Monday morning brought some fog and a light drizzle but was hardly a damper on our enthusiasm. After a good breakfast and an introduction to our driver for the week

  ...we loaded our baggage and ourselves aboard our Mercedes coach and took off for a pleasant ride across the hills to the Vallee de Joux

... which runs along the northwestern edge of Switzerland and borders with France.

Here's Ron, riding shotgun and noting some of the topographic features of the Vallee:

Even in the rain the scenery was breathtaking

...and it wasn't long

...before we arrived at the Hotel de la Lande, our home for the next two days.

Enjoying a brief respite from the rain are:

John, Bill, Colin, RJ, Roswitha, Alex, Maureen, Ken, Margarita, Kevin, Julian, Bernie, Nick and Greg

At this point, we split into two groups of 14, the first of which left to tour the Blancpain manufactory up the road in Le Brassus while 'my' group went to visit Master Watchmaker and AHCI member Philippe Dufour (for further reading about Philippe,  see Ron's excellent story and also Peter Chong's wonderful interview.)

Arriving at the Manufactory, Chris shows the effects of jet lag while Jonathan looks the facility over:

As you can see...

 ...this is not what one pictures as the manufacturing facility of one of the planet's finest watchmakers, but we were  greeted enthusiastically at the door by M. Dufour himself .

The shotgun just inside the door, noticed by Peter Chong during his visit...

...is explained by the fact that our host is also the local game warden (whew!); having been born here in Le Sentier, M. Dufour maintains close ties to his village.