The best city hikes and walks in the Vaud

Especially beautiful in spring with the tulips.

Beautiful view of the Jura as well.

The Casino de Morges, located on the promenade along Lake Geneva, is first and foremost a renowned restaurant, but it is also a perfect place to have a coffee or an aperitif. Its terrace offers a magnificent view of the lake and the landing stage, ideal for relaxing while enjoying the elegance of the setting.

People come here for the pier to Montreux or Lausanne, for the swans and the pedalos, for the magnificent private mansion which has just been tastefully renovated, but especially for the grenette and its folk market on Saturdays in July-August, where you buy your glass and then fill it and empty it as many times as you want between 10am and 1pm, in the atmosphere of music and folk costumes!

Clean and tidy "à la suisse", in good taste and inspiring respect and serenity, Swiss public buildings reassure and invite a healthy conviviality which never excludes, on the Vaudois side, the pleasures of the table and especially good wine!

Fountain, place de la Palud – Lausanne Fountain, place de la Palud The column and statue were created in 1584-85 by Laurent Perroud of Neuchâtel and his son Jacques, the former having died before its completion. Laurent Perroud built several fountains throughout western Switzerland. He has notably depicted the judiciary in Neuchâtel, Soleure and Moudon. The fountain in Lausanne depicts the typical blindfolded young woman carrying a sword and scales. The Pope, the Emperor, the Grand Turk and a magistrate bow submissively at her feet. The ornamental central stack features a circular base with sculpted archways surmounted by a ribbed column decorated with acanthus leaves, city coats of arms and a garland held by four muffles. A capital decorated with acanthus leaves and volutes crowns the column. The stack and the column are copies created in 1930; the originals are in the Lausanne History Museum. The magnificent spouts date from 1557-59 and the twelve-sided basin was built in 1726. Text / Source: Lausanne Tourisme – administration, Avenue de Rhodanie 2, Lausanne https://www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/explore/fountain-place-de-la-palud/

Ouchy and its lakeside promenade, Lausanne Life feels wonderfully carefree on the Ouchy lakeside promenade. The vastness of the lake, the spaciousness of the boulevards, the calming green of the park areas and the majestic aura of the stately buildings. Just a short trip down from the train station on the vertical metro – and you are right in the middle of this splendor. Text / Source: https://www.myswitzerland.com/de/erlebnisse/ouchy-und-seine-seepromenade/ https://www.myswitzerland.com/de/erlebnisse/ouchy-und-seine-seepromenade/

Lausanne City Hall (Hôtel de Ville de Lausanne) The imposing City Hall, overlooking the picturesque Place de la Palud from its bell tower, still houses the city administration today. The Lausanne architect Abraham de Crousaz built it between 1673 and 1675 on the foundations of the existing hotels. As an important center of life in Lausanne, it combined several functions: as a political center, it served as both the seat and a symbol of civic power; it was an economic center, housing the wheat market in its ground-floor halls; and it served as a defensive structure, with the bells in its bell tower warning of danger. The City Hall, much admired since its construction, is the most interesting achievement of 17th-century Vaudois architecture. Its main façade features a particularly subtle composition. While the alignment of the bays and their cornices creates a striking and explicit horizontal effect, the vertical axis, defined by the sculptural portal and the tower, is implicitly reinforced by the rhythm of the windows, which become increasingly closer together as they approach the center, and by the rhythm of the arcades, which become progressively narrower. The roof, on the other hand, echoes the aesthetics of regional farmhouses in its form, completing an original silhouette with a provincial touch. Text / Source: City of Lausanne, Department of Architecture and Housing, Department of Housing, Environment and Architecture, Rue du Port-Franc, 182nd floor, Lausanne https://www.lausanne.ch/portrait/carte-identite/architecture-et-monuments/patrimoine-architectural/ancien-regime/hotel-de-ville