Lake Geneva in Montreux

Montreux is the last stop on the Golden Pass line, a scenic railway route which we followed from Lucerne. It is right on the banks of the eastern end of Lake Geneva (Lac Leman to locals, Genfersee in German), at the foot of some of the Swiss Alps.  The lake is one of the largest in Western Europe belonging to both Switzerland and France.

Not unreasonably, the area is known as the Swiss Riviera, specially because of the Mediterranean kind of climate it enjoys. It is a mild micro climate, with the lake and the steep hills behind protecting it from the severe winters that other parts of the country experience.

We stepped out of the station, crossed the road and went down a long flight of steps to get to the lake just opposite the station. Thankfully there is an escalator to come back to the top, which of course we used while returning.

The Promenade Fleuri is a flower-lined path built right along the lake, from Montreux to Vevy allowing people to stroll along admiring the amazing colour contrasts provided by the water, the mountains that come right down to the water on the other side, the clouds on top against the sheer blue of the sky. We walked along one stretch till Clarens. We saw trees like pines, cypress, palm, bananas etc. which can only grow there. There are a number of other exotic colourful and scented flowering plants, not common in Switzerland.