A report on Vaud and Lake Geneva

View of Lake Geneva about between Vevey in front, Lausanne in the back behind Mont Pèlerin (CH) on the right and Évian-les-Bains (F) on the left, shot from a place between Caux and Glion above Montreux

View of the lake and the Chablais Alps from Caux

Bailiwicks of Bern in Vaud in the 18th century

CGN paddle steamer in 1926 near Vevey with the Dents du Midi in background

Built by the Bishop of Lausanne during the 15th century, Château Saint-Maire has been the seat of the cantonal government since 1803

The room of the Grand Council of Vaud, the parliament of the canton of Vaud

Lausanne, capital and largest city in Vaud

Sixty per cent (345.31 km2) of the lake belongs to Switzerland (the cantons of Vaud, Geneva and Valais) and forty per cent (234.71 km2) to France (the department of Haute-Savoie).

- Lake Geneva

It also includes some of the largest lakes of the country: Lake Geneva and Lake Neuchâtel.

- Vaud

12 related topics with Alpha

Geneva

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Second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

L'Escalade is what Genevans call the failed surprise attack of 12 December 1602 by troops sent by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, to take Geneva. This imaginative image was drawn by Matthias Quad, or the workshop of Frans Hogenberg, around 1603. Invaders are pictured crossing the moat in the center left while reinforcements are entering Plainpalais at the bottom. A column of defenders is in the center, headed toward the Savoyards. Lake Léman is at center top.

Satellite view of Geneva; Cointrin Airport is centre left.

The Geneva area seen from the Salève in France. The Jura mountains are on the horizon.

Average temperature and precipitation 1961–1990

Coat of arms of Geneva as part of the pavement in front of the Reformation Wall, 2013

The Flowered Clock at the Quai du Général-Guisan (English Garden), during the 2012 Geneva Festival

Apartment buildings in the Quartier des Grottes

Geneva, with Lake Geneva in the background

Reformation Wall in Geneva; from left to right: William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and John Knox

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

The World Intellectual Property Organization.

The assembly hall of the Palace of Nations.

International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR)

Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Mallet House and Museum international de la Réforme

Situated in the south west of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.

2019 estimate) over 246 km2, and together with the suburbs and exurbs located in the canton of Vaud and in the French departments of Ain and Haute-Savoie the cross-border Geneva metropolitan area as officially defined by Eurostat, which extends over 2292 km2, had a population of 1,032,750 in Jan. 2019 (Swiss estimates and French census).

Switzerland

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Landlocked country located at the confluence of Western, Central and Southern Europe.

Founded in 44 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, Augusta Raurica (near Basel) was the first Roman settlement on the Rhine and is now among the most important archaeological sites in Switzerland.

The Old Swiss Confederacy from 1291 (dark green) to the sixteenth century (light green) and its associates (blue). In the other colours shown are the subject territories.

The Act of Mediation was Napoleon's attempt at a compromise between the Ancien Régime and a Republic.

The first Federal Palace in Bern (1857). One of the three cantons presiding over the Tagsatzung (former legislative and executive council), Bern was chosen as the permanent seat of federal legislative and executive institutions in 1848, in part because of its closeness to the French-speaking area.

Inauguration in 1882 of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel connecting the southern canton of Ticino, the longest in the world at the time

General Ulrich Wille, appointed commander-in-chief of the Swiss Army for the duration of World War I

In 2003, by granting the Swiss People's Party a second seat in the governing cabinet, the Parliament altered the coalition that had dominated Swiss politics since 1959.

Köppen–Geiger climate classification map for Switzerland

The Swiss Federal Council in 2022 with President Ignazio Cassis (bottom) standing on an abstract, reduced railway lines map and positioned at their respective political origins

The Federal Palace, seat of the Federal Assembly and the Federal Council

The Landsgemeinde is an old form of direct democracy, still in practice in two cantons.

The colour-reversed Swiss flag became the symbol of the Red Cross Movement, founded in 1863 by Henry Dunant.

A Swiss Air Force F/A-18 Hornet at Axalp Air Show

Swiss-built Mowag Eagles of the Land Forces

A proportional representation of Switzerland exports, 2019

The city of Basel (Roche Tower) is the capital of the country's pharmaceutical industry, which accounts for around 38% of Swiss exports worldwide.

The Greater Zürich area, home to 1.5 million inhabitants and 150,000 companies, is one of the most important economic centres in the world.

The University of Basel is Switzerland's oldest university (1460).

Some Swiss scientists who played a key role in their discipline (clockwise):
Leonhard Euler (mathematics)
Louis Agassiz (glaciology)
Auguste Piccard (aeronautics)
Albert Einstein (physics)

The LHC tunnel. CERN is the world's largest laboratory and also the birthplace of the World Wide Web.

Members of the European Free Trade Association (green) participate in the European Single Market and are part of the Schengen Area.

Switzerland has the tallest dams in Europe, among which the Mauvoisin Dam, in the Alps. Hydroelectricity is the most important domestic source of energy in the country.

Entrance of the new Lötschberg Base Tunnel, the third-longest railway tunnel in the world, under the old Lötschberg railway line. It was the first completed tunnel of the greater project NRLA.

Population density in Switzerland (2019)

Percentage of foreigners in Switzerland (2019)

Urbanisation in the Rhone Valley (outskirts of Sion)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was not only a writer but also an influential philosopher of the eighteenth century.

Roger Federer has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles, making him among the most successful men's tennis players ever.

Fondue is melted cheese, into which bread is dipped

National languages in Switzerland (2016):
German (62.8%)
French (22.9%)
Italian (8.2%)
Romansh (0.5%)

The hydrographic network includes several of the largest bodies of fresh water in Central and Western Europe, among which are included Lake Geneva (also called le Lac Léman in French), Lake Constance (known as Bodensee in German) and Lake Maggiore.

Swiss wine is produced mainly in Valais, Vaud (Lavaux), Geneva and Ticino, with a small majority of white wines.

Canton of Geneva

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One of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation.

The cantons and allies of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the 18th century. Geneva is a group of small territories in the southwest.

The County of Geneva and surrounding territories in around 1200.

Territories acquired by Berne from Geneva, 1339-1798

L'Escalade, the last attempt by Savoy to take Geneva by force, 1602

Charles Pictet de Rochemont, the Geneva envoy to the Congress of Vienna who negotiated the canton’s borders

Borders after the Congress of Vienna: in yellow, the previous lands of Geneva; in blue, towns ceded by France; in pink, towns ceded by Savoy.

View from Reculet mountain towards Geneva. The canton occupies most of the Geneva basin, the valley between the Reculet (France) and Mount Salève (France). The Alps are visible in the background, covered by clouds

The headquarters of the local cantonal bank, the BCGE

Geneva has the densest vineyards of Switzerland. Here, the largest wine-making municipality of Switzerland, Satigny.

Map of the French département of Léman established in 1798

Map of the canton of Geneva after the first peace of Paris May 1814

Map of the canton of Geneva after the treaty of Paris 1815

Map of the canton of Geneva after the treaty of Turin 1816

It lies at the western end of Lake Geneva and on both sides of the Rhone, its main river.

Within the country, the canton shares borders with Vaud to the east, the only adjacent canton.

Valais

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One of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation.

Valère Basilica dominating the Rhône Valley. By the 12th century, the bishops of Sion began building churches and castles in Sion to represent their power and administer their estates.

The Rhône Valley near Pfynwald. Note the vineyards, pines, and steppic vegetation that are typical of dry Central Valais

The Aletsch Glacier, largest in the Alps

The Weisshorn, one of the highest peaks of Valais

Predominantly Catholic, the canton includes numerous churches and Alpine chapels (here Maria zum Schnee in Bettmeralp)

The Grande Dixence is one of the world's largest dams

St. Gingolph is one of the only two ports on Lake Geneva, and the terminus of the Tonkin Railway

BLS train descending the summit line of the Lötschberg Railway

A postbus waiting on the summit of the Simplon Pass

People gathering at the national cow fighting final

A Brisolée served with local products and wine

It borders the cantons of Vaud and Bern to the north, the cantons of Uri and Ticino to the east, as well as Italy to the south and France to the west.

Valais essentially coincides with the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, essentially separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps, the two largest mountain ranges of the canton.

Lausanne

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Aerial view from 250 m by Walter Mittelholzer (1919)

The agglomeration of Lausanne, Lake Geneva and the Alps.

The Charles-Bessières bridge with Lausanne Metro car. In the background the cathedral of Notre-Dame and the old town.

Stairs (escaliers du marché) in the old city.

The Protestant Cathedral of Notre Dame dominates the Lausanne skyline (left: Old Academy, right: Palais de Rumine).

The Lausanne Metro is a rubber tyre metro system

The Lausanne Tram is completely on reserved track, single line, even underground

Aerial view of Lausanne (railway station in the centre and Parc de Milan at the bottom).

The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (photo) and the University of Lausanne form a large campus near the lake Geneva.

In addition to the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne, the Palais de Rumine hosts several museums.

The seat of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne

Administrative building of the Vaudoise Assurances

Olympic Museum and Archives of the International Olympic Committee

Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman

Lausanne is the capital and largest city of the Swiss french speaking canton of Vaud.

It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and facing the French town of Évian-les-Bains across the lake.

Bernese Alps

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The Bernese Alps (Berner Alpen, Alpes bernoises, Alpi bernesi) are a mountain range of the Alps, located in western Switzerland.

The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps

The road of the Grimsel Pass is the only one connecting the cantons of Bern and Valais

Although the name suggests that they are located in the Berner Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Valais, Fribourg and Vaud, the latter being usually named Fribourg Alps and Vaud Alps respectively.

The Rhône valley separates them from the Chablais Alps in the west and from the Pennine Alps in the south; the upper Rhône valley separates them from the Lepontine Alps to the southeast; the Grimsel Pass and the Aare valley separates them from the Uri Alps in the east, and from the Emmental Alps in the north; their northwestern edge is not well defined, describing a line roughly from Lake Geneva to Lake Thun.