Lausanne Audio Tours

Lausanne is the only city in the world that still maintains the tradition of the 'guet,' the night watchman who calls out the hours from the cathedral tower from 10pm to 2am every night. It has been done without interruption since the Middle Ages, the watchman's voice echoing over the dark rooftops above Lake Geneva, and this quiet insistence on continuing a medieval practice feels characteristic of a city that respects the weight of its own traditions. The Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Lausanne, completed in 1275, is the finest Gothic cathedral in Switzerland.

The International Olympic Committee has been headquartered in Lausanne since 1915, and the city takes this seriously.

The Olympic Museum on the Quai d'Ouchy is genuinely excellent, with a collection spanning every modern Olympics, and the surrounding park on the lake shore is among the best public green spaces in Switzerland. The lake itself, Lac Leman, stretches across to the French Alps on the southern shore, and the view from the Lausanne waterfront on a clear morning, with Mont Blanc visible 70 kilometers away, is one of those views that makes you stop walking.