ENGLISH
SUMMER/AUTUMN 2022 - N° 9
NICE TO MEE T YOU
SPORT IN THE CITY The best tips of Romane Favia, world champion in rollerblading. Page 50
SPORTS GUIDE
Whether biking, running or paddling, Lausanne makes the perfect playground for urban and water activities. Page 40
PLATEFORME 10: OPENING SOON! Page 6
NICOLAS BIDEAU MANAGES SWITZERLAND’S IMAGE Page 34
All the details you need for watching or playing sport
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND IN THE CITY CENTRE Page 52
NICE TO MEE T YOU EDITORIAL
Lausanne is in motion!
With slopes for rollerblading, wide-open green spaces for running, exciting elevations for cyclists and a lake for enjoying a whole host of water sports and activities, if you had to design the perfect city for sport, you’d probably end up with one a lot like Lausanne. Home to the IOC headquarters for over a century, the Olympic Capital has successfully taken sport out of the stadiums and into the streets. It has increased its visibility with major events like Athletissima and the Lausanne Marathon, and made it accessible with a number of public facilities, reflecting the concept of “together” even before the word’s recent addition to the “Faster, Higher, Stronger” Olympic motto. As Lausanne is currently preparing to host a stage of the Tour de France, we’re dedicating this issue’s feature piece to the top sporting event (p. 40). Lausanne’s cultural scene is also taking off. Primed and ready in the starting blocks is Plateforme 10, which will fully open on 18 June after six years of work. This new arts district is home to the canton’s fine art, design and photography museums, a café and two restaurants, and is all set to swiftly climb the leaderboard to sit alongside some of the country’s top cultural institutions (p. 6).
In this issue, we’re also inviting you to dive into the day-to-day of Nicolas Bideau, the head of Presence Switzerland, who has been passionately polishing up our international reputation for the past 11 years (p. 34), take a closer look at painter Romane de Watteville’s successful launch into the art world (p. 22) and find out more about the 18th-century rivalry between the Bandits of Jorat to the north of the city, and the Pirates of Ouchy to the south (p. 18). The Lausanner will also be guiding you through the city streets on a hunt for the aliens left here by the famous street artist Invader (p. 52). Why not pop into one of the new businesses we’ll be introducing you to in this issue while you’re at it…? On your marks…get set…let’s go! 1
ARCHIVES From 1920 until 2018, the Comptoir Suisse filled the city with fun exhibits and activities for about ten days every September. The trade fair, created to boost consumption after the First World War, took place at the Palais de Beaulieu and was a chance for the public to discover the very latest in home appliances, everyday products, crafts and agricultural advances. In this image from the 1933 edition, the Persil washing powder brand boasts its merits with an advertising parade in front of the main entrance to the event.
IMPRESSUM
The Lausanner, a tourist welcome and information magazine about life in Lausanne
Image search: Sabrine Élias, Large Network
Direction: Steeve Pasche
Advertising: Michel Chevallaz +41 79 213 53 15
Editorial: Lausanne Tourisme
Cover: Romane Favia photographed by Nicolas Schopfer
Editorial production: Large Network
Printing: Gremper SA, Basel Available in French and English
Graphics: Saentys
Writing, administration and announcements: Lausanne Tourisme Av. de Rhodanie 2 Case postale 975 CH-1001 Lausanne +41 21 613 73 73 www.lausanne-tourisme.ch e-mail: direction@lausanne-tourisme.ch
Editorial Manager: Trinidad Barleycorn, Large Network
Production: Nathalie Roux/Marie-Laure Beausoleil
Writing: Trinidad Barleycorn, Delphine Bordier, Erik Freudenreich, Laurent Grabet, Adrien Kuenzy, Léo Michoud, Antonio Rosati, Adriana Stimoli
Photography: ACV PP 966/312/9 Coopérative du Comptoir suisse © MCH Beaulieu Lausanne SA (p. 2) – François Wavre/Lundi13 (p. 5, 24, 34, 42) – Matthieu Gafsou (p. 6) – Dominik Gehl (p. 10) – Schweiz Tourismus/Colin Frei (p. 12) – Cocktail Sandwich (p. 13) – Sole Savaz (p. 13) – DR (p. 14, 23, 28) – Gabrielle Besenval (p. 14) – Trinidad Barleycorn (p. 15, 53-54) – Aurélien Barrelet/Large Network (p. 16, 40-49) – Archives cantonales vaudoises, PP 886 A 5264, ©Edipresse-Luy (p. 18-19) – Léo Michoud (p. 21) – Romane de Watteville (p. 22) – Thea Moser (p. 26) – Patrick Fouque/Paris Match (p. 27) – Image Press Agency/Alamy Stock Photo (p. 27) – Cyril Zingaro/Keystone (p. 27) – Cécile Gretsch/Saentys (p. 29, 30, 52) – Do Not Feed the Pigeons (2021), Antonin Niclass, National Film & Television School (p. 29) – Akvile Sileikaite (p. 29) – Maxime Genoud (p.30-31) – www.sebastiencrettaz.com (p. 36) – JeanChristophe Bott/Keystone (p. 38) – PPR Media Relation AG (p. 43) – Maude Rion (p. 45) – CIO/Lydie Nesvadba (p. 46) – Nicolas Schopfer (p. 50) © Photos Lausanne Tourisme – LT/Laurent Kaczor (p. 59, 60, 61, 63, 65, 68, 69, 73, 77, 80) – LT/diapo.ch (p. 59, 60, 67, 68, 69, 72, 73, 74, 80) – Schweiz Tourismus/Giglio Pasqua (p. 60, 65) – P. Waterton (p. 65, 76) – LT/Maxime Genoud (p. 61) – Christoph Schuerpf (p. 61) – Catherine Leutenegger Photography (p. 61) – Switzerland Tourism/Andre Meier (p. 63, 68) – CIO/ Lydie Nesvadba (p. 65) – William Gammuto sarl (p. 67) – Sarah Jacquemet (p. 69) – LT/Julien Dorol (p. 69, 79) – Swizterland Tourism/Lorenz Richard (p. 73) – F. Beaud-Cedotec (p. 73) – Giulia Cremonese (p. 78).
With the support of
2
Cinq weekends gratuits et festifs autour de cinq parcs lausannois 2022
15 ------- 16.07 22 ------ 23.07 29.07 --- 1.08 5 --------- 6.08 12 ------- 13.08
Parc de Valency Parc de l’Hermitage Parc de l’Horloge fleurie Parc de Mon Repos Parc du Loup
gardenpartieslausanne.ch
The Enjoy Lausanne prepaid card !
10%
bonus*
300+ shops
Save money and enjoy the diversity of Lausanne’s shops by paying with the Enjoy Lausanne card ! Support the shopkeeper of Lausanne and benefit from a 10% bonus in more than 300 shops *with the Enjoy Lausanne card on www.enjoylausanne.ch @enjoylausanne
CONTENTS SUMMER/AUTUMN 2022 - N° 9
TALK OF THE TOWN D-Day for the Plateforme 10 cultural hub Page 6
LAUSANNE IN MOTION Top new spots Page 13
Comic collectors assemble! Page 15
A city of bandits and pirates Page 18
BEHIND THE SCENES The linesmen looking after the city’s trolleybuses
INTERVIEW Head of Presence Switzerland, Nicolas Bideau “lives and eats Lausanne” Page 34
Page 24
LAUSANNE: A CHAMPION OF URBAN SPORTS From rollerblading to cycling, running and water sports, the Olympic Capital never stands still! Page 40
OUTING Close encounters of the third kind in the city centre
MUST-VISITS Lausanne locales that are not to be missed
Page 52
Page 58
5
PLATEFORME 10: TRANSFORMING THE CITY WITH CULTURE
Designed by Portuguese architects Aires Mateus e Associados, the sleek new building housing Photo Élysée (first floor) and mudac (second floor) will give both museums double their previous exhibition space.
6
TA L K O F T H E TOW N
The Plateforme 10 cultural district is opening its doors, paving the way to radical changes in and around the Vaud capital. Erik Freudenreich
A mix of “elation and impatience” is currently driving the Plateforme 10 team, who are now on the home straight in the lead-up to the official opening of Lausanne’s new museum hub. This launch signals the culmination of several decades of talks and almost six years of work to bring this new city-centre cultural space to life. The idea for the Plateforme 10 complex was to combine Lausanne’s fine arts, photography, textiles and design museums on a single site, along with two restaurants, a café and a dozen or so arcades filled with shops, exhibition spaces and resident craftspeople. The concept is not dissimilar to Berlin’s Museum Island or Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier, albeit on a smaller scale (although it does still span over 25,000 m2).
When it comes to Switzerland and the rest of Europe though, this is the only project of its kind, with the development of the museum hub going hand-in-hand with the construction of the new Rasude residential area (on which work is scheduled to begin by 2025) and grand plans for transforming Lausanne station, which will continue until 2032.
These works are set to radically change the appearance of the Vaud capital. “Developing a new district right in the heart of the city – especially with a predominantly cultural focus – is quite unusual”, says Plateforme 10 director Patrick Gyger, “nevertheless, this launch is only just the start of the adventure.”
NEW PARTNERSHIPS
The coming together of the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts (MCBA), the Photo Élysée Museum for Photography, and the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (mudac) on a single site is expected to pave the way for brand-new arts partnerships. “We are brimming with ideas for building bridges between the three museums – for example, adding pieces here and there to remind visitors of exhibitions or talks”, says mudac director Chantal Prod’Hom. “Our equipment – spotlights, moveable display walls and so on – is consistent across all three museums too, which will also help with the crossover.” →
7
TA L K O F T H E TOW N
“The three institutions will operate separately, but we are aiming to establish a strong dialogue between them so we can create exhibitions that complement one another”, says Patrick Gyger. “This seemed particularly logical given how museums are now becoming social agents, and beginning to address public issues such as the green transition.”
It also created the optimum conditions for conserving MCBA’s 10,000-strong collection, which includes the largest public body of work by the iconic Vaud artist Félix Vallotton in existence. In the second building you’ll find both Photo Élysée, previously housed in a mansion, and mudac which used to be at Maison Gaudard, at the foot of the Cathedral. The two museums now share a home designed by Portuguese artists Francisco and Manuel Aires Mateus.
Creating zero-impact transport options and multiple green spaces (spanning over 4,700 m2) was an important part of the arts district’s design. It can be reached on foot from Lausanne train station in less than three minutes: perfect for squeezing in a visit before heading off elsewhere, or organising stress-free trips into town. The greenway running across the site also creates a brand-new route through the city and makes it easy to get there by bike: just head through the arcades and along the tree-lined pathway all the way to the main esplanade. There are also several reminders of the location’s railway history incorporated into the site, such as a section of the façade of the former rail yard and train repair hall, and the metallic ‘Crocodile’ sculpture inspired by the famous train of the same name.
“We are aiming to establish strong dialogue between the three institutions.” Patrick Gyger
The Photo Élysée photography museum is on the lower floor. “Visitors will get to explore an impressive exhibition hall, which is split into separate areas for temporary exhibitions and permanent collections”, says Tatyana Franck, the curator of Photo Élysée’s inaugural exhibition and the museum’s former director.
NOT ONE, NOT TWO, BUT THREE MUSEUMS
IN FIGURES
There are two main buildings that make up the Platforme 10 complex. The first was designed by Spanish architects Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga, and has been home to MCBA since late 2019. The bespoke design tripled the museum’s exhibition space, taking it to 3,215 m2.
3,215 m 2
The exhibition space at MCBA (3x the previous space)
(Read more on page 10)
1,520 m² The exhibition space at Photo Élysée
8
1,580 m²
The exhibition space at mudac (double the previous space)
INVITATION TO TRAVEL
The inaugural programme of activities at Plateforme 10 will run from 18 June to 25 September, showcasing artists’ impressions of train travel.
To celebrate the official opening of the new cultural hub, each of the three museums has prepared their own railway-themed exhibition. The occupants of Plateforme 10 are well-placed to cover the topic, given that the site’s name alludes to the tenth “track” it occupies alongside the city’s railway station.
La solitude (Loneliness), painted by Paul Delvaux in 1955, will be one of the pieces displayed in the inaugural exhibition.
a reminder that one of the very first films ever made – by the Lumière brothers back in 1895 – was L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat (Train Pulling into a Station).” Visitors will get to see the film during one of the first of the fifteen “stages” of the exhibition, which look at themes relating to stations, trains, carriages, railways, the journey itself and the life of the railway. Early 20th century posters also feature, as do works by Pablo Picasso and Nan Goldin.
“The idea behind the inaugural programme is to invite visitors on a journey with us”, explains Patrick Gyger, the director of Plateforme 10. “It is a tribute to both Lausanne’s new arts district and the city’s industrial area. Trains are highly evocative too: they call to mind technological progress, starting points and meeting places, nostalgia for bygone eras and visions of what the future may hold...” These images are the inspiration behind the three inaugural exhibitions, collectively entitled “Train.Zug.Treno.Tren” in a nod to the four official languages of Switzerland. Each exhibit approaches the theme through the museum’s preferred medium. “These different approaches also illustrate how we want to make Plateforme 10 somewhere you can come to appreciate art or just to wander: a place for both locals and people passing through to feel welcome and share new experiences.”
Last but not least, mudac brings us Rencontronsnous à la gare (Let’s Meet at the Station). “We wanted to convey how stations have become meeting places, as well as places that fuel people’s imagination as technology progresses and the towns around them develop”, says Chantal Prod’Hom. “Visitors will be able to explore a whole host of works, including posters, ads, video clips and design objects that evoke images of railways from around the world.” The launch event will also provide a platform for the Écouter la Terre (Listening to the Earth) exhibition on the natural world and environmental concerns. According to Chantal Prod’Hom, “this is an opportunity to check out all sorts of new additions to our museum collections, whilst also reflecting on sustainable development, short supply chains, and the material used to make these objects. Around forty largescale pieces will give visitors the chance to think about these issues in very tangible ways.
THREE MUSEUMS, THREE DIFFERENT STORIES
DATES
For the grand opening of Plateforme 10, MCBA has created Voyages imaginaires (Travels in the Mind). It will feature almost 60 works by the likes of Edward Hopper, Paul Delvaux, Leonor Fini and Giorgio de Chirico. Visitors will also get the chance to view the Accusé de peindre (Accused of Painting) retrospective on painter and sketch artist Gustave Buchet, which brings together over 90 of the distinguished Vaud artist’s works and focuses especially on his modernist ambitions.
15-17 June 2022 Official opening and preview 18-19 June 2022 Opens to the public
Photo Élysée’s first exhibition, meanwhile, is Destins croisés (Crossed Destinies). “The name refers to the parallel development of photography, film, and rail travel”, says Tatyana Franck, “and is
18 June – 25 September 2022 “Train.Zug.Treno.Tren” exhibitions
9
TA L K O F T H E TOW N
Within a few years, attendance could rise to 250,000 visitors annually.
Easy access, affordable tickets (including combined admission deals) and a vibrant range of cultural activities are also part of the complex’s appeal. The open days held in November 2021 proved extremely popular, with over 12,000 curious visitors – and from this summer onwards, there are likely to be many more. Until now, the three museums combined have drawn a crowd of 100,000 visitors a year. In a few years’ time, that number could climb to as many as 250,000, making Lausanne’s museums some of the most popular in Switzerland.
“That’s not all: there’s also an outreach space for families, where young (and not-so-young) visitors can find out just how photos are made, all the way from taking to printing the picture. Last but not least, there’s LabÉlysée, a space for digital culture experiments.” Upstairs, you’ll find mudac. Among other things, mudac is home to an extensive collection of modern glass art, as well as contemporary jewellery, ceramics, and a range of other objects: from furniture to lights, utensils, textiles and technology. Up on the roof of the building are gardens, which offer stunning views of the city, Lake Geneva, and the Alps.
During the open days in November 2021, the public got to explore the new building and view Swiss artist Christian Marclay’s brand-new Déballage (Unpacking) installation.
“It goes without saying that we’ll be targeting visitors from outside Swiss Romandy, with a special focus on neighbouring countries when travelling is easier”, says Patrick Gyger, “but that doesn’t mean we’ll be forgetting about visitors from Vaud and the rest of Switzerland. We want the district to be much more than just a tourist attraction: it has to appeal to local people, who will need to make it their own.” ■
10
OPENING HOURS
Monday: 10 am – 6 pm, MCBA closed Tuesday: 10 am – 6 pm, mudac and Photo Élysée closed
PLATEFORME 10
Wednesday: Thursday:
10 am – 6 pm
10 am – 8 pm
Friday-Sunday: 10 am – 6 pm
Lausanne’s new museum hub is home to the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts (MCBA), the Photo Élysée Museum for Photography, and the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (mudac). There are also two restaurants, a café and various outdoor spaces at the site, which is located next to Lausanne train station, as well as the Fondation Toms Pauli and Fondation Félix Vallotton. The first is dedicated to the study and preservation of textile art, with its collections set to feature in both temporary exhibitions at Plateforme 10 and elsewhere. The aim of the second is to develop research projects looking at the Franco-Swiss artist Félix Vallotton (1865- 1925).
CONTACT
+41 21 318 44 00
3
2
Bus stop N°85, 21, 3, 20 1
Montbenon parking → 3
PHOTO É LYSÉ E M USEU M FOR PHOTOG R A PHY
SBB station
2
C A NTON A L M USEU M OF FINE A RTS (MCBA )
↙ m2 metro 1
A RC A DES
Opposite MCBA are fourteen arcades, which are home to several different businesses as well as two restaurants and a café.
MCBA moved to the first Plateforme 10 building, designed by architects Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga, in late 2019. The museum is now home to over 10,000 works of art. mcba.ch
GETTING THERE
On foot
3-minute walk from Lausanne train station
Public transport
Metro: m2 (Lausanne-Gare stop)
Bus: lines 85, 21, 3, 20 (Lausanne-Gare stop)
The photography museum’s collection includes over one million phototypes (positives, negatives, contact sheets and slides), 20,000 photography books, and a number of photo archives. elysee.ch 3
M USEU M OF CONTE MPOR A RY DESIG N A ND A PPLIE D A RTS (M U DAC) Jewellery, graphic art, ceramics and design collections take pride of place at mudac. mudac.ch
Zero-impact transport Footpath and cycle track. Bike racks available on site.
Parking
Montbenon car park is 500 m from the site. Validate your parking ticket at a museum reception desk for reduced rates.
LAUSANNE IN MOTION TIME FOR SUMMER
With the arrival of warmer weather, bars pop up all over the city in any number of unexpected spots. Here are a few to try.
If sipping on a drink al fresco while enjoying the delightful surroundings of the old town sounds good to you, a visit to Les Jardins is a must. Sitting at the foot of the Cathedral’s towering stone walls, the bar – run by the Le Vieux-Lausanne restaurant and Bar Giraf – offers idyllic open-air aperitifs in lush and rather unexpected surroundings. Not far away, peeking out from under the western arch of Pont Bessières, is Les Grandes Roches bar and restaurant. With its large colourful terrace and delicious smells, the place is a must for long summer evenings with friends. Slightly further from the city streets is La Folie Voltaire, a tiny bar that opens for the summer under the chestnut trees in the Parc de Mon-Repos and is famous for its crêpes, artisanal ice creams and open-air music. Then there’s the Café Perché. Run by the team at Nabi (the MCBA restaurant at Plateforme 10), the former refreshments kiosk is tucked away just above the Palais de Beaulieu, offering
Les Grandes Roches terrace unfolds its charm under an arch of the Bessières bridge.
breathtaking views over Lausanne and a creative menu featuring dishes like polenta and almond cake. Down in Sous-Gare, the little old pavilion at the entrance to the Parc de Milan has been home to Le Montriond since 2017, just a stone’s throw from the park’s playground and botanical garden. With a large terrace, a calendar of cultural events and a fun, friendly feel, it’s the perfect place to sample one of the café’s legendary croque-monsieurs.
If you’re keen to get your toes in the water then head lakeside into Ouchy, where the sweeping deck at La Jetée de la Compagnie is a great place for a spot of sunbathing after a dip. In the evenings, the smell of grilled food, cocktails and stunning sunset views set the tone. La Jetée also
hosts yoga classes and concerts all summer long. Next door at Le Minimum, the dress code is kept to a minimum (the logo is a pair of swimming trunks) and maximum R&R is guaranteed, from swimming off the bar’s landing stage to sipping cocktails and enjoying great little dishes.
Not far from the m1 metro, La Galicienne brings the Malley neighbourhood alive. Previously located under the viaduct arches, it moved last summer to larger premises. Now it spans over 1,000m2, filling the space with concerts, dances, comedy gigs, circus acts and sports, including frenzied games of pétanque. It even has a circus big top, which comes in handy for making sure no one has to worry about the weather on their night out!
Find the addresses for all the places mentioned on page 57 Les Jardins vieux-lausanne.ch
Le Montriond lemontriond.ch
La Folie Voltaire folievoltaire.ch
Le Minimum @LeMinimumBar
Les Grandes Roches lesgrandesroches.ch Le Café Perché @lausannecafeperche 12
La Jetée de la Compagnie jeteedelacompagnie.ch La Galicienne lagalicienne.ch
L AUSA N N E I N M OTI O N | TOP NE W SP OTS
CREATIVE CUISINE
A real Aladdin’s cave of creative cookery, Deli Social is a shop, artist’s residence and restaurant all in one. The menu changes with the seasons and showcases regional produce in open and regular sandwiches, cakes and soft drinks, all available to eat in or take away in eco-friendly packaging. With their residency programme, Deli Social hosts young and inspiring chefs who can often be found there serving up pop-up menus for special events. Deli Social Place du Tunnel 11, Lausanne deli.social
Madog, managers Emily Groves’ and Rhys Williams’ dog, makes the occasional appearance to greet customers.
SECOND LIFE
Trainers have the right to a second chance, too. The Sole Savaz shop on Avenue d’Échallens repairs, cleans and transforms your shoes, from the most basic footwear to the trendiest trainers – like the famous Air Force 1. The owners, Tyson Lewis and Olukorede Aiyegbusi, originally from Los Angeles and London, combine mindful consumption with inventiveness, and can bring the best of two models together in a single pair of trainers. How about some Air Max 90s with a Sean Wotherspoon sole…? Sole Savaz Avenue d’Échallens 48, Lausanne solesavaz.com
Artist Tyson Lewis skillfully customises clients’ sneakers.
13
L AUSA N N E I N M OTI O N | TOP NE W SP OTS
A TOUCH OF BAROQUE
Following stores in Nyon and Geneva, a third Baroque & Rococo opened in Lausanne back in September. Founder Anne-Laure Jotti-Arnold loves uncovering rare gems and “love at first sight” pieces for customers seeking quirky, original finds. The store sells candles, jewellery, and antique furniture, as well as niche French and Italian perfumes like Ortigia, a Sicilian brand founded in 2006 that uses the island’s botanicals as a base for many of its all-natural products. Baroque & Rococo Rue Saint-François 5-7, Lausanne baroque-rococo.ch
GLITZ & GLAM
Julien Colas, the owner of Sardine, Étoile Blanche and Bleu Lézard, has just opened Jaja, a new bar plunging customers into the glamorous and glittering world of old-time London. On the ground floor is a lounge area, complete with cocktails prepared by the team from Sardine. There are little sharing plates by chef Alexis Le Tadic too, who won two Michelin stars at La Chèvre d’Or in Eze on the French Riviera. Make your way down into the club for a welcoming, sophisticated atmosphere, with a vaulted stone ceiling and glitter balls overhead. Jaja Rue de la Barre 1, Lausanne jajalausanne.ch
LOCAL PRODUCE
On an inconspicuous street in the heart of Lausanne, a wonderful surprise awaits. Not far from La Riponne, Le Superposé brings you casual vibes, amped up by vintage furnishings, surf and skate paraphernalia on the walls, and a myriad of colours and lights. The glazed entrance to the bar and bistro also opens out onto the very pleasant terrace. On the menu, you’ll find great local beers and generous sharing platters featuring Gruyère Caramel cheese and locally-made terrines and pâtés. Le Superposé also champions local and natural wines, and hosts regular live music nights. Le Superposé Rue Chaucrau 10, Lausanne @SuperposeLausanne 14
L AUSANNE IN MOTION | STREE T INTERVIE W
COMIC COLLECTORS ASSEMBLE!
The Centre BD in Lausanne is already home to the second largest collection of comic books in Europe, and the city is all set to showcase manga and comics twice more this year with the Japan Impact convention (20 and 21 August) and the BD-FIL festival (21 May – 29 October). With these events on the horizon, four comic fans tell us about their favourite shops. Alexandra Kaupp, 21, Swiss Matura student in social health
Isabelle Gondran, 40, graphic designer
“Drawing is my job, so I’ve got a soft spot for comics. I go to Belphégor every couple of months. I love the selection there, and the staff gives really good advice, which means I always strike gold: Peau d’Homme (Man’s Skin) is an example of that. It’s about a woman who puts on a man’s skin so she can go and find out more about men. My budget depends on what I find. I also like comics on social issues, which are becoming more and more common, but right now, I mostly buy comics for our children, and for birthdays.”
“Not only does Tanigami stock an impressive range of manga, but it also has figurines you won’t find anywhere else: they’re extremely detailed, and affordable for me on my student budget. I am based in Jura, and with a friend we come to Lausanne one Saturday a month just for the manga shops. I collect shōjo manga, which are love stories, and he likes shōnen, which are action-based. We also do Cosplay (dressing up as fictional characters – ed.) – my favourite character is Raphtalia – and we go to Japan Impact in Lausanne, Polymanga in Montreux and Fantasy in Basel.”
Belphégor (comic book shop) Boulevard de Grancy 10, Lausanne
Tanigami Bookshop (manga store) Rue du Midi 2, Lausanne
Naïa Posse, 12, school pupil
Fares Meraissia, 26, salesperson
“I love comics – especially ‘Dad’ by Nob – and Payot is my favourite bookshop! I often go there with my mum, who loves reading. I also buy comics and books with my pocket money, or the vouchers I ask for when it’s my birthday. The staff are really knowledgeable, and one, Anna, always recommends stuff I love. When I’m allowed to come into town on my own, I go and read comics in the Children’s Corner. It’s kind of like my second home. I even took my first steps here when I was a baby!”
Payot (bookshop with comic and manga sections) Place Pépinet 4, Lausanne 15
“I started collecting manga and figurines over a year ago when I started earning. I go to Mix-Image once a month to add to my collection – my budget is usually around CHF 200. Manga has been a passion of mine for a long time: I collect the One Piece and Attack on Titan shōnen series. I love the feel of the shop, and the quality and diversity of the range. I can find figurines and certain editions there that I can’t find anywhere else.” Mix-Image (manga specialist) Rue du Petit-Saint-Jean 3, Lausanne
IN THE SHADE OF TOWERING TREES
Showcasing six century-old trees that have marked the history of Lausanne and adorn some of the city’s most breathtaking urban strolls.
1
The Mon-Repos Ginkgo Ginkgo biloba 160 years 25 meters
2
Originally from China, this tree stands in the grounds of the Villa Mon-Repos – home to IOC founder Pierre de Coubertin from 1923 – and was voted Lausanne’s favourite tree in 2016 as part of an exhibition organised by the City Council. The carpet of golden leaves that falls around it every autumn earned it its nickname of “the 40-crown tree”. The Mon-Repos Sequoia Sequoiadendron giganteum 160 years
34 meters
Not far from the ginkgo, this Californian conifer with its fire-resistant bark is one of the city’s biggest sequoias, and was named Lausanne’s third-favourite tree in 2016. Second place went to the towering weeping beech that used to stand in Parc de l’Hermitage, which reached the grand old age of 170 before it was finally beaten by a violent storm on 20 June 2021.
3
The Bois-Genoud English Oak Quercus robur
500 years 18 meters
Although hollow now, this magnificent specimen wears its five centuries well, overlooking the terrace of the Castel de Bois Genoud restaurant. It is the only remaining survivor of four oaks that were left standing when a Parisian landscaper – the same one who created the Parc de Mon-Repos – redesigned the Bois-Genoud grounds in the 18th century.
Sources: Michaël Rosselet, tree warden of the City of Lausanne’s Parks Service | Infography: A. Barrelet/Large Network
N MALLEY
3
O
LE FLON
The Bon-Abri Large-Leaved Lime Tilia platyphyllos 260 years
E
6
5
16 meters
Head down the Chemin du Languedoc and you’ll find a little square with a bench in it that makes a rather irresistible spot for a sit-down. It enjoys breath-taking views across the Sous-Gare neighbourhood and Lake Geneva, and is shaded by this lovely linden tree, which was reinforced with an exoskeleton in 2020 to support its now-hollow trunk.
5
S The Haldimand Tower Hornbeam Carpinus betulus 200 years
6
2
GARE CFF
4
OUCHY
4
1
15 meters
Located in the Parc du Denantou, this tree looks out over the Thai Pavilion gifted to the city in 2006 by the late H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who lived in Lausanne from 1933 to 1951. To its west is the Denantou Cedar, a venerable 250-year-old tree that is 18 meters tall and the survivor of a lightning strike. The La Vaudoise Cedar Cedrus libani 160 years
25 meters
Planted in the 19th century on what was private property at the time, the city’s first four Lebanese cedars are what gave the Campagne des Cèdres university campus its name. The beautiful Vaudoise Assurances headquarters, designed by Jean Tschumi and dating back to 1956, are built around one of those very trees, which has since been christened the La Vaudoise Cedar.
Find out more about other great trees on:
L AUSA N N E I N M OTI O N | HIS TORY
BANDITS AND PIRATES HEADTO-HEAD IN LAUSANNE
Two fun-loving local gangs are coming head-to-head right here in the city, carrying on a centuries-old tradition. We take a look at its history.
Here’s a fun fact for you: Lausanne is a city of pirates and bandits. A boundary stone at the bottom of Rue du Bugnon marks the border of the two groups’ territories: the south belongs to the Pirates of Ouchy, and the north to the Bandits of Jorat.
The Bandits have been keeping the traditions of Jorat alive since 1971, and helping visitors discover the treasures of the largest forested area in Switzerland.
Both bands are listed as “living traditions of the canton of Vaud”, and their histories are truly spine-chilling. Throughout the Middle Ages and right up until the 18th century, the local bandits robbed anyone who had the misfortune to go near “their” Jorat woods, and never thought twice about doing them in with their customary cudgels. All were from poor local communities, and all swore an oath to the devil. Between 1702 and 1705, a bloody crackdown put an end to the terror – some of the bandits were even subjected to the torturous breaking wheel.
At the far end of Jorat in Thierrens, three educational trails offer a great way to explore the “Bois des Brigands” or “Bandits’ Woods”, which remain the largest forested area in Switzerland to this day. From the Chalet-à-Gobet side, getting to know the area by exploring the “Bandit Brotherhood Treasure Hunt” (“chasse au trésor des Frères Brigands”) on foot or by bike makes another excellent excuse for a family day out.
Self-styled “terroirists” In 1971, a new outfit of bandits surfaced. But what exactly drives these self-styled mischief-making environmental activists, who go by the motto “have fun, but do good”? “We’re all about preserving Jorat’s beautiful forests, villages, and traditions”, explains their captain, PierreAndré Jordan. “There are about sixty of us in the group, and you can only join if you’re invited by a member. We meet once a month for a meal in a secret location, and once by candlelight at the foot of the Borne des Trois Jorats boundary stone. We also kidnap around a dozen people a year – just to keep our hand in!” Vaud politician Jacqueline de Quattro and federal councillor Ueli Maurer have both been willing victims of this villainy. The bandits have also been making ‘Brigand de Jorat’, an aged cheese washed in local raisinée syrup, in Saint-Cierges since 2009.
Not just a boat: a little piece of history Similarly, the Fellowship of the Pirates of Ouchy are not the scoundrels who ravaged the fishing and cargo ships using the city’s infamous harbour in the 18th century. Today, their main focus is overseeing La Vaudoise, a lateen-rigged sailing boat built in 1932 that was the last of its kind to carry goods across Lake Geneva.
The Fellowship has 430 members, and (like the Bandits of Jorat) is a male-only outfit. Founded in 1934, it handles La Vaudoise’s maintenance and conservation, ensuring its seaworthiness and carrying on the traditions of Lake Geneva’s bygone boat masters – known as bacounis – such as forming crews with criées, or auction-type events. A listed historic monument for both Vaud
18
L AUSA N N E I N M OTI O N | HIS TORY
and Lake Geneva, the 22.65-metre-long rig will be 90 years old this summer. You’ll find it out on the water almost every day from May to September, crewed by a team of eight volunteers and with a maximum capacity of 35 passengers. It also runs thirteen 2.5-hour cruises each summer, complete with a meal served on board (CHF 80 per person, wine not included. Ages 8-14: CHF 30). Outside of these dates, the boat is also available for private hire as a party venue - the average price is around CHF 1,200 (crew and catering costs not included).
THE SUPREME COURT’S HEADQUARTERS
The Federal Supreme Court – Switzerland’s highest court of justice – is the work of Alphonse Laverrière, who was also the architect behind the Bel-Air Tower. The impressive Supreme Court (SC), as upstanding as the law itself at the top of its grand stairway, has dominated the peaceful landscape of the Parc de Mon-Repos since 1927. The imposing building was designed to provide a spacious home for the higher court, which had previously been hemmed in by the Palais de Justice in Montbenon. In the basement are the archives, a listed Swiss heritage site, which document all the judgements handed down since 1875, when the Swiss Federal Assembly chose Lausanne over Berne, Aarau, Neuchâtel, Basel, Soleure and Lucerne as the new home for the SC.
“This vessel is part and parcel of Switzerland’s intangible cultural heritage”, says the Fellowship’s main man, Gérald Hagenlocher. “It is also the Flagship Vessel of the Free and Independent City of Ouchy’s Defence Fleet: a roguish relic that keeps the rebellious, libertarian spirit of Ouchy alive, even though the village itself officially ceased to exist in 1798 when it was annexed to Lausanne.” lesfreresbrigands.ch | brigands.ch lavaudoise.com
Guided tours are offered to anyone (upon registration) wishing to explore the seven courts of justice, embellished ceilings and marble walkways. That being said, the exterior alone is well worth a visit. The neoclassical design is the work of Alphonse Laverrière (to whom we also owe the Bel-Air Tower, the Bois-de-Vaux cemetery and the railway station’s facade), Louis-Ernest Prince and Jean Béguin. Together, they created deliberately grandiose and intimidating headquarters for the SC, complete with 15-metre-high Corinthian columns and colossal wings. Two other, less noticeable units were opened in 2000. The Latin words lex, justitia and pax (law, justice, peace) are inscribed on the pediment, reminding onlookers of the SC’s mission: to ensure the consistent application of federal law across the 26 cantons. There are 38 justices serving, 16 of which are currently women, who between them rule on 8,000 cases a year. Elected by the Swiss Parliament for a 6-year term of office (which can be renewed until the age of 68), they are supported by 19 deputy judges, 150 clerks, and around 200 additional members of staff.
In Ouchy, the Pirates continue the customs of Lake Geneva’s boat masters and oversee La Vaudoise, a vessel dating all the way back to 1932.
bger.ch 19
Gustave Buchet, Composition. Dynamisme, 1927, oil on canvas, 160 × 130 cm. Private collection, Geneva. © 2022 Gustave Buchet. Familles Bron Bersier Biber. Photo : Étienne Malapert
MUSÉE CANTONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS LAUSANNE Gustave Buchet. Accusé de peindre
18.6.2022– 25.9.2022
mcba.ch
LE BARBARE IS BACK
Anouk Senff, the new manager at Le Barbare.
After years of slumber, Le Barbare reopened in late November 2021. Now, Anouk Senff and her team are breathing new life into it – making sure to honour its history along the way.
But Le Barbare has been reborn before. It first opened in 1951, with the police ordering its closure in the 1970s when it became a meeting place for rebellion-seeking youngsters. It reopened for the first time 16 months later. Long-time customers are full of stories about its controversy packed past, and Anouk Senff was keen to celebrate this long and varied history: hence the return of alcohol to the menu. “I wanted to make it a real local café again: a place where local residents, regulars and people passing through could mingle, and where visitors of all ages would feel welcome”, says the new manager. “I wanted it to be somewhere you could enjoy a hot chocolate, have something to eat, and also meet up with friends for drinks.”
The hot chocolate is thick, with an inviting aroma that fills the room. A window looks out onto the old Escaliers du Marché, offering a glimpse of a pretty terrace and a peek of the Cathedral too. There is no doubt about it, we are definitely at Le Barbare, a hidden gem at the foot of the old town. The location – which is property of the city, and one of the 44 listed historic cafés of Lausanne – reopened last November, almost six years after its previous manager, Marta Tombolan, retired. Thirteen months of refurbishment work took place before the opening, giving the Council a chance to renovate the entire medieval building (although an access ramp for people with reduced mobility remains unfitted). On the ground floor, a new team has taken over from Marta, but traces of her 44 years at the helm can still be felt around the place – particularly in her successor, Anouk Senff. “I used to come here with my grandma when I was little to drink Marta’s famous hot chocolates, out on what is one of the prettiest terraces in the city”, remembers the Lausanne local. “Le Barbare is very close to my heart, and I have wonderful memories of the place: there’s an incredible energy here.” As a nod to the café’s history, that glorious hot chocolate is a firm fixture on the menu, and now goes under the name of ‘Marta’.
Discovering local artisans At lunchtime, the menu includes a vegetarian daily special for less than CHF 18, with an option to add meat. In the evenings, sharing platters are served alongside beer, wine, and other artisan drinks. The focus is on local producers and short supply chains. This philosophy is reflected in Anouk’s other projects, too. “This is a space for sharing, and we want to use it to share local makers with our visitors”, she smiles. “We’re hoping we’ll be able to organise events and meet-ups.” Le Barbare Escaliers du Marché 27, Lausanne lebarbare.ch 21
L AUSANNE IN MOTION | IN PICTURES
THE RISE OF ROMANE DE WATTEVILLE
Lausanne painter Romane de Watteville is experiencing success after success this year, with art lovers as far away as Asia falling for her pop art-style paintings.
2022 looks like it’s going to be Romane de Watteville’s year. Until February, the Lausanne-based painter, 28, had been exhibiting her work at the Fabienne Levy art gallery on Avenue Ruchonnet. In March, her bright, pop art-inspired pieces earned her the prestigious Prix Mobilière award, along with CHF 30,000. By April and May, her work was on display at the Ciaccia Levi gallery in Paris.
“Have we Met?” by Romane de Watteville, 2021 (60 x 50 cm)
“I’ve been captivated by colours and images ever since I was a child – I can’t explain it”, says de Watteville, who grew up in Belmont just a few kilometres from Lausanne. It was her godmother, local illustrator Haydé Ardalan, who sparked her artistic side: “I used to spend whole afternoons in her studio, and she used to let me have a go with her things”, Romane says. Her parents often took her to museums, and she has fond memories of the photographs at the Musée de l’Élysée. Hardly surprising given the special place that pictures and film now occupy in the artist’s world, who lives a stone’s throw from the new museum hub in Sous-Gare. The subjects Romane chose to study affirmed her passion for art: a Bachelor’s degree in History of Art and Cinema at the University of Lausanne, followed by another Bachelor’s in Visual Arts at the Lausanne University of Art and Design (ECAL) in 2020. Her tutors encouraged her style, both praising her boldness – which bucked the trends set by her classmates at the time – and questioning her in moments of doubt: “are you
really sure that this is the direction you want to go in?”. Their quiet student remained unfazed, and the success of her boldly kitsch paintings – a number of which exude an air of soft porn – would soon vindicate her decision. Every canvas is a tale of bodies, of sex, of inner meeting outer, of the watcher meeting the watched. They appeal to the viewer’s unconscious mind, filling it with stories. Onlookers see themselves reflected in her work, filling them with a sense of jubilation (albeit tinted with occasional discomfort). Romane draws her inspiration from various sources: from contemporary artists like the irreverent Karen Kilimnik and New York-based Chloé Wise, to the unsurpassable Botticelli. Certain pieces even have a feel of Guy Peellaert’s cult classic ‘Rock Dreams’ about them. Hers is a rich, vibrant art, that has already captivated collectors as far away as Asia and Mexico. romanedewatteville.com 22
L AUSA N N E I N M OTI O N | LOC AL
A SPECIALITY TO BE GOBBLED UP Vincent (left) and Christophe of Ça Rûpe with their delicious taillés.
Christophe and Vincent founded Ça Rûpe to take the “taillé aux greubons” – a delicious savoury pastry and Vaud speciality – to the next level. We caught up with them to find out more.
and serve them in bite-sized pieces. For hungrier guests, you can cut them lengthways to make them into sandwiches. This is how we like to eat them – local sausage, and Vacherin Mont-d’Or, Tomme Vaudoise and L’Étivaz cheese are some of our top fillings.
Interview by Delphine Bordier
What is your star product? Something we came up with called the ‘Vaud’wich’, which has been far more successful than we ever expected. It’s a sandwich made out of taillés and filled with local specialities: sausage, L’Etivaz cheese, Moulin de Sévery mustard and Hugo Reitzel gherkins from Aigle.
What is a “taillé aux greubons” exactly? It is a traditional savoury pastry that we’ve been making here in Vaud for over 200 years, using flaky pastry and the pork scratchings you get from rendering lard. These scratchings are known as “greubons”. Back in the day, the country folk in this area never wasted a thing, and taillés were a great way of eating up these greubons.
What is the secret to a good taillé? The art of the flaky pastry. We have 27 layers in ours, which we get by making three triple folds. After they are cooked, the outer layers are crispy, and the inner ones lovely and soft. The greubons are the most important bit, though. We monitor the cooking process to make sure we get nice small pieces that melt into the pastry. They are one of the reasons it is so soft.
What made you go into business selling this particular speciality? Because it is local to our region: it’s a part of our history. We were born in Pully, and both our families had bakeries in the village. We love our canton, and we wanted to showcase these traditional baked goods. They are still popular in the region, but the amount of greubons produced from Vaud livestock has fallen in recent years. We wanted to keep everything as local as possible, from sourcing all the ingredients to selling the end product, and our taillés are actually Vaud+ certified. Our name – “Ça Rûpe” – means “something that gets gobbled up” in the local dialect.
Where can we find you? We run stands at all sorts of events. This summer, for example, we’ll be in Lausanne on 21 June for the Fête de la Musique and 9 July for the Tour de France, and Ouchy on 1 August for Swiss National Day. You’ll also find us in Lutry and Cully at a number of ‘Open Cellar’ events. We also sell our taillés at the Superposé bar in Lausanne city centre, the Garage de l’Étoile shop in Renens, the L’Instant Vin food truck at the La Vaudoise arena during the hockey season, and at Lutry market every Saturday from March through to the autumn, where there is space for customers to sit and eat.
How do you serve taillés? Some people like to eat them either as a morning or afternoon snack. They also make perfect lastminute nibbles if you’re having drinks with friends. They are nice and filling, and when they’re served with a charcuterie board or pickles, they go well with any drink. Traditionally you’d find them paired with a Vaud Chasselas, but they’re also great with beer or tea. We like to cut them into cubes
rupe.ch 23
“WE WORK WITH 690-VOLT EQUIPMENT EVERY SINGLE DAY”
L AUSANNE IN MOTION | BEHIND THE SCENES
Lausanne’s trolleybus network is powered by 260 km of overhead electric cables – the equivalent of driving all the way from here to Colmar. We talked with one of the technicians responsible for maintaining it.
cut it off remotely from our traffic control centre too. We also work in teams of three: one on the ground for traffic control, and two in the aerial lift to keep an eye on each other to prevent any possible mistakes. What is your favourite part of the job? Troubleshooting, because you have to find solutions fast. I love that adrenaline rush. I also love working outdoors, and the people I work with. We’ve all become friends outside of work, and play indoor paddle tennis in Romanel. Four of us also play for the tl football club.
Interview by Trinidad Barleycorn
With 77 antenna trolleybuses operating across the ten “transports publics lausannois” (tl) lines, this eco-friendly method of transport is used more in Lausanne than any other city in Switzerland. They cover over 5 million kilometres every year, reducing the city’s CO2 emissions by almost 7,000 tonnes compared to using diesel buses. On 2 October, the Lausanne trolleybus system – which is one of the oldest networks in the world still in operation – will celebrate 90 years of good and loyal service: an achievement that would have proved impossible without its linesmen, who are responsible for maintaining its overhead electric cables. Lausanne local Rafael Mota Tiago, 22, is one of them, and told us all about their demanding work.
Is there a particular intervention that stands out? Yes – it was a Sunday, and 500 metres of the contact line on the LEB line had been ripped away. It took us all day and all night to fix it. We had two teams tagteaming, and we all joined in, even those of us who weren’t on call. The way everyone pulled together and worked as a team was really heart-warming! How do you become a linesman? I had wanted to work with electricity ever since I was 12 years old. I first did a trade apprenticeship (CFC) as a power grid electrician. Then, I was able to specialize in contact lines to become a linesman, which I did once I started working as a tl through an in-house course. Qualifications aside, you need to be resourceful and comfortable with heights, as the lines are 5.8 metres above the ground. You also need to be OK with the fact that every 5 weeks we take it in turns to do 7 days on call.
How many people are there keeping the trolleybus lines running smoothly? Rafael Mota Tiago: Ten technicians – we call them linesmen – then two team leaders, one manager, two coordinators and two apprentices. What are a linesman’s main duties? We construct and maintain the trolleybuses’ overhead contact lines and make any changes that are needed, like preparing for the closure of the Grand-Pont for works. We also carry out a lot of repairs: around 350 a year, which is a 24/7 job – bank holidays and weekends included. We work with 690-volt equipment every single day.
What area do you cover? We cover Renens in the west, Mont-sur-Lausanne in the north and Lutry to the east. We also oversee the LEB railway line in Gros-de-Vaud and the m1 metro line, and we’ll be taking on the upcoming tramway to Bussigny too.
What kind of faults do you have to deal with? There are three types: signal box failures, accidents caused by lightning, trees or human error – like a truck that’s too tall – and the ones brought about by the trolleybuses themselves when they come off the lines: that can damage parts of the contact line, or even tear it away. Depending on the damage, fixing these things can take anywhere between 2 minutes and 5 hours!
Where would you recommend going in Lausanne? The Pinte du Lac de Sauvabelin is a nice place to eat after a day out with the family. The Bellerive pool is good too – I often head over there, and when I do it’s always a good excuse to go to Mövenpick in Ouchy. Flon is fun in the evenings: Forbici does excellent Italian food, and if you like bars, Punk has a great atmosphere and music.
What are the dangers involved in your job? We regularly carry out preventive maintenance work to minimise risk. If a line falls, we get there fast to deal with it, and depending on the incident, a circuit breaker will automatically cut the power – we can
The Lausanner has partnered with tl to bring you top tips for getting around town on the different bus and metro lines, and make the most of the shopping, restaurants and attractions the city has to offer. Check out the Insta stories @tl_lausanne
25
L AUSANNE IN MOTION | GA ZE T TE
STAR-SPOTTING IN LAUSANNE With shows getting back on the road over the past few months, Lausanne’s streets have once again been full of famous faces. Willem Dafoe (right, next to the sculptor Yves Dana) on 13 March at the dinner hosted in honour of Jean-Luc Bideau.
WILLEM DAFOE
The Platoon actor was guest of honour, from 12 to 20 March, at the fifth Rencontres 7e Art Lausanne (Think Cinema) film festival, which was also attended by Jean Dujardin, Anaïs Demoustier and Gilles Lellouche. On what was his first trip to Lausanne, Dafoe once again played a starring role. The US actor was in high demand, attending the opening ceremony at Chaplin’s World, introducing four viewings of his films and giving a masterclass at ECAL. On 13 March, he also attended a dinner in honour of actor Jean-Luc Bideau at sculptor Yves Dana’s Mon-Repos studio, alongside the likes of Elsa Zylberstein, Daniel Brühl and Marthe Keller.
spotted taking photos at the Collection de l’Art Brut, actresses and long-time friends Marie Gillain and Karine Silla-Perez enjoyed a stroll through Ouchy, and The Killing Fields director Roland Joffé – who spent several months living in Lausanne when he was 17 – explored the city centre, reliving memories almost six decades old. Marie Gillain (right) posted this selfie on Instagram with Karine SillaPerez from their outing in Ouchy, with the caption: “Amies depuis 30 ans” (Friends for 30 years).
The glittering guest list was also often seen at renowned restaurant La Croix d’Ouchy, the official eatery for the festival which was founded in 2018 by Vincent Perez. According to owner Gérard Bonvin, “this year’s favourites were definitely our honey and lemon escalopes and our monkfish, coriander and lime spaghetti.” They also made the most of their visit to explore the city. Jean-Benoît Dunckel, one half of the French music duo Air and creator of The Virgin Suicides soundtrack, was
26
L AUSANNE IN MOTION | GA ZE T TE
WE’RE GOING TO MAKE WAVES
CALOGERO
Where do you go for good fondue in Lausanne? The French singer Calogero, director of Live Music Production Michael Drieberg and Mylène Farmer’s manager Thierry Suc answered that question on 27 January: to Pinte Besson, the oldest bistro in the city. The trio had met up earlier in the evening to watch Guillaume Gallienne’s performance of François, le saint jongleur, staged to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the SaintFrançois Church. Calogero also returned to Lausanne in March for the Rencontres 7 e Art (Think Cinema) film festival.
GAD ELMALEH
On 30 March, the French comedian performed his one-man show D’Ailleurs to a sold-out La Vaudoise arena. The hit performance proved the perfect way to christen the multisport complex’s new ice rink, which converts into a 6,049 capacity show venue. It was switched back for a Lausanne Hockey Club match the very next day, and then back again with a Texas gig next on the agenda, swapping skates for seats.
KATHY SULLIVAN
The Jacques Dubochet Imaging Centre – a joint venture between EPFL and the universities of Lausanne and Geneva – opened in November 2021, with Jacques Dubochet, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in attendance. The centre is equipped with the most advanced cryo-electron microscopes in the world, harnessing the breakthrough that won the Vaud scientist his Nobel prize: the three-dimensional observation of molecules that have been frozen without altering their structure. This technique promises to pave the way for significant advances in biomedical science, particularly in cancer treatment research, thanks to the accuracy of the images it can produce.
QUICK-FIRE Q&A
In 2020, at 68 years old, Kathy Sullivan made history as the first woman to reach the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point of the seabed at 11,000m. Before that though, she was an astronaut – in fact, she was the first US woman to walk in space – and it was for that reason she was invited to speak at the Legends of Space event at the SwissTech Convention Centre on 18 and 19 March. Also present were astronauts Charlie Duke, Dave Scott, Ellen Ochoa, Jean-François Clervoy, and the Swiss Claude Nicollier. Music was provided by Mark and Kali Armstrong, Neil Armstrong’s son and granddaughter.
Which is the steepest street in Lausanne? It’s the 200-metre-long Chemin du Calvaire, with an average gradient of over 23%. In comparison, the Rue du Petit-Chêne, known for its steepness, has an average gradient of 13%, rising to a maximum of 15% at the higher end.
27
L AUSANNE IN MOTION | GA ZE T TE
REUSED LEGO ACCESS RAMPS
Lauriane Ryser (left) and Aline Erbland, the creators of Ramptogo.
Two Vaud locals are putting the famous toy bricks to good use by making it easier for people with reduced mobility to access all sorts of buildings.
her approval. This disabled sexagenarian has already seen over 70 Lego ramps built around the country.
After collecting the pieces and sorting them by size and colour (with the help of volunteers), the two ladies have erected four ramps so far, including one at the entrance to the municipal council building. The city-backed Ramptogo project is even eco-friendly, as it offers a way of repurposing unwanted Lego. Bricks can be dropped off in several drop boxes around the city, including at the Pinocchio games library (Place de la Palud 7), the Children’s Library (Avenue d’Échallens 2A) and the Lausanne Family Office (Place Chauderon 9).
Lauriane Ryser, 23, and Aline Erbland, 26, both former management students at the University of Lausanne, have been overseeing the installation of Lego access ramps around the city since June 2020. Each weatherresistant ramp offers plenty of good grip to users: “The idea came to us during the first soft lockdown. I was helping my cousin, who is in a wheelchair, and Aline was doing the same with older people. We noticed many issues with accessibility, and we wanted to do something about it”, says Ryser. Their project, which they christened Ramptogo, was inspired by the initiative of the German Rita Ebel, nicknamed Lego-Oma, who gave them
For more information email ramptogo.info@gmail.com or check out Facebook / Instagram @ramptogo
28
L AUSANNE IN MOTION | GA ZE T TE
WOOLLEN TRAINERS!
After watching their wool used to insulate houses and make duvets, now the famous Roux du Valais sheep who ‘tend’ to the lawns on the University of Lausanne (UNIL) campus are offering it up to make “UNIL trainers”. The crowdfunding project was set up by Baabuk, an eco-friendly brand founded 10 years ago by HEC Lausanne graduate Galina Witting, and her husband and EPFL alumni Dan. The UNIL logo is printed inside the shoe and the laces are UNIL’s trademark blue. baabuk.ch
VAUD WINS BIG AT BAFTAS
LAUSANNE EXPRESS
Get ready to investigate the best artisan ice-cream makers in Lausanne and vote for your favourite: from 1 July to 31 August 2022, the Lausanne à Table organisation is encouraging the public to get involved in the city’s very first ‘Glaçathon’. Find a list of the ice-cream makers on trial, prices and registration at lausanneatable.ch Lausanne was named an Emerging Cultural Destination at the Leading Culture Destinations Awards in Berlin on 7 April, styled by the New York Times as the “Oscars of culture”.
A masterpiece of poetry and precision, “Do Not Feed the Pigeons” was named Best Short Animation on 13 March at London’s BAFTA awards ceremony – the British equivalent of the Oscars. The stop motion film (composed of individually photographed frames) was directed by Antonin Niclass, 30, who grew up between Satigny and Lausanne. Produced with crewmates Vladimir Krasilnikov and Jordi Morera, the piece takes place at night in a dreary bus terminal, where characters wait for their bus without paying each other much attention… that is, until the pigeons bring them all a moment of magic and harmony.
INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR HEMU HARPIST
Tjasha Gafner has been named Young Soloist of the Year 2022 by Les Médias Francophones Publics (an organisation for public French-speaking broadcasters that counts Swiss channel RTS, Belgian RTBF, CBC Radio Canada and Radio France among its members). It’s yet another award for the 22-year-old local harpist and Lausanne University of Music (HEMU) graduate, who has already won numerous prizes in her young life. The panel emphasised her “distinctive character, musical intelligence, and ability to exploit the full range of her instrument”. Gafner is currently a student at the Juilliard School in New York. 29
Lausanne has made it into the Top 10 of the Lausanne IMD Business School’s Smart Cities Index, measuring authorities’ proficiency at using technology to improve public services. The Vaud capital sits in 5th place behind Singapore, Zurich, Oslo and Taipei, and is way ahead of New York and Tokyo! The 1,600-seat Beaulieu Theatre – the largest in Switzerland – will be reopening in September 2022 after two years of works to equip it with the very latest sound and stage technology. The Stade de la Tuilière has come 2nd at the 11th Stadium of the Year awards, hosted by specialist website StadiumDB.com, with LA’s SoFi Stadium voted the overall winner.
L AUSA N N E I N M OTI O N | LOC AL
UNIQUE STYLE IN POST-INDUSTRIAL SURROUNDINGS A textile designer by trade, Annabelle Dentan now runs Chic Cham, a store that has made a name for itself as THE place to browse for pieces you won’t find anywhere else. Interview by Antonio Rosati
When Chic Cham opened back in 2011, it did so as an online shop. However, cofounders Annabelle Dentan and Pauline Martinet soon decided they wanted a space where people could come and feel the gorgeous, one-of-akind items they were selling. Annabelle Dentan now runs the store solo, having skilfully created a leading light on the Lausanne style scene.
You have a special connection to India. How did that come about? How do you maintain it? Annabelle Dentan: My father set up a company in the 1970s that used to import Indian rugs. I went there with him for the
first time in 1985, when I was 14 years old, and I immediately fell in love with the work the textile artists were creating. I went and studied interior architecture, then joined the firm as a textile designer, and I still maintain relationships with the same craftspeople that my father worked with. Now they make rugs designed in Switzerland and ethically handmade in India for our Chic Cham Rugs label – on a smaller scale, of course.
Your range is always changing, and always right on-trend. How do you go about putting it together? I work mostly on instinct. I follow lots of fashion, architecture and graphic design accounts on Instagram, and they are where I get my inspiration. I love what Jacquemus does, for example – particularly with their runway styling. Every six months, I take all this inspiration and
30
pull it together into a new theme that completely changes the look of the shop.
What kind of gems might we find at Chic Cham? They’re often handmade items, available only in small numbers, and very hard to come by anywhere else. Our new theme, which we have called “dune”, includes ceramic sculptures by the Italian maker Paola Paronetto and hand-blown glass vases by a small Czech company called Dechem. What new interior trends are you seeing right now? Although I love bold colours, I’ve noticed that muted colours and clean lines are in right now. Not in a cold way though, quite the opposite actually: there’s a cosiness to it all. In terms of materials, I’m seeing more and more travertine, with its shades of beige, being used in place of marble. I’d say it all feels very ‘natural chic’.
L AUSA N N E I N M OTI O N | LOC AL
What are your ties to Lausanne? It feels like there’s a strong culture of design here, more so than in other Swiss cities. Is that because of ECAL (Lausanne’s university of art and design)? I grew up here, and although I’ve travelled a lot, I see Lausanne as my centre of gravity. And yes, thanks to ECAL we have a real community of designers here in Lausanne, which is something else that has made Chic Cham such a success.
We sometimes get rug orders from ECAL, and work with creators from the school like Adrian Rovero, Nicolas Le Moigne and Tomas Kral.
How did you find the incredible building that is now home to your shop? It was once a forge – a long, long time ago – and sat empty for several years before being taken over by a cabinetmaker. When we found it, it was in a terrible state.
ANNABELLE’S TOP SPOTS
R E S TAU R A NT
B A R-R E S TAU R A NT
R E S TAU R A NT
My Chic Cham co-founder and I repainted the walls and windows and varnished the floors to transform it into a retail space with an unmistakeably post-industrial feel. I genuinely love it here!
Chic Cham Route de Prilly 2, Lausanne chiccham.com
JAJAFFE
“The two young chefs took over the kitchen at La Grenette until the end of July. The restaurant changes its menu every week, and it only has 4 or 5 dishes on it at a time. The food is modern, the ingredients are incredibly fresh, and – together with the natural wines – that makes it one of my favourite spots in Lausanne”
CAFÉ DES ARTISANS
“This is a must if you’re in Lausanne. The design community often meet up here. Amaya and Iggy have been managing it since 2012, serving up super cocktails and excellent food – but the best bit is the atmosphere.”
CAFÉ DE CHAVANNES
“This has only recently been taken over by Lisa and Lionel, with Luis in the kitchen (who used to work at La Pinte des Mossettes). The food is top-notch. Another must.”
Place de la Riponne 10, Lausanne jajaffe.ch
Rue Centrale 16, Lausanne @cafedesartisans
Route de la Maladière 40, 1022 Chavannes-près-Renens lecafedechavannes.ch
31
L AUSANNE IN MOTION
YOUR LOCAL GUIDE TO LAUSANNE
Keen to live like a local and get to know their favourite spots? Then you need the Lausanners – visit www.thelausanner.ch for the inside scoop. The 10 Lausanne locals that make up the Lausanner’s community come from all sorts of different backgrounds, and have plenty of top tips to help you enjoy city life to the full. In this issue, we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Ziegler and Sainath Bovay.
partner with two local groups who are about empowering women and homeless children. We do beginner skateboarding and longboarding sessions for young people as a way for them to escape their day-to-day. Do you miss anything about Lausanne? Yes! Lake Geneva, Gruyère cheese, and the range of sports and culture on offer there.
Interviews by Trinidad Barleycorn
CHARLOTTE ZIEGLER, LONGBOARD DANCER
What are the top spots for longboard dancing in Lausanne? Outside the IOC in Vidy, where the slight slope is perfect for putting moves together, and in the square between Juan-Antonio-Samaranch Stadium and the restaurant Le Carrousel de Vidy. You’ll find the city’s longboard dancers there every Sunday for what we call Dock Sessions. Everyone’s welcome. What does a perfect weekend in Lausanne look like for you? It starts with a longboarding session in Vidy on Saturday morning while there’s still no one else about, followed by a coffee at Casse-croûte. Then it’s off to the market for vegetables, cheese and flowers. Later in the day, I’d head to Pavillon in Place de la Riponne for drinks with friends, before a nice meal just down from the old town in my favourite restaurant, Le Vieux-Lausanne. Sunday would be a small snack at Le Superposé, a Dock Session, then down to the lake for a swim and to watch the sunset.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I love sport and connecting with people, so in January, I went on a two-year partnership mission to Gulu, in Uganda – I still have close ties to Lausanne though. It’s the city where I grew up, where I studied and where I discovered skateboarding. Three years ago, I got really into longboard dancing, where you do dance moves up and down the board. It made me more confident in myself, as it’s all about developing your own style. I got into it with the ladies at Longboard Girls Crew Switzerland – there’s still quite a big gender divide in roller sports.
What’s your go-to for shopping? Amavita Nutribio La Palud for all-natural products: you can get washing-up liquid in bulk, dry shampoo, and everything you need to make your own toothpaste and other cosmetics there. Casse-croûte de Vidy cassecroute.ch
Pavillon Bar & Kitchen pavillonbar.ch
What are you doing in Uganda? My boyfriend and I – he’s a longboarder too – are working with our organisation, Steez, to
Le Superposé @SuperposeLausanne Le Vieux-Lausanne vieux-lausanne.ch
Amavita Nutribio La Palud amavita.ch/fr/amavita-nutribio-la-palud 32
L AUSANNE IN MOTION
SAINATH BOVAY, THE WALKING MAN
Lausanne locals who do home deliveries. I occasionally dip back into manga at Tanigami and Mix-Image. And I never miss Lausanne’s BD-FIL comic festival (see also page 15). What walks would you recommend? Start in Sous-Gare, and head down to the lake via the incredible Bois-de-Vaux cemetery and the Roman ruins. I love Vidy’s natural beauty, beaches, and lovely restaurants like Thaï au Lac. The one at Vidy campsite is casual, but it does excellent pizzas and you can play darts and arcade games there. From Vidy, I head along the lake to Pully or Lutry. I also like walking from the city centre to the woods just above the Hermitage, or the Flon Walk from Épalinges to Ouchy.
What does your perfect weekend look like? On Saturday morning, I’d go to the market: I love the little black garlic stand on Rue de la Madeleine. Then I’d go to Deli Social or La Folie Voltaire for a bite to eat. I’d spend the afternoon at the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts (MCBA) and then meet up with friends at Bottle Brothers or Café des Artisans. On Sunday, you’d find me at the pool.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I am a qualified interactive media designer, and I’ve been working at Watson as a copywriter and editor since 2021. I’m Swiss on my dad’s side and Indian on my mum’s, and I grew up in Valais and then lived in Vevey. I moved to Lausanne eight years ago for work.
As a photographer and videographer, does Lausanne make a good backdrop? Yes, it’s an incredibly photogenic city. The architecture here is quite distinctive, with the 1950s buildings and their curved balconies. You get a special kind of light here too, and since the city is full of slopes you can capture panoramic views and sunsets that are to die for.
What do you like most about Lausanne? All the culture on offer here, and all the different restaurants and green spaces. I also love all the various neighbourhoods. Each one has a different feel to it, like lots of little cities within a city. Its location also means that you can get the train to pretty much anywhere in no time at all. Your Lausanner profile has you down as “the walking man”. Why is that? I’m a keen walker: I love rambling and I grew up reading manga. Although I love comics best, I do still read manga like The Walking Man by Jiro Taniguchi, which is about the beauty of walking and quiet contemplation.
Thaï au Lac thaiaulac.ch
Café des Artisans @cafedesartisans
Deli Social deli.social
La Folie Voltaire folievoltaire.ch
Bottle Brothers bottlebrothers.ch/bottle-lausanne
Where do you get your comics from? Belphégor, Payot and FNAC. Pépites Club, too, an Instagram account run by two comic-loving
Restaurant du Camping de Vidy campinglausannnevidy.ch/restaurant 33
Sculpting Switzerland’s International Image
Nicolas Bideau at home in his garden in Lausanne.
INTE RVIE W
When he’s not busy in his Lausanne kitchen garden, Nicolas Bideau’s job is managing Switzerland’s international presence. We caught up with him to find out more.
Can you tell us about any specific instances that have negatively affected the country’s image? So for example, foreign media outlets sometimes cover financial scandals linking back to us. When that happens, we need to bring an international communication strategy into play. If the off-putting facts turn out to be true, we obviously can’t deny them. In this particular case, my response would be to try shifting international focus by promoting the positive aspects of the Swiss banking sector, which I could do by organising conferences and events abroad on some of our burgeoning industries, like sustainable finance or even fintech.
Interview by Adriana Stimoli
“My job is looking after Switzerland’s international reputation”. Having held several important posts in some of the country’s key sectors, the task hasn’t phased Nicolas Bideau one bit. Born into a family of artists in Prague – his mother was a film director and his father an actor – Bideau, 52, grew up in Geneva, then attended university in Lausanne before diving head-first into the world of federal politics. In 2003, he was advisor to then President Pascal Couchepin, then from 2005 to 2010 he headed up the cinema division at the Federal Office of Culture. He has been the Head of Presence Switzerland since 2011, and is responsible for promoting Switzerland’s image abroad. Despite his busy schedule, he took some time out to answer our questions and tell us a bit about himself, looking back on his time as a student in Lausanne and re-emphasising his fondness for the Vaud capital. The ambassador also discussed his career, and the challenges that arise as part of his role.
“The most interesting part of my job is introducing people to the lesserknown aspects of our country, particularly in terms of innovation.”
When it comes to promoting Switzerland abroad, what kinds of things do you like to focus on? Switzerland is a country of familiar clichés: I’ve talked about cheese, chocolate, our luxury sector, ski resorts...you get the picture. It is important to highlight these things, but the most interesting part of my job is introducing people to the lesser-known aspects of our country, particularly in terms of innovation. I create a narrative, and bring the sectors where Switzerland is outstanding in its field out of the shadows and into the limelight. In recent years, I’ve been able to establish Switzerland as a key player in the drone industry, because that is an area in which we excel. Not many people know that though!* →
What does being Head of Presence Switzerland actually involve? Nicolas Bideau: I am a diplomat: I handle Switzerland’s public relations on the international stage. My job is safeguarding the country’s image, and there are two sides to that. The first is making sure I maintain any aspects of Switzerland’s image that are making a good impression abroad. This includes our lakes and mountains, our food industry (particularly cheese and chocolate) and parts of our watchmaking and hospitality industries. The second side to the job is that sometimes I have to defend our image when it takes a blow.
35
INTE RVIE W
Has the pandemic changed how you portray the country abroad? Switzerland’s international presence has changed in a number of ways. Just like everyone else, we have become much better at using digital technology effectively: making sure we could run conferences and events online was a key focus for us. Aside from technology, we have established ourselves in a new field by getting more involved in conversations about medicine and health. Internationally, we have highlighted the vaccines made by Lonza in Valais, and antigen tests by the Swiss firm Roche. The idea there is to showcase the things that we make right here in Switzerland, leading the world to think of us as a solution: a remedy to the pandemic. There was a World Expo held in Dubai from October 2021 to March 2022. Was Switzerland being there – with our own pavilion – an important step for us? Dubai was a big project, with tens of thousands of World Expo visitors every day. The aim of being there was to encourage positive perceptions of Switzerland in the Gulf, which is an important part of the world for us, although people often didn’t stop in any one pavilion for more than 10 minutes at a time. This year we took a bit of a ‘bling’ approach to ours, with mirrors and a red carpet at the entrance. My teams and I are used to selling Switzerland with a bit more subtlety, but this time around I decided to change strategy. You’ve got to keep up with the times, and get into the spirit of Dubai. Now I know how many people visited the pavilion and the business impact it had, I can say that our idea did actually work.
You seem particularly fond of Lausanne. What was your first experience of the city? I did a degree in Political Sciences at the University of Lausanne in the 90s, so my first experience of the city was through my studies, but also through its culture. I found myself immersed in full-on university life in a city that was – and still is – teeming with culture that really appealed to its student community. I embraced that abundance of culture, and played an active part in the university’s Zelig association, where I helped organise festivals and plan concerts and plays. Those experiences have stuck with me throughout my career: they have given me a perspective founded in cultural diversity.
Your job means you’re often away travelling. What would you like to put in your suitcase and take with you when you’re heading off to the other side of the world? I want to say Lausanne. As you move through it, the pace of living, lifestyle and landscapes can all change in a heartbeat. It’s 30 minutes from the mountains, and just a few steps from the lake. Every time I’m in a huge city abroad, whether it’s New York or Dubai, I find it takes hours to get away from it all. Being able to get a change of scenery fast is something I really miss. So if I could, I’d take that with me!
36
INTE RVIE W
Christened Reflections, the Swiss Pavilion in Dubai invited visitors to find out more about Switzerland’s culture, natural beauty (with an artist’s impression of the Alps) and innovation.
Is there anything else about the city you like? I have some deep ties to it: my three children were all born here, I have friends living here, and I’ve bought a house here with my wife, Florence. In a way, you could also say that I live and eat Lausanne too, as I have a little allotment here. I know I’ve already mentioned it, but there is so much culture on offer. I live a stone’s throw from the Plateforme 10 museum hub, which is really picking up steam. Another great thing about Lausanne is that the line about it being an Olympic City isn’t just a line: it’s the truth. There are so many opportunities to get active here. I myself do plenty of it, including triathlons, so living in such a steep city so close to the lake is perfect! →
“The line about it being an Olympic City isn’t just a line: it’s the truth.”
37
INTE RVIE W You used to be “Mr Swiss Cinema” and your dad is an actor. What role does Lausanne play in the film industry? Lausanne was made for cinema! The way it opens out onto the lake, mountains and sky makes it a great city to film in – the capital of reverse and low-angle shots! It also has a long cinematic history: it is home to one of the world’s leading film libraries, and of course all its legendary cinemas, like the Capitole, the Bellevaux and the Zinéma. The silver screen loves Lausanne. If you want proof, just look at Think Cinema, a film festival held here that’s headed up by the famous actor Vincent Perez. What is your next challenge? One of my upcoming projects is very fitting for Lausanne, actually: a Swiss centre for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. This will be a major milestone, as these will be the first Games that – we hope – will take place in a situation that’s more or less back to normal. Most importantly, these Games will be right on our doorstep. Paris is French-speaking, it’s just next door, and I’m very much hoping to play on Lausanne’s cultural and Olympic credentials there. ■
HIS TOP SPOTS
Actor and director Vincent Perez founded the Rencontres 7e Art (Think Cinema) film festival in 2018 in his home town of Lausanne.
LE CAFÉ DU SIMPLON
“This is the coolest bar in Lausanne with its stylish decor, chilled feel and excellent beers. It’s in a great location too, just a stone’s throw from the station. It’s kind of like my second office.”
VIDY
“This is home to the most unbelievable beach in Lausanne. It’s open to the public and you’ll find it just behind the Théâtre de Vidy, hidden away behind some vintage cabins. There’s always a pretty colourful lot there – it’s never dull, that’s for sure! The views of Le Grammont are just stunning. It’s the perfect place to get away from it all and take a dip.”
Rue du Simplon 17, Lausanne cafedusimplon.ch C A FÉ-R E S TAU R A NT
BEACH
*The Lausanner readers know all about how drones are one of our specialities here in Switzerland (and Lausanne specifically) thanks to our long read about them in Issue 7 (Summer/Autumn 2021). You can find it here →
38
Take a
In a
LAVAUX TOUR A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE ON THE UNESCO HERITAGE
BOOKING ON CGN.CH
THE DOSSIER
LAUSANNE, THE CITY OF SPORT
THE DOSSIER
The Olympic Capital will host a stage of the 2022 Tour de France and provides the playing field for countless classic and urban sports. Whether you’re a champion athlete or amateur, here is all the information you need. Piece by Laurent Grabet
Without its sport, Lausanne just wouldn’t be Lausanne. Pierre de Coubertin chose the city as the headquarters for the International Olympic Committee back in 1915, saying that “the sense of pride and independence in the air here… guarantees the freedom that Olympism needs to progress”. Since 1994, Lausanne has been known around the world as the Olympic Capital, and is home to countless sport professionals (see inset).
Sport is also a popular pastime for the people of Lausanne. Everything down to the geography lends itself perfectly to the idea: the woods are ideal for jogging, trail running, hiking and mountain biking; the roads through Lavaux and the surrounding countryside are great for cycling; the lake for wild swimming, paddleboarding and sailing; and the city itself for urban sliding sports like skateboarding and rollerblading. Read on for a guided tour…
PRESTIGIOUS TRACK RECORD
Around fifty sports federations and international sports organisations have their headquarters in and around Lausanne: that’s 1,840 jobs. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is also based here. Elite-level local clubs include: - seven-time Swiss champion FC Lausanne-Sport - the Lausanne Hockey Club - the Lausanne Université Club Volleyball team - the Lausanne-Sports Aviron rowing club A number of major events are also hosted in the city, such as: - the 20K road running event - the Athletissima athletics meet - the Lausanne Triathlon and Marathon - the finish line for a stage of the Tour de France this summer
tatami
How did you get into judo? When I was around 7, I went swimming at the pool in Mon-Repos, and I remember looking through the glass and seeing judokas training in a hall next door. I was fascinated. They made me want to get out on the mat. I was lucky, as Lausanne has several excellent judo clubs. Judo Kwai Lausanne, which is mine, even has two teams in the national league.
“I love the city’s sporting energy”
Do you do any other sports? Yes, running. At training, we do a circuit where we have to keep climbing the steps in Place de l’Ours, and one around the Olympic Museum too. Otherwise I’ll run in the woods at Vernand or Sauvabelin. Getting out into nature makes you feel so good. You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere, but you’re so close to the city. I also like walking: I listen to music, and
At just 17 years old, Binta Ndiaye, a young judoka from Mont-sur-Lausanne, is already an U18 European champion, and a Junior World Championships bronze medallist.
42
THE DOSSIER Binta’s top spots for sport
Vidy Bowl Avenue Pierre-de-Coubertin 9, Lausanne “Urban sports aren’t really my thing, but I love stopping by to watch the skaters and other riders. They put on a great show!”
Place de la Navigation Lausanne “Every summer I go to the Lausanne Fiba 3x3 World Tour. It’s a really fun street basketball tournament, and all the players are incredible to watch! This year it will be held in Ouchy, but it’s usually in Place Centrale.”
soak up the beauty of all the places I pass through, and how different they all are.
Sport is a big part of life in Lausanne. Were you aware of that as a child? Yes, I love that energy. I went to Ouchy’s Olympic Week several times when I was younger: I’d go back every day for a free introductory class in a different sport. I watched quite a few 20K races and marathons when I was a kid too. The atmosphere was always so fun and friendly. The same goes for Athletissima – one of my sisters (Binta and her sisters are triplets - ed.) is an athlete, and she loves it. My other sister is also sporty: she dances.
Vidy Beach Lausanne “I love swimming here in the summer and looking out at the French mountains on the other side of the lake. It’s also the perfect place for paddleboarding and seeing Lausanne from a different perspective.”
in the company of some of the biggest and best international competitions. This year it will be taking place on 26 August 2022. “Like every year, the best athletes in the world will be going head-tohead in Lausanne. With the World and European Championships taking place this year too, the bar is sure to be high! We might even see some records broken”, says event COO Olivier Delapierre, who also noted that “Swiss athletes Mujinga Kambundji and Ajla Del Ponte will be there too.” Four world and two European records have already been set there, but there’s more to Athletissima than the meet: like a pole-vaulting competition just outside the stadium, and the Mini-stars, a mini relay race for ages 6-16 and their families.
ATHLETISSIMA: A MUST!
If there’s one top sporting event that’s not to be missed in Lausanne, it has to be Athletissima! This athletics competition first took place in 1977, and was set up by former 800m runner Jacky Delapierre. Every summer, it brings together the crème de la crème of athletes from around the world at La Pontaise, and is attended by almost 13,000 spectators. With World Athletics ranking it the 4th best athletics meeting in the world in 2021, Athletissima has been part of the prestigious Wanda Diamond League since 2010, putting it
→ Mini-stars relay race Saturday 20 August 2022, from 2pm to 5pm → Pole vault men Thursday 25 August 2022, from 5pm → Athletissima Friday 26 August 2022 athletissima.com
43
THE DOSSIER pedals
“The fact it has a motor has given a lot of people the confidence to pit their cycling muscles against the steep streets. Our shop sold over 1,000 electric bicycles in 2021, compared to around 60 when we opened in 2008”, says Johannes Hartmann, co-founder of specialist e-bike shop Tandem in Montchoisi.
The cycling city
In the canton of Vaud, 2022 is all set to be the “year of the bicycle”. One of the highlights is sure to be the end of the eighth stage of the Tour de France, with the finish line awaiting competitors at La Pontaise stadium on Saturday 9 July. The event will also mark the Union Cycliste Internationale’s 20th anniversary in Aigle. The last nine kilometres of the stage will be raced through the steep streets of the Vaud capital and, if it is anything like the time trial prologue for the 75th Tour de Romandie (TdR) on 26 April last year, promises to be quite the show.
As for the countless vélocité bike messengers that can be seen careering about the city, they are an integral part of Lausanne’s street culture. According to vélocité rider Joséphine Reitzel, a three-time Cycle Messenger World Championship winner (including once on her home streets in 2013), “Lausanne is such a fun city to get around on wheels! There’s plenty of fast, flat ground, but also some really great – and long – inclines. The countryside around the city is full of quiet little side roads which are just gorgeous. And the Chalet-à-Gobet side of the Jorat woods is heaven for mountain and gravel biking fans!”
Another top-class event awaits on 7 October, when the first stage of the inaugural Women’s Tour de Romandie – already classified as a World Tour event – will include a loop around Lausanne. “Cycling in Lausanne goes back a long way”, says TdR organiser Richard Chassot. “Track racing has been drawing crowds to La Pontaise since 1922, and we had À Travers Lausanne as well: a professional road race that ran from 1940 to 2001 and was won by some of the greatest cyclists in history.”
→ Finish line for Stage 8 of the Tour de France Saturday 9 July 2022 letouralausanne.ch
→ Women’s Tour de Romandie, Stage 1, Lausanne Loop Friday 7 October 2022 tourderomandie.ch
Cycling has also won over a lot of locals’ hearts as a great way to get around. The e-bike’s rise in popularity has been particularly impressive.
→ anneeduvelo.ch
44
TOP THREE PICKS FOR BIKING BUFFS
Not for the faint-hearted Every spring for 20 years, the Cyclotour du Léman has proffered keen cyclists a 176-km route around Lake Geneva. “Setting off from Lausanne in a peloton of your level, reaching some fairly surprising average speeds, is a joyous experience that every cyclist should have at least once!” says organiser Christian Jean. E-bikes have been permitted on the tour for the last three years.
Two pump tracks to ride At the end of May, the city inaugurated a permanent pump track in Vidy. In addition to hosting the finish line for a stage of the Tour de France this July, Lausanne will see a second track (this one temporary) set up in Ouchy as part of a Pump Track Tour visiting several Vaud municipalities. “A pump track is an exciting track full of rollers and banked turns, where riders can bike, scoot or skate safely”, explains Jérôme Rochat from the Lausanne Department for Sport. The Federal Office of Sport even believes this kind of activity will help to improve road safety by developing riders’ steering techniques and balance. 45
Dreamy day out This gently sloping clifftop loop takes you to Chexbres from Lausanne via the vineyards of Lavaux and the characterful villages of Aran, Grandvaux, Riex and Épesses, complete with fabulous bird’s-eye views of Lake Geneva. On the way back, head downhill to Vevey before returning to the city on the flat along the lake. Thirty kilometres of pure bliss. Find other routes – including options for mountain biking – and bike hire locations on our blog.
3
A HOTHOUSE OF CHAMPIONS
Countless champions past and present in a whole range of fields have honed their skills in and around Lausanne before bursting onto the international scene. Not least in tennis:
Roger Federer As a teenager, the Basel native, winner of 20 Grand Slam titles, joined the National Tennis Centre in Écublens, near Lausanne. According to him, those two years in French-speaking Switzerland had the greatest impact on his career. Stan Wawrinka Born in Lausanne in 1985, winner of three Grand Slam tournaments, including Roland Garros in 2015.
rings
Timea Bacsinszky Tennis player winner of four singles titles on the WTA Tour.
Urban sports in the spotlight at the Olympic Museum
Other champions include the following athletes:
Sergei Aschwanden Judoka, two-time European champion, bronze medallist at the Beijing Olympics. Céline Baillod Swimmer, holder of around 20 Swiss championship titles in the medley.
When it comes to sport, doing it is good – and so is dreaming about it! And the perfect place for that is the Olympic Museum. Founded in 1993 following a proposal by then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, you’ll find it in Ouchy, surrounded by grounds overlooking the lake. “There are countless inspiring sculptures around it, which are worth a visit on their own. It’s a place to relish, and relax in, and has the second-highest visitor rates in the country, after the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. It is a cultural asset of national importance”, says head of programming Anne Chevalley. The threefloor museum is home to 3,000 m2 of displays, including permanent exhibitions on the Olympic Games and Olympic Spirit, and one temporary exhibition. This is currently Riding the Olympic Wave, exploring how urban sports – BMX, skateboarding, surfing, 3x3 basketball, breakdancing and climbing – have been introduced to the Games.
Fabio Celestini Footballer, two-time winner of the Swiss Cup with FC LausanneSport, a club he would go on to manage from 2015 to 2018.
Elisabeth Gerritzen Freeride skier, world champion and two-time winner of Xtreme Verbier.
Augustin Maillefer Rower and three-time world champion. Michael Ngoy Ice hockey player in the first division of the Swiss championship.
→ Riding the Olympic Wave until 5 March 2023 olympics.com/museum
Anne-Sophie Thilo Olympic sailor, silver medallist at the European 470 Championships. 46
circuits
A city “made for running”
“Lausanne is perfect for running. It feels almost as if it were made for it!” Raymond Corbaz knows what he’s talking about: the founder and former president of Footing-club Lausanne, one of the city’s running clubs, was a top-class athlete, and is still running today at 78 years old. For runners who love “to get their blood pumping”, he recommends adding a few of the city centre’s many stairways to your route. If not, the shores of the lake – between the Lutry and SaintSulpice ports – are much easier on the calves, and following one of the heavenly waterside footpaths to Morges and making your way back on the train doesn’t sound half bad either.
interior
A new sporting Mecca in Beaulieu
This spring, the Lausanne Department for Sport opened a new sports complex in the city: the Halles Sportives de Beaulieu. Located in the northern halls of Beaulieu Convention Centre, the complex houses facilities for around a dozen sports, including four paddle tennis courts, a vast climbing and bouldering gym, roller sports, and a national basketball and 3x3 basketball centre, spanning almost 12,000 m2 in total. In May 2022, it hosted a portion of the Panathlon Family Games, a great yearly event where youngsters and their families can try out around thirty different sports for free. Elsewhere in the city, you can also break a sweat at Jump Spot on one of their 150 trampolines, La Fièvre skate park, or – if you’re a fan of parkour and free running – at XTM Park.
The many parks and woods scattered across Lausanne are great for trail running, too. The route from Haldimand Tower up to Chalet-àGobet is a firm favourite in these parts, with minimum time spent on tarmacked roads and plenty of forest tracks along rivers and swathes of grass. Your joints will love you for it. “Once you’re up there (almost 900m above sea level!), there are all kinds of great trails. You can easily run over 20km without ever seeing the same track twice”, says Raymond Corbaz, who recently opened a 3.6-km trail running loop right in the heart of the Jorat suburban natural park. In March there’s the Urban Trail Lausanne night-time city run, while Xtratrail Lavaux offers runners a great way to explore the region’s vineyards each spring. 47
THE DOSSIER swimwear
Fun lake activities
Lake Geneva is overflowing with opportunities to get active and have fun. Here are a few examples.
Paddleboarding Stand-up paddleboarding has surged in popularity in recent years, giving lake-goers the chance to enjoy the sights and sounds of the water in dreamy tranquillity – hire rates are around CHF 25/hour. Several addresses offer this activity. As well as rowing and kayaking.
Festival This year, the Lausanne sur Mer Festival will celebrate its 20th year at the Pyramides de Vidy from 2-17 July and 10-21 August. Get ready for beginner lessons for ages 12 and over in waterskiing, wakeboarding, mermaiding (swimming in a mermaid tail) and freediving for between CHF 5 and 10 apiece.
Windsports On breezy days, a windsurfing, windfoiling or kitesurfing session is also a must. No need for a motor – the wind will do nicely! The perfect way to feel at one with the elements.
→ Lausanne sur Mer Festival 2-17 July and 10-21 August 2022 lausanne-sur-mer.ch
48
THE DOSSIER Sailing Any number of sailors have earned their first stripes out on the iconic Lake Geneva, and it is home to no less than 12 clubs and associations where you can have a go at sailing, and even try your hand on a mini catamaran.
Swimming If you’re after something a little less fun but a lot more physical, try an adventure swim across the lake: the International Swim across Lake Geneva from Lausanne to Évian runs every summer, and is a great way to do it safely. This 13-km swim is a must for any wild swimming fan, but you’ll need a lot of training beforehand if you want to make it across.
Gliding A little less zen but a lot more exciting is waterskiing, or its younger cousins, wakeboarding and wakesurfing. You can try out these gliding watersports (where you get towed along behind a boat) with the Lausanne Waterskiing Club on the landing stage by Haldimand Tower, or other organisations like Pedalino in Vidy.
49
Romane Favia in the Vallée de la Jeunesse.
slopes
At 22 years old, rollerblader Romane Favia is already used to getting recognised, just two years after discovering the extreme sport. And it was on the steep slopes of Lausanne – a city worshipped by rollerbladers across Switzerland and beyond – that, day by day, the music student honed her technique to a fine art.
“Lausanne is heaven for downhill rollerblading”
How did you catch the downhill rollerblading bug? It was completely by chance: I started teaching myself how to do it just before the first lockdown. It isn’t as inaccessible as you might think. I worked really hard at it because I don’t know any other way, and I was soon addicted to the adrenaline rush. Every run is a quest for perfection, and you’re so focused on the moment all the way through – it makes you feel so alive! I do everything on my rollerblades now: my shopping, catching the train, even going to class. They’re like an extension of my own body, and make me feel like a superhero (laughs).
For world champion Romane Favia, rollerblading is all about seeking perfection. The former top-class violinist talks to us about her love of the sport and Lausanne, a city famous for its slopes.
50
THE DOSSIER
You’ve studied the violin for 19 years – you even got into a specialist class at the Gymnasium Auguste Piccard school. This is quite the U-turn! Rollerblading has replaced the violin in a way, but they both stemmed from the same quest for excellence. There’s the same kind of logic behind both choices. I showed that by playing the violin with rollerblades at the Fine Arts Museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds. There’s something musical and rhythmic about rollerblading. I always skate with techno music playing in my helmet, too – it’s almost like dancing. Both playing the violin and rollerblading require a degree of intuition, feeling what you’re doing, and technique: all that combines to create an intense sense of freedom. What makes Lausanne such a good place for rollerblading? Lausanne is one of the top spots worldwide for our little rollerblading community, which didn’t really come into being until the late 1990s. The city is perfect for us because of its steep inclines, and the incredible views: especially of Lake Geneva. We often ride from Chalet-àGobet to Ouchy at sunset. That’s a downhill ride of almost 600m, and we do it at 50km/h.
Romane’s top spots
Is there a big community of riders here? There’s about a hundred of us in total, and around twenty who do this long hill run regularly. As far as I know, I am the only girl to have taken it on with rollerblades, and I’m proud of being able to go head-to-head with the boys. There are longboarders who do it too. Some of the best riders in the world are right here in Lausanne. People are always taken aback when we pass them, and so are the police... although lots of them appreciate that safety is key for us, and we’re careful about planning how and where we ride to avoid any accidents.
Carrousel burger Quai d’Ouchy, Lausanne “We often come here for a burger after a ride. I think they’re the best in Lausanne. The calm of the lake is so different to the adrenalin rush we’ve just had...”
La Vaudoise arena skating rink Chemin du Viaduc 14, Prilly “I love coming here for short-track speed skating in the winter – it’s another Olympic sport where there’s absolutely no room for error, so it complements downhill rollerblading well...”
Do you get hurt often? Not really, even though on closed roads we can sometimes reach up to 100km/h. When I was just starting out, I crashed into a car and cracked three vertebrae. That brought me straight back down to Earth, even though all I could think about was getting back out there! I even kept my rollerblades with me in my hospital bed (laughs). Although it doesn’t look like it, there’s a lot of control involved in downhill riding. That’s why you see riders who are still incredible at it in their forties and beyond.
Archery Centre Chalet-à-Gobet, Lausanne “This is where long-time rider Natan Lakonishok trains his young Swiss Roller School students. I mainly go to do archery, because it helps with my concentration.” 51
ON THE LOOKOUT FOR ALIEN LIFE
CHAUDERON
Even after all this time, Lausanne’s famous mosaics by French artist Invader can still be found all over the city. Some have disappeared and so are being recreated by fans, but heading off in search of these little aliens is still a great day out. Warning – this piece contains spoilers!
METRO M1
MONTBENON ESPLANADE
By Adrien Kuenzy
In July 2000, eighteen pixelated aliens invaded Lausanne, making themselves at home on its buildings, bridges and roofs. They were brought here by the famous French artist and mosaicist Invader, who was inspired by the Vaud capital two years after the creation of his first alien in Place de la Bastille in Paris. “Since I was using the creatures from the Space Invaders video game, it was simply a matter of invading space: land, buildings… just invading any space”, explained the street artist in a rare interview with France Culture.
Since 2014, alien seekers have been able to use the free FlashInvader app to scan every figure they find and rise through the ranks of fellow hunters. The game is played by over 125,000 people around the world. Most of Lausanne’s aliens are worth between 10 and 30 points each, but one will earn you an impressive 50! However, since they first arrived two decades ago, the developing cityscape and the work of Invader thieves have led to some of them disappearing. “These pieces are valuable, and the people who steal them know that”, says Jean-Rodolphe Petter, art historian and author of Le graffiti à Lausanne – Histoire, conservation et diffusion (1986-2020) (Graffiti in Lausanne: History, Preservation and Dissemination (1986-2020)). “That is all part of the game, though: street art, or graffiti, is inherently short-lived. It also has something to do with how we consume images.” Invader is one of the most popular street artists in the world, but it is his Aliases (the single copies he makes of his Street Invaders, that he sells personally along with a certificate of authenticity) and prints that reach the most eye-watering prices. Two Aliases recently sold for over CHF 250,000 each. The record, though, goes to the Alias of TK_119 (Tokyo), which was auctioned off at Sotheby’s in 2019 for $1.2 million! His “Rubik Mona Lisa”, meanwhile, sold for half a million francs the following year.
To date, there are over 4,050 Invaders in 80 countries around the world. As time has gone on, their creator has developed his own, unique style: the 1978 arcade game was no longer the sole inspiration for his street art, as can be seen with his famous Mona Lisa at Rue du Louvre in Paris, or the vast mosaic of Serge Gainsbourg he created in Clermont-Ferrand (even if the smoke curling from his cigarette does form one of the unmistakeable little Space Invaders!). On 31 December 2021, the 4,000th Invader settled into its new home at an altitude of 4,000 m in Bolivia, ousting the previous record holder of 2,362 m in Anzère, Valais. In 2015, one lucky little invader even got to go home, and is now happily whiling away its days in the International Space Station.
52
METRO M2
PLACE DE LA RIPONNE
LA CITÉ
BESSIÈRES
LEB
FLON DISTRICT
OUTING
SAINT-FRANÇOIS
SBB STATION
The good news for the Street Invaders is that since 2017, teams of fans – also known as “reactivators” – have been working to recreate them all over the world. With the artist’s permission and supervision, they make exact replicas of his work and replace them themselves (once approved by Invader, of course). This was exactly what happened for the Space Invader at the Bessières stop (to Croisettes) on the m2 metro line where our walk in search of Lausanne’s extraterrestrials begins. Look up, and you’ll see your first creature on a wall by the platform: this one is black with blue eyes. All the Invaders are named with codes: Lsn for Lausanne, followed by a number. This little fellow is .
From the station, take the lift up to Pont Bessières and cross over to the esplanade outside the Cathedral, where you’ll be rewarded with sweeping views of Lake Geneva, the mountains, and the glorious roofs of the old town laid out in front of them. On a chimney a matter of metres away, you might spot an intruder who looks rather at odds with the rest of the scene...a bright red Invader! Code name: . And he’s not alone: on a second chimney, an Earthling made up of smaller tiles and wearing a brown jacket and jeans, looks to be moving towards him. →
53
OUTING Who is he? His name is Conrad, Conrad B. Hart, the main character of the 1992 Flashback video game reimagined by street artist Megamatt, who depicts the character’s adventures on walls and roofs around the world. Since Invader’s visit, Lausanne has also provided the canvas for another artist – local this time – known as Spaceramik, who still has a few pieces remaining around the city.
reinstated in late 2021. , a white flying saucer on a black background, is affixed to the south side of the Grand-Pont, which is currently undergoing works. Will it survive? The same concern goes for , in the middle of the bridge, also on the south side and clearly visible from the Flon footbridge. In the Banksy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop (available to watch on YouTube), you see Invader swiftly putting it in place in broad daylight. Banksy also filmed the French street artist when he stuck a red and white design under the steps from Rue du Grand-Chêne to the metro entrance in Flon. The installation of a lift means that the piece has since disappeared. Is it soon to be reactivated…? Orange extra-terrestrial , lost to the renovation of a nearby warehouse, already has been. But it is now in all likelihood the most inconspicuous of the lot, hidden away behind a set of patio furniture.
Next, go around the Cathedral to Rue CitéDevant. There, has been reactivated on the wall opposite the Italian restaurant Il Ghiotto and cocktail bar Le Vestibule. Then it’s time to work your way back to the city centre: in Place Arlaud, not far from Théâtre Boulimie, another reactivated piece, , puts two white Invaders on a black background at centre stage – although it is unfortunately already showing significant signs of damage.
At the junction between Rue Centrale and Rue Pépinet, opposite the Les Brasseurs terrace, sits another reactivated Invader. Down at ground level, , – an orange fellow with big white eyes – appears to survey the damage he has suffered: some of his pixels have been torn off, no doubt by someone trying to steal him. “A pointless endeavour”, says the artist, who now uses even more delicate tiles that are sure to break should anyone try to tamper with his work: “Stealing a piece is impossible. These individuals destroy the ceramic tiles as they remove them, and then have to go and buy more to repair the artwork. They even add a patina to make it look vintage. I find it hard to believe that anyone would want a fake mosaic, seeing as they might as well go and get the bits to make it themselves... All I can do is hope that soon, people won’t be tempted to steal my work, and that this nonsense and painful destruction will stop”, he writes on his website. At this point, head to Saint-François and take Rue du Petit-Chêne down towards the station. About halfway along the street lives a little green gentleman: . He was reactivated a few years ago, as was his nearest neighbour, , who sits at the top of a set of steps not far from the station. Lower down, Ouchy’s two aliens are still missing.
After that, it’s time for Place Chauderon. At the far end of the square, on the base of a light fixture, another reactivation was added in 2018. This is the masterpiece of the Lausanne , a brown Space Invader scene: pixelated alien with an orange reflector for a face, and worth 50 points on FlashInvader!
Might Invader return to decorate Lausanne again one day? Some cities have been invaded several times... The artist, who installs at least one new Invader somewhere in the world each week, has said it himself: “The game is not over!”
As you make your way into the Flon district, you’ll find plenty more of these little guys about. But the one that hangs out just above 2 Rue de Genève is not the work of Invader. On Rue des was briefly Côtes-de-Montbenon,
Have you found these Lausanne Invaders? Or any others? Take a photo with the artwork, tag us @thelausanner on Instagram, and you may get reposted.
54
• Emergency centre 7/7 • Radio-oncology centre • The largest private Radiology institute in the Vaud canton • Breast imaging centre • Multidisciplinary outpatient centre • Physiotherapy institute • 24-hour Medical laboratories • Medical and surgical centre for obesity
www.etcdesign.ch - Photos©Th. Zufferey
“OUTPATIENT SERVICES OPEN TO PATIENTS WITH BASIC MEDICAL INSURANCE”
La qualité au service de votre santé www.lasource.ch
Ad_10-22_Ambulatoires_AN_148x210mm_TheLausanner_AN.indd 1
24.04.22 12:15
↑
↑
46
26
56
50 17
ES
NN
TU
ON CH
20
PO
NT
53
E
ÊN
CH
ON
NE
VIE 16 32 GR AN
CY CH
U O
D’
E
AVE N
NU
DÉLICES
D
AV E
RH
24 OD AN I
E
100 m
500 m
NU
E
DE
L'É
E
LY S
EN
M
O
U
ÉE
NT
CH
O
IS 39 I
AV E
NU
41
AVE N U E
E D E
D’O
UCH
Y
10
QU AI
4
0
AVE N
Y
DE
O LI
RD
JU RI GOZ
NU
E
DE
18
AV E
ÂT R
E
CO U R
HÉ
AV
E D E
UT
T E-
E VA
UE
NU
ED
JUS
UL
NU
LA GARE
N AVE
AV E
44
13
AV E
C H40
AV E
DES
S
I T-
11
UE
BO
HARPE AV EN UE DE LA
52
←
T
19
UE
IN
PE T
AV EN UE DE
E BA
49
DU
E
RU
RU
S-
NU AV E
43
S
UI
DE M I L A N
29
RE
LO
AVE N U E D U M O NT- D’O R
28
IÈ
2
5
45
NT
E
42
12
E CA RU
PO
NU
SS
RU E DE B O U RG
D-
AV E
22
CE NTR A L E 31 3
BE
RU E
T
1
30
N
NIN
36
AN
GO
27 7
35
PO
ES
GR
JUL
DU
UE
E
AVE N
34
RU
O LI AVE N U E DE T I V
15 21 23
O LINE
ER
14
AU D
VE
ROUX
DE G ENÈ
AR-
RU E
9 25
ED U
CE
8
EL
CÉ S
N
RU
A
NU
FR
RU E
E
AV E
D
ET
E
6
N
U
E D E B EA UL
IEU
AV E
VI
N
UE
AV E
IÈR
N
←
RG
E
55
S B E
RD
38
R
E D E
R
NU
BO
48
LA
AV E
DE
33
37
RUE
51
E D E
D’O
DE
UC
N
A
N
U
HY 54
CGN EMBARCADÈRE LAUSANNE-OUCHY
56
TO
LAKE GENEVA
47
REPERTOIRE
THE ADDRESSES IN THIS EDITION
BARS, CAFES & RESTAURANTS 1
2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17
Bottle Brothers Place Pépinet 1 1003 Lausanne
Café de Chavannes Route de la Maladière 40 1022 Chavannesprès-Renens Café des Artisans Rue Centrale 16 1003 Lausanne Carrousel Burger Quai d’Ouchy 1006 Lausanne
Casse-croûte de Vidy Promenade de Vidy 1007 Lausanne Deli Social Place du Tunnel 11 1005 Lausanne
Forbici Place de l’Europe 9 1003 Lausanne Jaja Rue de la Barre 1 1005 Lausanne
Jajaffe à La Grenette Place de la Riponne 10 1005 Lausanne La Croix d’Ouchy Avenue d’Ouchy 43 1006 Lausanne La Folie Voltaire Parc de Mon-Repos 1005 Lausanne
La Galicienne Avenue du Chablais 18 1008 Prilly
La Jetée de la Compagnie Jetée de la Compagnie 1007 Lausanne La Pinte Besson Rue de l’Ale 4 1003 Lausanne
Le Barbare Escaliers du Marché 27 1003 Lausanne Le Café du Simplon Rue du Simplon 17 1006 Lausanne Le Café Perché Promenade du Bois-de-Beaulieu 1004 Lausanne
18
19
20 21 22
23 24 25 26
27 28
29
Le Minimum Jetée de la Compagnie 1007 Lausanne
34
Le Montriond Avenue Édouard Dapples 25 1006 Lausanne
35 36
Le Superposé Rue Chaucrau 10 1003 Lausanne
37
Le Vieux-Lausanne Rue Pierre-Viret 6 1003 Lausanne
Les Grandes Roches Escaliers des Grandes-Roches 1003 Lausanne
38 39
Les Jardins Rue Pierre-Viret 6 1003 Lausanne
40
Mövenpick Avenue de Rhodanie 4 1007 Lausanne Pavillon Bar & Kitchen Place de la Riponne 10 1005 Lausanne
31 32 33
Mix-Image Rue du Petit-Saint-Jean 3 1003 Lausanne Payot Place Pépinet 4 1003 Lausanne
Socar station-service du garage de l’Etoile Rue de Cossonay 101 1020 Renens
Sole Savaz Avenue d’Échallens 48 1004 Lausanne
Tandem Avenue de Montchoisi 49 1006 Lausanne Tanigami Rue du Midi 2 1003 Lausanne
MUSEUM, THEATRE & CINEMA
Pinte du lac de Sauvabelin Chemin des Celtes 1 1018 Lausanne
41
42
Punk Bar Place de l’Europe 9 1003 Lausanne
43
Restaurant du Camping de Vidy Chemin du Camping 3 1007 Lausanne Thaï au Lac Avenue Émile-HenriJacques-Dalcroze 9 1007 Lausanne
Le Musée Olympique Quai d’Ouchy 1 1006 Lausanne Plateforme 10 Place de la Gare 16 1003 Lausanne
Pyramides de Vidy Esplanade des Cantons 1007 Lausanne
MONUMENT & STADIUM 44
SHOPPING 30
FNAC Rue de Genève 6 1003 Lausanne
45
Amavita Nutribio La Palud Place de la Palud 23 1003 Lausanne
46
Baroque & Rococo Rue Saint-François 5-7 1003 Lausanne
Belphégor Boulevard de Grancy 10 1006 Lausanne
47
Chic Cham Route de Prilly 2 1004 Lausanne
57
Piscine de Bellerive Avenue de Rhodanie 23 1007 Lausanne Piscine de Mon-Repos Avenue du TribunalFédéral 4 1005 Lausanne Stade Olympique de la Pontaise Route des Plainesdu-Loup 7 1018 Lausanne
Tribunal Fédéral Avenue du TribunalFédéral 29 1005 Lausanne
48
Vaudoise aréna Chemin du Viaduc 14 1008 Prilly
SPORT 49
50 51
52 53 54 55 56
Bowl de Vidy Avenue Pierrede-Coubertin 9 1007 Lausanne
Centre de tir à l’arc Chalet-à-Gobet 1000 Lausanne 25
Halles sportives de Beaulieu Avenue Bergières 10 1004 Lausanne
Pedalino Chemin du Camping 13 1007 Lausanne Skatepark La Fièvre Avenue de Sévelin 36 1004 Lausanne Ski Nautique Club Tour Haldimand 1006 Lausanne
The Jump Spot Rue de Genève 103 1004 Lausanne
XTM Park Route de Romanel 1 1018 Lausanne
TRANSPORTATION Gare Lausanne-CFF Place de la Gare 1003 Lausanne Transports publics lausannois (tl) m1 Metro
m2 Metro
DISTRICTS
TOWN CENTRE/ RÔTILLON/FLON
CITÉ – MON-REPOS TRAIN STATION – OUCHY SAUVABELIN PULLY
UNMISSABLE PLACES
The essentials on www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/highlights
Live music
docks.ch
Lausanne
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
DISTRICTS
CITÉ/MON-REPOS
It is around the Cité hill, sculpted by the Flon and Louve rivers, that the medieval town grew. Its cobble-stoned pedestrian streets as well as its monuments bear witness to this. Then, as soon as you cross the Bessières Bridge, the scenery changes completely. The Caroline district possesses a shopping mall, many bars, restaurants and boutiques. A bit further to the east, the Mon-Repos Park offers a green and tranquil haven, interrupted from time to time by the twittering of birds in its aviary.
PLACES YOU MUST VISIT
LAUSANNE CATHEDRAL
MUSÉE HISTORIQUE LAUSANNE
The Cathedral, considered one of the most beautiful Gothic buildings in Switzerland, was consecrated in 1275. Don’t miss the rose window, the painted portal, the 13th-century choir stalls, the ancient and modern stained glass windows and the great organs. The bravest will admire the panoramic view from the belfry (entrance fee) after climbing the 224 stairs. Open tours of the Cathedral and free guided tours during the summer.
Within the walls of the Old Bishop’s Palace, this Lausanne historical museum speaks of the town’s rich past and features a famous model that offers an exceptional view of the 17th-century Cité. Temporary exhibitions, inspired by the research conducted on its collections, explore the thousand years of this heritage. A novel approach to the town’s history: smart multimedia!
59
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
ESCALIERS DU MARCHÉ A direct but abrupt route between the Cathedral and the town centre, this wooden stairway first mentioned during the 13th century exists in its present form since the beginning of the 18th century:
MON-REPOS PARK
Open to the public, it’s one of the most popular parks for Lausanne inhabitants of all ages, with its huge lawns, aviaries of exotic birds, playgrounds and ephemeral sculptures.
roofed and winding, with a very steep cobbled street running alongside. An integral part of Lausanne’s popular iconography, it is lined on the west with a picturesque row of boutiques and cafés.
Stroll down its various alleys to catch a glimpse of an orangery as well as a neo-Gothic tower overlooking a cave and a waterfall.
PLACES YOU MUST VISIT
DISTRICT
TOWN CENTRE
This is where the city’s energy is most animated both by day and night.
From ancient buildings to trendy new districts, tread the cobblestones and broad avenues to make the most of shopping amongst major brands and local designers. It’s also the axis of nightlife with concert halls and an opera, plus bars and clubs that will keep you awake until the early hours of the morning.
PLACE SAINT-FRANÇOIS & CHURCH
Lausanne’s residents like to meet up in this central square dominated by a mediaeval church that has become a hub for music and dialogue with contemporary art in all its guises. The square welcomes every Wednesday and Saturday morning the famous market stands of Lausanne. 60
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
RÔTILLON NEIGHBOURHOOD
PLACE DE LA PALUD
PALAIS DE RUMINE
FLON DISTRICT
MONTBENON ESPLANADE
COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
In the intertwining lanes of one of Lausanne’s oldest neighbourhoods that was recently renovated, works of art, a Titeuf fresco, small, original shops and bohemian cafés now attract the trendy crowds. One of the trendy new neighbourhoods in Lausanne, the Rôtillon feels like a corner of Italy in the heart of the town.
It’s the town’s architectural success: this district of former warehouses that begins at the Place de l’Europe was rehabilitated as a living area with a wide array of restaurants, bars, clubs, boutiques, cinemas and exhibition spaces. A must is to enjoy a drink on one of the rooftop terraces.
A polychrome statue, symbolising justice, stands imposingly on the Renaissance fountain in the centre of this pedestrian square, where the Town Hall is also located. Opposite, tourists and children wait, every hour on the hour from 9 am to 7 pm, for the ballet of animated figures to the sound of the carillon.
Making the most of one of the town’s most beautiful openings on Lake Geneva and the Alps, you can lounge on the lawns in front of the District Court or enjoy a meal on a terrace. If it’s raining, you might like to visit the Swiss Film Archive in the Casino de Montbenon.
61
Erected at the end of the 19 th century on the Place de la Riponne, this Italianatestyle building houses a host of treasures in its various museums of science, such as the largest naturalised great white shark.
The town created this museum, unique in the world, in 1976 in exchange for the legacy of 5,000 works of outsider art belonging to artist Jean Dubuffet. Located opposite the Beaulieu Palace, this institution today owns over 70,000 works, 700 of which are displayed permanently, and exports its exhibitions all over the world.
A haven of peace AS YOU WOULD NOT EXPECT IN SUCH A CENTRAL LOCATION
Best Western Plus Hôtel Mirabeau Avenue de la Gare 31 1003 Lausanne, Suisse T +41 21 341 42 43 contact@mirabeau.ch
Mirabeau-Annonce-A5-FR.indd 2
The hotel is one of the unsung treasures of the city. It is located just 400 meters from the train station and Lausanne’s Métro. The 4-star hotel offers 75 quiet rooms.
www.mirabeau.ch 16.04.19 13:32
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
DISTRICTS
TRAIN STATION/OUCHY
The neighbourhoods located between the Ouchy quays, by the lakeside, and the Lausanne train station are perfect for a revitalising stroll.
They unveil several green oases, elegant Belle Époque dwellings bordering broad avenues and four internationally renowned museums. Since 2008, the rubber-tired m2 metro has replaced the “Ficelle” (the “String”), which was, in 1877, one of the first metropolitan railways in the world.
PLACES YOU MUST VISIT
CRÊT DE MONTRIOND & PLACE DE MILAN
MUSEUM AND BOTANICAL GARDENS
This magnificent place, overflowing with flowers and great trees, is located at the foot of the Montriond Hill, a stone’s throw from Milan Park. You can admire close to 4,000 plant species from all over the world. Alpine, medicinal, carnivorous and tropical plants have been brought together in this haven of greenery in the heart of town. The botanical museum organises scientific and artistic exhibitions during the year.
Inagurated at the end of the 19 th century, this square’s vast lawns, football fields, playgrounds, fountain and shady alley draw in families in all seasons. Reach the Crêt de Montriond by a winding path to discover a 360° panorama of the Lavaux vineyards, Lake Geneva and Alps.
63
THE SKYLOUNGE AT THE ROYAL SAVOY
DISCOVER A 360 DEGREES PANORAMIC VIEW OVER LAUSANNE, LAKE GENEVA AND THE ALPS
Royal Savoy Hotel & Spa Lausanne Avenue d’Ouchy 40 1006 Lausanne T. +41 (0)21 614 88 88, info@royalsavoylausanne.com www.royalsavoylausanne.com
02 RS-Ann-TheLausanner 148x107mm-Avr22.indd 2
25.04.22 15:06
SPECTRA 3.0
LET INNOVATION TAKE YOU FURTHER Expand your horizons and let life take flight: with an ingenious and sustainable design for effortless travel. FROM THE MAKERS OF THE ORIGINAL SWISS ARMY KNIFE™ ESTABLISHED 1884 Victorinox Store Lausanne, Rue de Bourg 43, 1003 Lausanne www.victorinox.com TGE_611758_AW_AD_148x107mm_KB.indd 2
09.05.22 14:08
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
DENANTOU PARK
OLYMPIC MUSEUM & PARK
Unique in the world, the Olympic Museum forms Lausanne’s main cultural attraction. Each of its three levels is dedicated to a particular aspect of modern Olympism, largely featuring new interactive communication media. You may need several visits to explore everything. In any case, a pause at the TOM Café is welcome, with its terrace on the uppermost floor that offers a splendid view of Lake Geneva and the Alps. In the park, admire the collection of sculptures and test your speed on a proper running track. Strolling through the landscaped terraces, you’ll reach the monument on the shores of the lake.
Initially privately held, until opened to the public in 1928, this park was laid out during the 19 th century in the English fashion by a banker. Allow your children to caper about in the wild meadows surrounded by copses, flower bed displays and statues, or to play with the water from the pond. Since 2007, a Thai pavilion with a golden roof adorns this green area; it was given to the town by His Majesty the late King of Thailand in gratitude for the years he spent in Lausanne between 1933 and 1951.
CRUISES ON A BELLE ÉPOQUE BOAT
OUCHY QUAYS
For a romantic or gourmet cruise, or simply to cross Lake Geneva, the steamships of the Compagnie Générale de Navigation (CGN) are a must do during your holidays in western Switzerland. Step aboard in Lausanne-Ouchy and sail for instance to Chillon Castle or admire the terraced vineyards of Lavaux, always with the Alps as a backdrop.
On foot, on a bike or on roller-skates, follow the shores of Lake Geneva from the Old Port to the Haldimand Tower. You’ll discover no less than three major Lausanne parks along your way: the Élysée, the Olympic Park and Park Denantou, as well as the Place du Général Guisan’s rose garden that contains more than 130 different varieties of roses.
65
LISTENING TO THE EARTH
18.6 25.9.22
MUDAC COLLECTION
Partenaire principal du mudac
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
PL ATE FORM E 10
This new arts quarter, one of its kind in Switzerland, is located right next to the train station and is home to three internationally renowned museums: the MCBA, Photo Élysée and the mudac.
This new cultural platform brings together fine arts, photography, contemporary arts and design complemented by the presence of the Toms Pauli and Félix Vallotton Foundations. A welcoming and relaxing venue with catering facilities, its architectural design and the quarter’s atmosphere create a unique urban, modern and lively space.
M C B A – C A NTO N A L MUSEUM OF FINE A RT S
P H OTO É LYS É E – C A NTO N A L M U S E U M FO R P H OTO G R A P H Y
Inaugurated in 1841, the MCBA is one of the oldest museums in Switzerland to be dedicated exclusively to art. Ducros, Gleyre, Steinlen, Vallotton and Soutter are all Vaud painters who have established the reputation of the Vaud Museum of Fine Arts, both nationally and internationally. Their works make up a large part of the museum’s collection, that comprises close to 11,000 canvases. The brick building with its monolithic shape pays tribute to the history of the site, which housed the old locomotives’ depot.
Photo Élysée is one of the major museums in Switzerland and the world that is entirely dedicated to photographic culture. Every year, it presents several large-scale exhibitions. Internationally renowned, it is the custodian of a unique collection and several photographic archives, among which those of Charlie Chaplin, Sabine Weiss and Jan Groover. Its temporary exhibitions are presented in Lausanne as well as in galleries all over the world.
67
mudac – M U S E U M O F CO NTE M P O R A RY D E S I G N A N D A P P LI E D A RT S Resolutely contemporary, the mudac is interested in all forms of design and loves to build bridges between styles. Design, graphics, fashion: the museum challenges accepted notions and casts a fresh eye on art. In its permanent space, it presents the most important collection of contemporary glass art in Switzerland and Europe. As for the temporary exhibitions, they always go where we least expect them to, highlighting in turn ceramics, furniture, as well as media and jewellery.
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
DISTRICTS
VIDY/UNIVERSITIES
The western part of Lausanne is dominated by the university campus that includes the University and the Federal Institute of Technology. A location close to the lakeside loved by the 28,000 students who can take part in a broad array of nautical sports.
PLACES YOU MUST VISIT
BELLERIVE SWIMMING POOL & MINI GOLF This outdoor swimming pool is equipped with large pools, up to 10-metre diving boards and fun paddling pools for children. Would you rather chill out? Lounge on the large lawns or on the (supervised) beach with direct access to the lake. Restaurants and refreshment stalls on the spot. Next to the pool, the Bellerive crazy golf is an invitation to playful relaxation ideal for families or friends.
PARC LOUIS-BOURGET & PLAGE DE VIDY Between shoreline forest and meadows, the Louis-Bourget Park is a nature reserve that hosts a bird sanctuary, a pond bordered with fireflies, a fitness trail and a large playground. It’s also an ideal destination for hot summer evenings: come and use the barbecues and grills set on the lawns before enjoying a game of football or relaxing on Vidy beach! You’ll also meet many walkers strolling on the pleasant path that runs along the lakeside. 68
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
OLYMPIC HOUSE With its shape inspired by the movement of an athlete, Olympic House is one of the most sustainable buildings in the world. Designed to reflect the IOC’s overarching mission to make the world a better place through sport, it brings together the entire staff of the IOC – that is 500 employees – under one roof. (Closed to the public.)
ROMAN MUSEUM & GALLO-ROMAN RUINS
The Lausanne-Vidy Roman Museum offers a presentation of the Gallo-Roman Lousonna (Lausanne), as well as various temporary exhibitions. In a bucolic setting that blends greenery, a body of water and ruins, don’t miss the walk around the remains of the Lousonna vicus (village) dating from 15 BC, one of the largest in Switzerland.
ESPACE DES INVENTIONS Are your children budding scientists? The Invention Space is a place for them! Housed in a strange building with a concave roof dating from the National Exhibition, its vocation is to arouse young people’s interest in science and technique thanks to interactive and entertaining exhibitions that are regularly renewed.
UNIVERSITY CAMPUS & ROLEX LEARNING CENTER
The university campus includes the Lausanne Federal Institute of Technology and Lausanne University, the first buildings of which were erected in the 1970s. Since then, the site has rapidly expanded and integrated buildings, the architecture of which is admired beyond Swiss borders. It’s the case of the Rolex Learning Center’s gentle undulations, created by the Japanese architecture firm SANAA, that serves as a place of learning, meeting and exchanges, and includes a library housing more than 500,000 volumes.
69
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
DISTRICTS
SAUVABELIN/CHALET-À-GOBET
North of the town, vast expanses of forest, representing 40% of the municipal surface area, offer many opportunities for walks and outdoor sports activities.
At an altitude of 873 m, Le Chalet-à-Gobet is the culminating point of the Lausanne urban area, 500 m above Lake Geneva. Sauvabelin’s bucolic setting, with its lake, park and tower, will delight you.
PLACES YOU MUST VISIT
AQUATIS AQUARIUM-VIVARIUM
This innovative architectural complex, easily reached by metro, integrates the largest freshwater aquarium in Europe and the Lausanne Vivarium. Follow the discovery
trail that includes 50 tanks displaying about 20 aquatic ecosystems from across the five continents.
71
Season 2022-2023 Renaud Capuçon MUSIC DIRECTOR Martha Argerich Alban Gerhardt Maria João Pires Joshua Weilerstein Barbara Hannigan Stefan Dohr Ton Koopman Hannu Lintu John Nelson
Memberships and tickets on sale on 15 June 2022 on ocl.ch
Vos défis, notre métier. Conseil de direction Expertises Evaluations d’entreprises Conseils et services fiscaux Gestion fiduciaire et administration de sociétés Conseils et services juridiques Révision Révision de comptes des collectivités publiques Gestion financière et comptable Comptabilité et gestion des salaires
ofisaberney.ch berneyassocies.com
Ofisa Berney Associés SA Ch. des Charmettes 7 Case Postale 7063 1002 Lausanne
T +41 21 341 81 11 F +41 21 311 13 51 fidu@ofisaberney.ch ofisaberney.ch
UNMISSABLE PL ACES
HERMITAGE COUNTRY ESTATE & FOUNDATION
CHALET-À-GOBET & MAUVERNAY SPORTS CENTRE This village includes a hotel school, a ski slope, an equestrian centre as well as a golf course. Its sports centre offers running and mountainbike trails (changing showers available).
In the centre of the Hermitage Estate sits an imposing mansion built around 1850 and which today houses a famous museum of paintings. In the English-style gardens populated with majestic trees, benches invite you to contemplate a unique panorama of the old town, the lake and the mountains.
SAUVABELIN PARK & LAKE
SAUVABELIN TOWER
Created in 1888 in the heart of an oak forest, the Sauvabelin lake rapidly became a soughtafter strolling area for Lausanne people. You can rent a small boat during the summer or walk along its shores. The surrounding park is very popular with children, who discover unusual animals such as woolly pigs, grey cows, booted goats and mirror sheep.
This tower built of solid, local wood in a spirit of environmental respect is one of the many destinations for a hike above the town since 2003. Enjoy the 360° view from a height of 35 metres after climbing the 151 steps of its double spiral staircase. Free access.
73
U S E F U L I N FO R M AT I O N
(RE)DISCOVER THE ADDRESSES OF
LAUSANNE TOURISME
TOURIST INFORMATION Two Tourist Office information and welcome centres are at your service at the CFF train station ans the Cathedral. You will find a host of services at your disposal there – public transport passes, maps, recommended routes and excursions from Lausanne, various brochures, lists of hotels, help and emergency services, etc. – as well as culture and leisure news. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICES LAUSANNE TRAIN STATION Pl. de la Gare 9 CFF train station main hall
LAUSANNE CONVENTION BUREAU Administration Av. de Rhodanie 2 Case postale 975 CH-1001 Lausanne +41 21 613 73 73 www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/ info@lausanne-tourisme.ch
LAUSANNE CATHEDRAL Find out the opening hours of the two information offices on: www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/ tourism-offices TOWN OF LAUSANNE – INFO CITÉ Information point for the town of Lausanne, the “info cité” office’s mission is to inform, orient and guide Lausanne people and passing guests. Place de la Palud 2 1002 Lausanne Monday to Friday: 8 am → 5 pm +41 21 315 25 55 www.lausanne.ch/infocite infocite@lausanne.ch
74
U S E F U L I N FO R M AT I O N
PRACTICAL LAUSANNE
Here are useful contact details to keep at hand and make your stay easier. You have access to all the necessary information at our two information offices at the CFF train station and the Cathedral.
EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
CURRENCY Swiss franc (CHF) 1 euro = 1 Swiss Franc (indicative rate)
112 International number for emergency calls
117 Police (crimes and theft, emergencies only) 118 Fire brigade
EXCHANGE OFFICE Lausanne train station Monday to Friday: 8 am → 6.30 pm; Saturday: 9 am → 6 pm; Sunday: 10 am → 6 pm
140 Roadside assistance service 144 Ambulance
USEFUL PHONE NUMBERS
POST OFFICES
+41 21 314 11 11 CHUV (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois)
IN THE TOWN CENTRE Pl. Saint-François 15 +41 848 888 888 Monday to Friday: 7.30 am → 6.30 pm; Saturday: 8 am → 11.30 am
+41 848 133 133 Centre for on-call doctors 1811 Directory enquiry services
AT THE TRAIN STATION Pl. de la Gare 1/Av. de la Gare 43 bis +41 848 888 888 Monday to Friday: 8 am → 6.30 pm; Saturday: 9am → 4 pm; Sunday: 4 pm → 7 pm www.poste.ch/en
162 Swiss weather forecast
163 Road traffic information LOST PROPERTY OFFICE LAUSANNE POLICE STATION Pl. de la Riponne 10 +41 21 315 33 85 Information by telephone only in the morning Monday to Friday (except wednesday): 1 pm → 4 pm www.lausanne.ch/en
ULTRA-CONNECTED LAUSANNE The town is constantly developing hotspots providing free internet access. Currently, 10 WiFi hubs are available in the town’s main squares: Flon, Palud, Riponne, Gare, Saint-François, Montbenon, Navigation, Port, Musée Historique, Blécherette Airport.
USEFUL MOBILE APPLICATIONS Find here the applications that are useful for your stay in Lausanne. Calendar, hotels, self-service bike rentals, public transport and much more! MORE INFORMATION AT: www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/mobile-apps
MORE INFORMATION AT: www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/good-to-know
75
U S E F U L I N FO R M AT I O N
LAUSANNE, AT THE HEART OF THE LAKE GENEVA REGION Situated in the heart of Europe, the Olympic Capital is also the ideal departure point for exploring the charming lake, mountains, countryside, vineyards and forests of the surrounding area.
MOVE IN LAUSANNE You can reach Lausanne across land, air or even water. This model town for sustainable development possesses a network of public transport that makes it ideal to set off from and explore. A CARD THAT OFFERS YOU TRANSPORT AND DISCOUNTS!
www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/ltc
Don’t forget to ask the establishment providing your lodging for your personal Lausanne Transport Card (LTC)! You can use public transport (bus, train, metro) as you please during your whole stay (maximum 15 days) in Lausanne and its surroundings. But that’s not all! Thanks to our partners, you benefit from exceptional discounts and advantages from many museums, shops and other leisure activity providers.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN THE LAUSANNE REGION The “tl_live” application lets you purchase your ticket, look up itineraries and real-time schedules (in French only).
FLON CUSTOMER CENTRE Pl. de l’Europe 5b +41 21 621 01 11 Monday to Friday: 7 am → 7 pm; Saturday: 9 am → 6 pm www.t-l.ch/en
MORE INFORMATION AT: www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/ lausanne-transport-card-and-more
“GRAND LAUSANNE” MOBILIS DAY PASS Full fare: CHF 9.30; reduced fare: CHF 6.90. This pass entitles you to whole-day-use of all the public transport companies belonging to the Vaud tariff community present in the Grand Lausanne perimeter (i.e. Lausanne and its immediate surroundings). Available from ticket dispensers or points of sale. For more information, see: www.mobilis-vaud.ch
76
U S E F U L I N FO R M AT I O N
USEFUL INFORMATION
CHEMINS DE FER FÉDÉRAUX (CFF) Consulting the timetables for national or international connections from or to Lausanne, preparing your trip and buying tickets to travel in Switzerland becomes child’s play with “Mobile CFF” application. CFF information – Passenger service: Pl. de la Gare 5a +41 848 44 66 88 (within Switzerland) www.sbb.ch/en
GENEVA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT Second in Switzerland after Zurich, Geneva Airport is a 45-minute train ride from Lausanne. It benefits from a network serving 142 direct destinations, 23 of which are intercontinental. Rte. de l’Aéroport 21, Grand-Saconnex +41 848 19 20 20 (information about departures and arrivals) www.gva.ch/en
COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE DE NAVIGATION (CGN) From the simple lake crossing to go to France to a gourmet cruise on a Belle Époque paddle-wheel vessel, every experience on the Lake Geneva waters becomes an unforgettable memory. Av. de Rhodanie 17 +41 848 811 848 www.cgn.ch/en
LA BLÉCHERETTE LAUSANNE AIRPORT This aeronautical facility – that celebrated its hundredth year in 2016 – is located nearby Lausanne’s town centre. First flights and air-taxis. Av. du Grey 117 +41 21 646 15 51 www.lausanne-airport.ch
LEB RAILWAY Would you like to spend a day in the countryside? Embark on the Lausanne – Echallens – Bercher train that departs from the Flon. Bikes and pushchairs are welcome on board. Gare Lausanne-Chauderon +41 21 621 01 11 www.leb.ch
PUBLIBIKE – SELF-SERVICE BIKE RENTALS You will find all the information on the offers and the networks to Lausanne-Morges on the PubliBike site. +41 32 501 40 16 www.publibike.ch/en/publibike
www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/getting-around-in-lausanne
FIND ACCOMMODATION IN LAUSANNE Would you like to stay at a centrally located, low-priced establishment after enjoying Lausanne’s nightlife, or do you dream of spending the night in a 5-star hotel overlooking the lake? Do you need a comfortable room near the EPFL congress centre? How about a hotel with seminar rooms and high-tech facilities? Or do you imagine a romantic weekend in a boutique hotel? With more than 7,000 beds from 1- to 5-star superior spread over 60 or so establishments, the city of Lausanne allows all its guests to be put up in the best conditions, whether they are here on business or for leisure. MORE INFORMATION AT: www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/hotels (for hotel bookings)
77
Lausanne Insider Tips
Find out more about the Lausanners and their insider tips on www.thelausanner.ch
Discover the city differently
LAUSANNE CITY PASS
With this unique ticket valid for one, two or three days, discover the most popular attractions & highlights in Lausanne and the region at an exceptional price.
Discover The Olympic Museum, the Vaud Museum of Fine Arts, AQUATIS Aquarium-Vivarium, the Collection de l’Art Brut,... and much more! Take advantage of your stay to discover the very-interactive Chaplin’s World or the unique view of Glacier 3000, both easily accessible by train from Lausanne. www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/city-pass
TASTE MY SWISS CITY LAUSANNE
A journey of culinary discovery. The starter, the main course and the dessert are served in 3 different locations in the heart of the city, all recommended by local experts. Choose your culinary experience and indulge your senses! www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/ en/taste-my-city
A TRAVEL JOURNAL FOR YOUR FAMILY VISIT TO LAUSANNE
To entertain your children while you visit the town, Lausanne Tourisme offers them a Travel Journal packed with fun and creative activities. Come and pick up a Travel Journal for each of your children aged 5 to 12 in one of our tourist information offices. www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/travel-journal
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR SPECIAL PACKAGES AND GOOD IDEAS AT:
Information offices: Train station, Cathedral +41 21 613 73 73 info@lausanne-tourisme.ch
www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/special-offers
79
D I S C O V E R T H E C I T Y D I F F E R E N T LY
VISIT LAUSANNE...
Discover the diversity of Lausanne and its surrounding area in the company of experienced and multilingual guides. Benefit from their knowledge as you enjoy a fun and enriching visit of the city. Many activities and guided tours. In partnership with:
www.visitelausanne.ch/en
ACTIVITIES FOR THOSE ON TIGHT BUDGETS A leisure offer accessible to all
The City of Lausanne puts on various activities for those on a modest budget. Here are a few examples of outings to be enjoyed as a family or among friends.
FREE OF CHARGE
BETWEEN CHF 0 AND CHF 8.50 • Climbing the Cathedral tower
• Vidy Bowl for skaters
(from CHF 1 to CHF 5)
• Many multi-coloured birds
• Flon bowling alley (between CHF 5
at the Mon-Repos Park aviary
and CHF 8.50 per person)
• Free entry to most museums on
• Bellerive minigolf (free up to age 4,
the first Saturday of the month
CHF 6 until age 16, then CHF 8)
• Mountain biking at Chalet-à-Gobet
• Vidy miniature train
• Climbing the Sauvabelin Tower
(CHF 3 per journey)
80
Au cœur du Quartier du Flon, les deux bâtiments historiques « Jumeaux » accueilleront bientôt commerces, bureaux, lieux de loisirs et restaurant. www.les-jumeaux.ch
AUTHENTICATED BY EXPERTS • TWO-YEAR GUARANTEE • BUY, SELL & TRADE Rue de Bourg 1, 1003 Lausanne