MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND (dpa) Every summer, the famous jazz festival lures 200,000 visitors to Montreux on Lake Geneva.
But not only musicians and music lovers are attracted to the elegant lakeside city. A sculpture on the embankment is in memory of Charlie Chaplin, who found his second home here.
Visitors can follow the footsteps of celebrities in Montreux- Vevey as easily as they can come across the unusual.
Dad Regne points to an old closed horse-drawn coach with only one door. The Lateral was used in the 19th century to take people around the lake. Regne collects coaches. His private coach museum, the Musee des Caleches, is a favourite, with its more than 50 exhibits.
The small museum is directly on Lake Geneva in Theatre l’Alcazar. This historic building from the year 1895 is designed entirely in the Baroque style. Regne, an interior designer by profession, has restored it lovingly. It was once a grand hotel in which “Sisi”, the former empress of Austria, often stayed. She was on the way to Montreux when slain by an assassin in 1898.
Chillon Castle stands not far away from the Theatre l’Alcazar. Many extol the castle-like building as one of the most beautiful in Switzerland. Its unusual location on a craggy island on the edge of Lake Geneva made it the landmark of Montreux.
The notorious prison to which British poet Lord Byron dedicated his poem the Prisoner of Chillon in 1816 can also be visited in the imposing medieval building.
Byron was a pioneer as a traveller to Lake Geneva. It was only after he came here in the second half of the 19th century that tourism really started in the town. At that time, the visitors came to Montreux because of its location on the lake and the mild climate the embankment is lined by palms.
The rich, the beautiful and the famous used to and still reside in Montreux Palace. You can pick up the trail of Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov. The author of Lolita lived there for 16 years. Big names of the jazz festival such as trumpeter Miles Davis and James Brown, “The Godfather of Soul”, stayed there too, if only for a few days.
Nabokov is said to have been fond of hunting butterflies in the fields, thus enjoying the advantages of Montreux: its lakeside location and its closeness to the Alps.
An historical cog railway takes visitors 1,600 metres up to the summit of 2,045-metre Rocher-de-Naye. From there, they have a breathtaking view not only of the Alpine panorama but also of Lake Geneva.
A mysterious village called Liboson lies below the summit. Visitors need a car to get to the evening appointment in house that lies off the beaten track. Organ-music can be heard in the entrance hall. Countless candles illuminate the mediaeval-like room that is full of icons.
Suddenly, Paul du Marchie von Voorthysen appears with a “Welcome in Liboson!”. “This organ,” the house-owner explains, is a digital reconstruction of the original tones from the organs of ten cathedrals in various countries.” The 79-year-old once taught music but now teaches mainly icon painting.
However, one could describe his main profession as “active philosopher”. In the so-called centre for lovers of literature, music and art, he offers his guests an evening with discussion accompanied by a fondue meal.
Paul du Marchie is familiar with many topics – whether Martin Heidegger, astronomy, Zen, Indian philosophy or Egyptian art. The numerous corridors, stairways and passages in his house cause visitors to lose their orientation.
A guided tour through the magical house follows supper: in the library, which is furnished like a Gothic chapel, in the studio where du Marchie makes copies of Egyptian reliefs. Then down into the rocky cellar into an Egyptian crypt.
The eerily-lit room is decorated with motifs from Egyptian temples an unusual contrast to the not-too-distant world of the lake.
