de France over past years and he wanted to travel through these areas, I was interested in the trip for the same reason but had another interest as the result of a book I read back in the 1960s, Nine Coaches Waiting, by Mary Stewart. It’s fiction but locales include Geneva, Thonon, and the French Alps. We didn’t go through Thonon – it’s on the other side of Lac Léman – but the book also describes crossing the French-Swiss border which we do multiple times. And, I reread the book during the trip for more atmospheric context. Thonon-les-Bains is also the end location of the individual time trial in the Tour de France this year with the start in Èvian-les-Bains.