Lausanne

Lausanne is built on three hills falling to Lake Geneva, and the gradients are serious enough that the city runs Switzerland’s only metro — a driverless line that climbs 370 m from the lakeshore to the northern edge and is, in places, closer to a funicular than an underground.

It is a university town, the fourth city of Switzerland, and the seat of the International Olympic Committee, which has been here since 1915.

The cathedral

Notre-Dame de Lausanne is the most important Gothic building in Switzerland, consecrated in 1275 in the presence of a pope and an emperor. The painted portal, restored to its medieval colours, gives some idea of how these buildings actually looked before the Reformation stripped them.

The thing to know: the night watch still calls the hours. Every night between ten and two, a watchman climbs the tower and calls out the time to each of the four points of the compass — “C’est le guet; il a sonné dix” — a duty performed without interruption since 1405. It is one of the oldest continuously observed customs in Europe, and you can stand in the square and hear it.

The tower is 232 steps and gives the lake and the Alps of Savoy.

The old town

Steep, medieval and student-heavy: the Escaliers du Marché, a covered wooden stair running up to the cathedral, the Place de la Palud with its painted town hall and a clock whose figures parade on the hour, and a food market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

Ouchy and the lake

Down at the water, Ouchy is the lakefront quarter: a promenade of plane trees, boats to Évian in France and along the shore to Montreux and Vevey, and the château where Byron wrote The Prisoner of Chillon over two days while sheltering from the rain.

The metro connects it to the centre in seven minutes, which saves a stiff climb.

The museums

The Olympic Museum at Ouchy is the obvious one and better than expected — the torches, the medals, the history, and a park of sculpture running down to the water.

Collection de l’Art Brut is the one worth going out of your way for: Jean Dubuffet’s collection of art made by people outside the art world entirely — psychiatric patients, prisoners, mediums, recluses. There is nothing else like it, and it is unsettling in the way it is meant to be.

Plateforme 10, beside the station, gathers three museums — fine art, design and photography — into one new complex.

Getting there

• By train — Geneva 35 minutes, Bern an hour and ten, Zurich about two hours ten.
• By boat — the lake steamers from Geneva, Montreux and Évian call at Ouchy.
• The metro runs from the station down to Ouchy and up to the northern suburbs; it is included in city tickets, and Lausanne hotels give guests a free transport card.

Nearby

• Lavaux — the vineyard terraces begin at the eastern edge of the city
• Vevey and Montreux — 20 and 30 minutes along the shore
• Évian and Yvoire — across the water in France, by boat

When to go

April to October for the lake. The city works year-round otherwise, and being a university town it does not empty in the way resorts do. The Fête du Blé et du Pain and the Lausanne Marathon fill particular weekends; the night watch calls every night regardless.