New views of Lake Geneva
Our first trip to Switzerland started from Geneva, and to be honest, I did not like it. At all. Dusty, dirty, entangled with wires, dubious sights, the architecture is entirely reinforced concrete-box, chock-full of businesses and vain guests of the city. There are African loafers, trampling around in small groups, here and there, making me feel un-Swiss anxious, uncomfortable, out of my element.
But I liked Montreux! Now it's clear why the most important jazz festival takes place here - jazz is all around here! Now it is clear why Nabokov lived out his life here - here the mountains are close, close, on that already French side of Lake Geneva.
And a very pleasant impression left from the neighboring Vevey. In summer, from Montreux to Vevey, vacationers ride bicycles or sail on yachts. Vevey is not a business Geneva, where there is Palexpo, where there are banks and shops with watches. And not the absurd intellectual Lausanne, plastered with theatrical posters, hung with the flags of the Olympic Committee. But Vevey is not a Swiss village with cows and vineyards, but a real town with a large and wide embankment and several cathedrals, among which there is an Orthodox church.
Charlie Chaplin lived his century here at his villa - a bronze monument was erected to the great artist on the embankment of Vevey. Nestle is headquartered here, and the people of Vevey are proud of it. Life is noisy here in the mornings, there are a lot of people on the streets (and they even run along the embankment - exercise! ). People rush to pharmacies and shops - bakeries, vegetable, meat and fish shops. The inhabitants of Vevey are special, as evidenced by the lack of graffiti in the city. And in neighboring Lausanne, where there is a university and a reputable book publishing house that produces the smartest books, graffiti is almost everywhere - from ridiculous overhead metro stations to pizzerias and banks.
Montreux and Vevey are provincial Swiss towns, perfectly suited for those who wish to wander aimlessly along the wet embankment with plane trees and look at the brown, white and black swans that fly over Leman in the morning racing with ducks. Their charm lies in the fact that these are, albeit small, but still towns where you can spend two or three days (I do not recommend staying longer, you can get bored).
