Lausanne Travel Guide

Every good city has a rival. London vs. Manchester; Montreal vs. Toronto, Tokyo vs. Osaka; its universal. In Switzerland, the main rivalry is between Geneva—French-speaking, open-minded, worldly-and Zurich, German-speaking, orderly, conservative. But even within these rivalries, there are mini-battles going on, as cities, often located very near each other, battle one another for the lucrative tourist dollar, superiority on the football pitch or hockey rink, the staging of high-profile concerts, exhibitions, and so on. Lausanne is no exception. In order to reach here, you have to land at Geneva airport as there is none in Lausanne, making big, rich Geneva rival number one. And if you want to ski in the Swiss Alps, you have to pass through Lausanne to get to famous resorts like Gstaad, Zermatt or Villars, but you sure don't have to stop here. This makes the skiing industry rival number two.

So, in order for Lausanne to establish itself as a first-class city to visit, it has turned to the arts. For a small city of 125,000 people, it has a world-class opera (Opéra de Lausanne), ballet, chambre orchestra (Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne) and more museums and theatres per capita than just about anywhere else on earth (Musée Olympique, Musée de Design et d'Arts Appliqués Contemporains, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts and Fondation Claude Verdan). This is a city that insists on constant entertainment: Summer festivals, (Le Festival de la Cité, Montreux Jazz Festival and Ouchy Jazz); cool outdoor cinemas (Orange Cinema) and impressive indoor cinemas (Cine Qua Non); street performances; twice-weekly markets (Marché du centre and the Marché aux puces—flea market); free concerts in ancient churches (Cathédrale de Lausanne, St-François Church), choirs, jazz clubs (L'Arlov Jazz or VO), free-for-all concerts in tiny cafés (Le Café de Montelly or Le Café de l'Hôtel de Ville). In short, name it and you can find it in Lausanne.

Added to this mix are awfully funky cafés, some of which showcase trendy bands (Bleu Lézard), others are in prime people-watching locations (Nyffenegger, Le Café Romand; high-quality restaurants (Ma Jong); and a surprisingly hip youth culture with very plugged in clubs such as MAD.

Lausanne really is a city of the arts. You actually find harp players serenading you in Place de la Palud and if that is not a city of class, what is? Not Geneva, say the Lausannoise, and certainly not Villars!2008-08-02T07:29:22.000 126