Every year is an Olympic year in Lausanne, Switzerland, a city of stone buildings, tiled roofs and historic church squares perched on a hillside overlooking Lake Geneva. As the seat of the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Museum, the city participates throughout the year in the championship of the Games, long before and long after the official ceremonies take place. (This year, the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, mostly in and around Paris, will run from July 26 to September 8.)
But the Olympics are only one aspect of Lausanne. In the city center, culture-loving visitors will find a new arts area which contains a trio of avant-garde exhibition spaces, while the Hermitage Foundation The museum is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Throw in stylish new restaurants, chocolate boutiques and patisseries and you’ve got yourself a medal-worthy culinary hub too.
Games: History and Traditions Exposed
Long before the global fame of Olympic gold medalists such as Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, the ancient Greek runner Astylos of Croton was the leading celebrity of the Olympic Games, thanks to victories in three consecutive editions of the Games, from 488 to in 480 BC Even more impressive, he did it naked and barefoot (as was the custom for runners at the time).
It’s just one of the remarkable stories told at the Olympic Museum (tickets, 20 Swiss francs or about $22). From ancient pottery to interactive touch screens, the exhibitions trace the history of the world’s most famous sporting competition, starting with its Greek origins and ending with this year’s Paris Games, with a special exhibition themed, “Paris Olympics”
Along the way, the reports delve into the finer points of stadium architecture, uniform fashion, opening ceremony performances, anti-doping technology and even cafeteria menus in Olympic villages. Equipment and clothing belonging to distinguished Olympians are also on view, including a handmade track shoe worn by American athlete Jesse Owens at the infamous 1936 Berlin Games in Nazi Germany. (The shoemaker was Adi Dassler, who later created the Adidas brand.)
An outdoor track and indoor interactive simulators let you test your own skills in everything from sprinting to slalom skiing. And if you happen to be in Lausanne during the Olympics, a giant screen outdoor television in the museum grounds will be broadcasting the Games live from Paris.
Also in the museum premises, it is free Olympic Park it is open all year round. The vast green space offers stunning views of Lake Geneva and is dotted with 43 sports-themed sculptures and installations by international artists such as Fernando Botero and Alexander Calder. Among the works is a statue of Baron Pierre de Coubertin — a French aristocrat who was central to the revival of the Olympic Games in modern times.
Museums: Man Ray, Monet and others
Next to the train station, Lausanne’s new cultural district, Platform 10celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist Manifesto—a series of 1924 publications whose authors include the French artist André Breton—with several exhibits dedicated to this famous literary and artistic movement.
The pioneering works of Breton and his peers form the core of ‘Surrealism. Le Grand Jeu’, an extensive exhibition of Surrealist works, historical and contemporary, at Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts (until August 25). The works are as strange and dreamy as one would hope. A sculptural birdcage filled with sugar cubes, called “Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?” (Marcel Duchamp, 1921). A shimmering canvas depicting elephants whose reflections become swans in a mystical lake (Salvador Dalí’s Cygnes Se Reflétant en Éléphants, 1937). A photograph of a woman with instrument holes painted on her back (“Le Violon d’Ingres”, by Man Ray, 1924). And many more.
Man Ray is the subject of a solo show (“Man Ray: Liberating Photography”, until August 4) in his square Elysée photo museum, which occupies a jagged white cube that resembles a futuristic iceberg. His stylized portraits—Picasso in his studio, Gertrude Stein in a smoking jacket, Igor Stravinsky looking bewildered—capture the cultural ferment of 1920s Paris, while hallucinatory avant-garde films like “Return to Reason » (1923) represent the pioneering vision of the time. – new media.
In the same building, the MUDAC The design museum hosts “Objects of Desire,” an exhibition of furniture and household objects inspired by Surrealism (until August 4): a lip-shaped sofa (by Studio 65), a life-size black plastic horse with a lampshade on his head (by Moooi), a teapot in the shape of a pig’s skull (by Studio Wieki Somers). The entrance ticket to all three museums is 25 francs.
Another commemorative show — celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition, in 1874 — fills the aristocratic 19th-century halls of the Hermitage Foundation, a magnificent mansion with manicured gardens and commanding views of Lake Geneva. Entitled “Masterpieces From the Langmatt Museum” (June 28 to November 11), the exhibition rewards visitors with some 60 paintings—Renoir landscapes, Degas nudes, and works by Matisse, Monet, Cézanne, Mary Cassatt and others—on loan from the Langmatt, in Baden, Switzerland (currently closed for renovations), which is known for its outstanding collection of Impressionist works. Entrance 22 francs.
Food and drink: Lausanne is evolving
Already home to Noz Chocolatier boutique and the Hotel Swiss Chocolate by Fassbindadded Rue Marterey last year Acarre, a bakery and chocolate shop where pastry chef Arnaud Dousse, a veteran of top Swiss hotels, makes thinly pressed croissants (1.90 francs), pains au chocolat, lemon cake and other pastries, along with a myriad of chocolates. Opening most days at 6:30am, the shop is the perfect place for breakfast.
Last year was a bumper crop for restaurants as well. Breaking with long-standing tradition, the up-and-coming Scandinavian-style private lunch of the regional parliament, La Buvette Vaudoise, opened to the public, allowing non-elected officials to enjoy the restaurant’s traditional Swiss dishes, from the award-winning crispy cheese puff (known as Malakoff, 9 francs) to thick slabs of grilled trout in a cream sauce flavored with Chasselas white wine (25 francs). The lunch-only restaurant sources most of its ingredients from the surrounding Vaud region and serves many wines produced on estates owned by legislators.
The latest dining hot spots are equally dedicated to Swiss sourcing. Decorated in an eclectic, luxurious vintage style, L’Appart it feels like the sprawling home of a fun designer friend, complete with a closet—yes, literally a closet—full of wine bottles. (Guests dig in to choose their wine.) Chef Luis Zuzarte’s menu, noted for its long list of local purveyors, might include crispy grilled Sbrinz cheese with garlic mayo and pickles or juicy hay-pulled pork. Four lessons (Tuesday and Wednesday only) are 85 francs. seven lessons (evening) cost 145 francs.
Japanese flavors infuse the dishes at Jajaffe, an airy, minimalist, years-old restaurant with a laid-back vibe and a tattooed chef. Old-school vinyl albums provide the soundtrack as young waiters deliver impressive Japanese-Swiss mash-ups that recently included sunflower-infused whipped cream with discs of Tokyo turnip and karasumi (dried fish roe) as well as raw chunks of red gournard in mayonnaise flavored with Swiss made sake. Set menus cost 75 francs (four courses) and 110 francs (seven courses).
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