This morning, after looking at the map and finding that a possible route lay over le Col de la Biche, a mountain pass in the Jura, which was marked as difficult or dangerous, I asked the guy on the reception desk what he knew of it. He said it would be no problem, the Tour de France had passed over there. We therefore decided to follow that route. Before any engagements with mountain passes, however, we first had to negotiate our way out of the Bourg-en-Bresse district. This we did with no great ease, taking at least one wrong turning, doubling back on ourselves and at one point near the A40 motorway, losing ourselves completely. As on the northern side of Bourg-en-Bresse, we were again, at first, in this attractive, neat agricultural landscape, then we were among woods and up and down a little more. Eventually we crossed the river Ain at Neuville, following the main RN84 road as far as our turning for St. Jean-le Vieux, where, before tackling the 864m Col de la Berche, we decided to stop for lunch in a café. The sky was bright blue and it was hot. We sat in the shade on the café terrace and fortified ourselves for the forthcoming battle against gravity.

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We set off. This was it then, the first long, high mountain pass of the trip, a climb of approximately 600 metres over 12km, about 5% overall. That shouldn't be too bad I thought. It wasn't. There was no need to use my lowest gear and most of it was in woodland shade. Still, it was our first foray into the mountains, even though mere foothills, compared to what we were about to get into and I took a picture of the altitude sign at the top. We descended gradually into Hauteville-Lompnes a rather scruffy ski-resort of a kind, Chris thought, for day trips only. With the intention of finding accommodation on the road ahead, I phoned some numbers from my list of Gîtes d'étapes, again with no luck whatsoever. We left Hauteville-Lompnes with another pass in front of us, le col de la Brède at 915m. This was not too arduous coming from the high side and the descent was good and fast, with no tight bends. About a third of the way down I saw a hotel sign on the right side of the road, braked and pulled into the car park. We weren't quite on our knees at this point, but it was late afternoon, our first day in the mountains, the menu looked good and the view from the hotel garden, over the valley below and beyond to the high Alps was enticing. We decided to stay the night.

After showering we drank beer on the terrace, which was located on a sort of shelf on the valley side incorporating a small swimming pool and providing the aforementioned view. We resisted the temptation to use the pool as the temperature was falling rapidly as the sun fell below the mountains. I had been looking at the map and was starting to fret slightly over whether we were going to be able to reach Nice in time for our flight home. Partly because of our disorientation out of Bourg-en-Bresse and partly because of the terrain, today had been a poor one in terms of distance covered. I was thinking: no day off in Briançon.

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We ate dinner inside, the food was good and served with a fine attention to detail, but we were only two of four customers. We drank more beer and went to bed.