Montreux, which was home to Charlie Chaplin and Freddie Mercury, still weaves its Alpine magic

Neeta Lal

The Montreux Riviera was ripe with the colours of fall. To my left, the Unesco Lavaux Vineyards, planted by monks in the 12th century, were awash in an autumnal palette of ochre, auburn, burgundy. Behind me glistened Lake Geneva bluer than Paul Newman’s eyes. In the distance, the Swiss-French Alps, crowned with swirls of vanilla, hunkered into the deep blue sky.

French-speaking Montreux — located in Switzerland’s south-western cantonment of Vaud — has always enjoyed a rock-star cachet among the rich and famous. The city’s most famous resident, American actor Charlie Chaplin, was so smitten that he spent 25 years at Manoir de Ban during his self-imposed exile in Switzerland. He and his wife are buried at the Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery.


Writers Vladimir Nabokov and Ernest Hemingway frequented Montreux. Nearby Villeneuve welcomed Mahatma Gandhi and Victor Hugo. Many musicians have burnished Montreux’s international status. Wagner, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky were here, not to forget Freddie Mercury who recorded one hit album after another with his band Queen at Mountain Studios in Montreux Casino. Performances by BB King, Ray Charles, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald at the Montreux Jazz Festival are the stuff of legend.

To get a feel of Old Town, I ambled around its narrow cobblestone alleys with my guide Joanna Reeves. The streets flaunted ornate Belle Epoque buildings. Quaint trams and cars purred about like satisfied felines around 17th and 18th century mansions. As we reached Montreux’s flower-bedecked promenade — that extends 13 km along Lake Geneva’s shore — Reeves explained that it links Montreux to Vevey.

“It goes right up to Chillon Castle. Many houses along the lakeside road, including the magnificent Fairmont Le Montreux Palace (now a hotel), date from the grand Belle Epoque era,” she said. We enjoyed breathtaking Alpine views, inhaling air perfumed with the heady scent of pines and cypresses. As we continued strolling, crunching pine cones underfoot, Reeves explained that the city’s micro climate nurtured a diverse landscape that sprouted everything from palms to grapes. Pointing to the parcelled 2,000-acre Lavaux vineyards, she said it was one of the largest in Switzerland. “They host 14 charming villages and are threaded with trails dotted with wine cellars where you can stop and try delicious local wines,” she said.

Soon we were at the Town Centre where an elegant, covered market, brimming with fresh produce, was redolent with aromas. In Montreux, as elsewhere in Switzerland, food was taken very seriously.

Just outside the market loomed a three-metre-tall statue of Freddie Mercury. Year round, fresh flowers adorned the feet of this sculpture. Created by Czech sculptor Irena Sedlecka, it celebrated Mercury as a "lover of life, singer of songs". From 1979 until his death in 1991, the artist lived in a lakeside chalet in Clarens.

Chateau de Chillon was where I peeled back layers of Montreux¡¦s history. My first thought, as we drove closer to the Disney-esque castle - perched on a private island abutting Lake Geneva - was that I had travelled through time and was now part of a vintage painting. Think stony ramparts, formal halls and a chapel with 14th century murals.

Built by the powerful Duke of Savoy who lived in it until the 16th century, the castle was also the setting of Lord Byron's epic poem "The Prisoner of Chillon". "When Byron visited the castle," Reeves explained, it was still a prison. He was only able to visit the lower part where he carved his name into the stone on one of the pillars which can still be seen today."

After that, we took a cogwheel train that huffed and puffed its way up a steep gradient to the summit of Rochers de Naye. The trip would take 55 minutes to reach the summit from where you can soak in the stunning panoramas of Switzerland. However, scrunched for time, we disembarked midway - at Glion - where we were booked for dinner at Le Bellevue, a finedining restaurant run by the students of Glion Institute of Higher Education. The restaurant had views so impressive that I struggled to focus on the food. We began with a first course of sole fillets with caviar and lemon, parsley infusions, potatoes and sour cream. Up next were roe medallions smoked with thyme and juniper, cranberries and spiral potatoes. We wrapped up with a dessert of hot and cold vanilla black figs with citrus fruit, lime sorbet and basil. Long after I left Montreux, the flavours danced on my palate.

(The writer is a Delhi-based journalist)

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