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Assuming that you have just had a couple of days of indolence in Montreux, it wouldn't do to start too quickly, so this, although admittedly not short, is a relatively easy day.

Walk around the shores of Lac Léman, cross the Rhône, then turn south and climb back once again into the mountains. Your goal for the day, the Lac de Taney, is a lovely Alpine lake nestled among ridges and peaks.

But although physically this is not a difficult hike, psychologically it will be perhaps the most challenging day of the H2H. For one thing, it will be hard to renounce the newly rediscovered comforts of sedentary life for the stresses and rigors of mountain trails. For another, ahead is what feels like -- at least to me -- the longest part of the H2H: 34 stages down through the French Alps to the Mediterranean.

It only took 19 stages to cross Switzerland... dauntingly, it is almost twice as far to Monaco. The temptation to just take a train there... or even all the way to St.-Rémy!... will be, I suspect, very high.

Route
Walk south along the shores of the lake from Montreux through Territet, Grandchamp, Villeneuve, Les Grangettes, La Praille, Chaux Rossa, and, after crossing the Rhône, to Bouveret. From there take a zig-zag path, climbing at times steeply, up past Chalavornaire (1111m) to Lac de Taney.

Alternatives: there are various places along the lake where you can catch either buses or trains to get to Bouveret... but why would you want to? The lake-side walk is the easy part....
Maps: ST-262T Rochers de Naye, ST-272T St. Maurice.

Journal
The House to House blog... stage 41.

Photos
<A couple of representative photos from this stage will be added here after the hike>
In the meantime, click here to go to all of the H2H photos on Flickr.

GPS Track
<To be added during or after hike>

Room and Board Options
Lunch: eat in Bouveret. Note that the next few stages (until Stage 46 to Samoëns) for the most part stay away from villages and towns... and thus are quite possibly devoid of shops. Moreover most days there are also no convenient restaurants at which to eat lunch... so you'll be relying uponwhat you carry with you. With this in mind, before you leave Montreux remember to stock up on provisions sufficient for five or six picnic lunches.
Dinner and overnight: the only to places to stay and eat at Lac de Taney are L'Auberge-Refuge du Grammont (+41-(0)24481/1183, with many private rooms and 51 places in bunkrooms), and Chez Nicole (+41-(0)24481/1480, with 7 beds in 3 rooms and 29 places in bunkrooms).

Getting There and Back
Montreux: there is a railway station here (for train schedule information, see the SBB).
Lac de Taney: walk 2km southeast from the lake down to the hamlet of Le Flon (1049m). There you can catch a very infrequent bus to Vouvry, from which you can catch another bus to Villeneuve (just south of Montreux), which has a railway station. Somewhat surprisingly, this will usually take less than an hour once you get to Le Flon. For schedule information for both buses and trains, see the SBB.
ViaMichelin Road Map and Driving Directions: centered on Montreux, centered on Lac de Taney (note: Michelin calls it just "Tanay").

Background Information and Links
Many and various...

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