Romandie

Our personal travel and photo guide for Switzerland

After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Congress of Vienna formed Switzerland as a new neutral federal republic in its current size in 1815 and included the Romandie with its French language. Check out this 350 km journey from Geneva to Jura which includes our personal travel highlights:

Lake Gruyere

Geneva is the second-most populous city of Switzerland. One great place to visit is the old town or “Vieille Ville” around the St. Pierre Cathedral with lovely little streets and picturesque squares. This is also the birth place of the Romandie which is the protestant part of french speaking Switzerland and includes the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Jura.

The cathedral is very impressive. Originally built as a Roman Catholic cathedral, John Calvin, the Protestant Reformer, turned it into a protestant church. There are 157 steps to the top of the tower from where you can enjoy a fantastic view of the city and to the lake with the 140m high water jet. Just behind the 'Jet d'Eau' on the right side is the municipality of Cologny with the most expensive real estate in Switzerland.

Geneva doesn't give off a typical „Swiss“ feeling – this is because it's an international business and financial centre - actually the fifth biggest in Europe after London, Zurich, Frankfurt and Luxembourg and there are also many international organisation's headquarters such as the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Driving along the lake, the landscape and views across to the Alps are really spectacular and certainly among the prettiest places to own a house - many famous people live and have lived here. Less populated is the beautiful wine area of Lavaux between Lausanne and Vevey - also called the “Swiss Riviera”. We took this picture of our Mini on the road „Corniche de Lavaux” and ended the drive at the Restaurant Le Deck at the hotel Le Baron Tavernier - a relaxed spot for a drink and some snacks with more great views.

We chose the Hotel Le Mirador for the night. Sipping a glass of wine and watching the sunset here was a very special treat which we can highly recommend. From here it's only a short drive to the lookout tower of Mont Pélerin with a great view across the lake and Alps.

At the end of the lake you will find the most beautiful and famous castle of Switzerland: Château Chillon. This picture was taken as a long exposure shot and the arriving cruise boat shows an interesting dynamic versus the smooth water. But beware of thieves – don’t leave valuables or belongings you care about in your car. Our window was smashed and a suitcase was stolen in the middle of the day on a public parking lot.

Chillon is very close to another interesting town: Montreux with it‘s popular Jazz festival. This is where one of the most iconic rock songs was written - Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water. You can read the story of the song here:

We all came out to Montreux On the Lake Geneva shoreline To make records with a mobile We didn’t have much time Frank Zappa and the Mothers Were at the best place around But some stupid with a flare gun Burned the place to the ground

Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky

At the end of the lake just where the Valais valley starts is another beautiful wine area: Aigle with an historic town with a French flair and a lovely castle and wine museum.

From here a mountain road starts towards Leysin - a Swiss alpine resort village with some beautiful buildings. You can take a ride up to the top of La Berneuse for spectacular alpine views across the Rhône Valley and the lake.

For our next highlight, you can take the side road towards Château-d'Oex - the balloon capital of Switzerland. Since 1979, once a year in January at the International Balloon Festival, pilots from all around the world gather here and nearly a hundred hot air balloons take part in a 9-day festival. It was from here in 1999 the two adventurers, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, set off for the first flight around the world in a hot air balloon - non-stop without the use of any fuel! After maneuvering into a series of jet streams it took them 20 days to fly 40,814 km. Simply an unbelievable achievement!

Further north of Château-d'Oex is another popular spot to visit: Gruyère. Famous for it's idyllic town with a castle and because of it‘s cheese. There's a good cheese dairy called La Maison du Gruyère where you can watch the cheese making process live. There's also a window to a room where hundreds of big cheese wheels are stored.

The beautiful mountain in the background is called Le Moléson. You can get to the top by train and cable car and enjoy a great view of the valley, the Alps and as far as Lake Geneva.

Our journey continued further north along a far less travelled route and off the main highways to Romont. Look at the fantastic location of this town with so much charm! The city was built around 1240 by the Count of Savoy - Peter II. He used Château Chillon as his summer residence from where he built up his Savoyen empire.

The House of Savoy steadily increased their power over almost 1000 years which ended with Umberto II, King of Italy in 1946. Around 1250 their power was under threat when they were in conflict with the Habsburg empire and for a short time even lost Chillon. But Peter II just about managed to stay in power and the border of their territory remained around Fribourg. This is the reason why the French-Swiss German language border of Switzerland is still in place. Across the river and opposite the old town you can climb a hill and enjoy this good view of the spectacular setting of Fribourg.

Moving along the language border to the north are two interesting places. Avenches with it’s medieval town on top of a hill called Aventicum which was already a Roman settlement. This was the largest town and also the capital of the Roman Switzerland (Helvetia). Our beloved dog Mungo certainly loved this place when he was alive.

The other one is Murten. This is one of the prettiest cities in Switzerland and we highly recommend the annual light festival around the end of January which is absolutely stunning, or if you are there in summer – a cool drink at the lake. The spoken language in Murten is Swiss German but just across the idyllic lake you will hear French again.

Our next stop is just 30 minutes further north in Neuchâtel next to the lake Neuchâtel at the foot of the Jura mountain range. In summer, you can swim, sail, paddle-ski, kayak etc. and then enjoy great food and wine in the hills. An excursion to the hilly region of Jura, especially to Creux du Van, the Areuse gorge and to the Saut du Doubs waterfall are a must-do.

In the north-west of Switzerland lies the canton Jura which was created as a carve-out from the canton Bern in 1979. Hidden behind the Jura mountains and off the beaten track lies the small medieval town of Saint-Ursanne - the pearl of the Jura - with a lovely setting by the river Doubs.

There are of course many more interesting places to visit in this area but this selection offers a diverse trip through some of the most beautiful places in Switzerland.

Our other published locations cover the following areas (with links):

Part 1: Berner Oberland

Part 2: Jura

Part 3: Lake Luzern

Part 4: Engadin

Part 5: Appenzell

Part 6: Aargau

Part 7: Emmental

Part 8: Romandie

Part 9: Valais

Part 10: Uri, Schwyz, Glarus

Part 11: Rhein

Part 12: Zürich

"One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name"

(The Call - Thomas Osbert Morsdaunt, 1730-1809)

Travel blog and travel guide by Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker

© Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker

#Switzerland