I: 20 June - Tour du Mont Blance day 1

View from our hotel in Chamonix towards the mountains:

After leisurely breakfast we checked out of hotel and trundled all our baggage to the station and caught train to Montroc le Planet - the assembly point for our guided walk. We had our day packs and small luggage bags which would be moved on every day for us. Our main suitcases were left behind for storage by the tour company.

We made vague introductions to our group (13 incl leader) and divided up the provisions for lunch into our day packs.

It was cold and raining slightly so we donned all our gear and at 10.40 am and set off up through the ski slopes towards Col de Balme. This is the main pass on the French Swiss border. Today is a relatively short walk which is just as well given the late start.

We stopped at the restaurant at the top of the ski slopes for lunch. We were allowed to eat our lunch inside provided we bought a drink. It was freezing and windy outside. Amazingly our lunch of bread, cheeses, crisps, sausage and salad included red wine and some took the opportunity to buy beer. I was a bit unsure if this was a good idea with still a lot of climbing ahead of us. This lunch took 2 hours, and we were assured that the wine was only a "day 1 special".
Despite the cold these azaleas thrived up here.

View back towards Chamonix.

At the top the ice and snow gave the appearance that it was very cold. This was enhanced by the strong wind blowing up from the other side.

We were very pleased with the gear we had brought and we were really quite warm as long as we didn't hang about too much. Our leggings are inexpensive plastic overtrousers but they did the job quite well.

Weather warmed up a bit as we dropped down into Switzerland. This is a typical Bergers hut (Shepherd).

Afternoon water stop.
The meadow flowers in the valley bottom were very impressive.

At Trient a nice hotel / gite was awaiting us the "Relais de Mont Blanc". We were given our keys and important information such as the time to meet for dinner and aperatives ("apero") beforehand. The dinner was wonderful, - looks like a good start.