Lausanne is my home base, so I go out and explore the city whenever I get the chance . So, I have decided to write about Lausanne in different parts. When visiting you can decide if you will stay a couple of days to cover the extent of the city, or concentrate on one area over another.
To start, Lausanne is absolutely stunning! It has all the possible elements that make a city unique. For instance, the distinguished buildings on the hills, the colourful architecture, ancient and modern in harmony, and of course the natural beauty of Lake Geneva (Lac Leman in French) and the Swiss and French Alps. With all of that at our disposal, it is very hard to narrow down a specific area to concentrate our photography.
This first part of describing Lausanne will focus on the centre-ville surrounding Lausanne Cathedral. The downtown core is not too large that you can't cover it by walking everywhere but it is extremely hilly, like the entire city. My recommendation is to have a city pass for the public transportation. If you are staying at a hotel, this pass is already included with your stay, just ask at the reception. Another observation is that maps will be confusing at first, the city is not flat like the map, so you might be trying to get to a place and on the map it seems that all you have to do is to turn right. In reality, the city is three dimensional, with streets being linked by elevators and sets of stairs that are not represented in the maps. You will get lost, it is part of experiencing Lausanne.
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| Image 1 - Colourful buildings on the hills of Centre-Ville |
The trademark of Lausanne is the Cathedral that stands at the top of a hill and can be seen from many parts of the Centre-Ville. It can be really useful when trying to orient yourself around the small labyrinth like streets. This gothic styled cathedral was first catholic but nowadays it is reformed protestant, the main religion of the Canton de Vaud. The cathedral is beautiful inside and there is also an observation tower that can be visited to appreciate the 360 degrees view of the city. Unfortunately, I visited the inside without my camera, so I don't have images. The good news is that you are allowed to photograph with your tripod inside. I will be going back in the near future with some friends that are visiting then, I plan on taking some images.
I was fortunate enough to stay for 6 weeks at an extended stay apartment with a view of the cathedral. One afternoon, when I arrived from apartment hunting (the living situation in Lausanne is chaotic!) I experienced a beautiful sunset. Since the cathedral is such a recognizable symbol of the city, I have decided to place it as a silhouette in my image.
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| Image 2 - Lausanne Cathedral silhouette during sunset |
The contrast of ancient and modern is everywhere around the centre-ville. In my opinion the most remarkable one is the subway system that runs through the underground of the old buildings. At the Bessiere subway station, you can admire the trains running under the bridge with the cathedral in the background. When visiting, this is the area that I recommend you to stay. The Hotel City is right next door to the subway station and walking distance to all main attractions of the city. Another option is to stay at Residence Caroline an extended stay that offers rooms with fully equipped kitchens .
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| Image 3 - Old and new contrast with subway on the bottom of Bessiere bridge and Lausanne Cathedral in the background |
This area has many streets, hilly ones of course, where you can see the colourful buildings. I do recommend taking some time to walk around the cathedral neighbourhood. This is not a touristic area, but it reserves many interesting photo opportunities with its arches, mysterious house entryways, and side alleys.
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| Image 4 - Walking around Lausanne off the beaten path |
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| Image 5 - Walking around Lausanne off the beaten path |
From the cathedral, you can take the Rue de Bourg down to the St. Francois area. Rue de Bourg is the high-end commercial area of the city where many world renown brands have their stores. It is always really busy with people going up and down. On Sundays everything is closed, so I had the opportunity to take some images on the side streets of Rue de Bourg without anyone around. It is a really rare opportunity!
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| Image 6 - Around Rue de Bourg on Sunday |
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| Image 7 - Around Rue de Bourg on Sunday |
Take your time to look inside the small local businesses that are off the beaten path. You will find traditional artisans with many stories to tell. I was lucky to meet "Big Foot", he is a legend in the city. He has a small shoe museum that opens 1 weekend a month. He has a wealth of information about the city, the transformation that it has gone and is going through, as well as places to visit. He is a true artist and story teller with perfect English!
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| Image 8 - "Big Foot" at the shoe museum |
Lausanne has many more trademarks like the St. Francois church, the Place de la Ripponne, the Olympic Museum, Ouchy and the lake front, among so many others. But I will have to share these in future posts. As I said, Lausanne is an amazing place to explore, a little at a time!
To finish the expedition of the cathedral area of Lausanne's centre-ville, I went to to the large view point area in front of the cathedral. You can see Lac Leman, the Alps, and French cities (the border is in the middle of the lake) with Lausanne's city skyline in the foreground. The sunsets are extraordinary, but you have to fight for a spot since lots of tourists and couples also pick the location to appreciate the view on spring and summer afternoons.
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| Image 9 - Sunset from Cathedral viewpoint |
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