lakeside luxury // one night in lausanne, switzerland

It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than two months since my Mom, Mari and I were hopping from Christmas market to Christmas market across Switzerland. The time may have flown by, but fret not, my fellow Swiss lovers, I haven’t forgotten one bit about our epic adventure. I still have so much to share! Over the course of a week, we traveled by train to Geneva, Verbier, Bern, and Lucerne. Finally, we ended our time with one night in Lausanne.

You may remember that the romantic and I visited Lausanne a few years back. We spent two snowy days climbing the hills of Old Town. Since my mom, Mari, and I would be flying back to the States via Geneva on this trip, I decided Lausanne was the perfect final stop on our tour. This is especially true due to its location about a 45 minutes by train from the Geneva airport.

Here’s my disclaimer. Before Lausanne, we visited four other cities in seven days. This meant we were pretty much exhausted by the time our train arrived. Also, we were a few hours behind schedule. We loved Lucerne so much, we ended up staying later in the morning than we intended. And lastly, the weather was especially dreary in Lausanne. It was extremely cold, with dense fog over the lake. For all of these reasons combined, we were lazier (or should I say even lazier) than usual. Still, I think we managed to do and see a lot, given the circumstances and our limited time.

When we arrived, we headed straight to our hotel, Hôtel Angleterre & Résidence, to drop off our bags, freshen up, and hopefully make our way over to Château de Chillon via the local train. Due to my sub-par navigational skills and the aforementioned exhaustion, I nearly doubled our ETA on our walk from the train. We expected a 10-minute walk downhill, but we ended up zigzagging through the streets.

When we arrived at the Hôtel Angleterre & Résidence, the front desk attendant, perhaps sensing our somewhat flustered demeanor, wasted no time checking us in and making us feel comfortable. Our room wasn’t quite ready, so she set us up with city transportation passes, and looked up train times to Chillon. She even helped us choose a restaurant and make a dinner reservation for that evening. When it turned out the train times to Chillon wouldn’t work with our schedule, given our late arrival, the attendant searched for alternative transportation options. She suggested a boat ride that departed not far from the hotel. On almost any other day, we would have jumped at the chance to take a leisurely boat ride along the lake. This time, we decided we would rather not over-schedule ourselves on our last day.

By that time, our room was ready, so the attendant walked us across the property to our suite. The guest rooms at Hôtel Angleterre & Résidence are spread out between four separate buildings which vary in style, though each is reflective of the hotel’s 300-year history. Our Junior Suite was located in the Florissant building, which exuded quaint yet elegant comfort. The room itself was sprawling. We had a large sitting area and a spacious bathroom. Best of all, we had a small balcony overlooking the property and the lake.

I repeat, how cute is my mom?

We absolutely could have spent the rest of the day and evening relaxing in our room. Instead, we bundled up and headed back into the cold to explore the city. Thanks to the transportation passes that the hotel provided us with, we were able to hop on the metro only a few blocks away. We took it all the way to Old Town. Given that the way from the lake to Old Town is entirely uphill, we were particularly appreciative of our passes.

Once we got off the metro, we headed straight to The Cathedral of Notre Dame. It’s situated at the top of Old Town, and offers panoramic views of the city and the lake. From there, we descended Les Escaliers du Marché, a set of covered wooden stairs winding through Old Town that date back to the early 18th century.

My mom is a teeny, tiny, bite-sized human and I make her stand in front of
tall things that make her look even smaller, because that’s what daughters do.

With a few hours before our dinner reservation, we were of course on the lookout for another Christmas market. Can you ever really have enough? As we walked, we took our time snapping pictures of the lovely holiday decor around the city.

@lazytravelers on Instagram

We wound our way down the steep, cobble-stoned streets of Old Town. Soon, we came across a massive Christmas market in front of Place Saint-François. Coincidentally, our reservation for dinner was just down the street from the market at Café Romand. We took our time perusing the stalls and the surrounding shops, making a few last minute purchases for our friends and family at home. We tried our best to soak in all the European Christmas market goodness we could get before our trip came to an end.

When dinner time came, we made the short walk through the square to Café Romand for our last Swiss meal. The brasserie, with its dark wood and cafe-style seating, boasts traditional Swiss menu items. It’s known for being one of the last few local breweries in Lausanne.

In hindsight, I think we made a maaajor mistake while at Café Romand. Having stuffed ourselves full of bread and cheese throughout the week, we decided against ordering the fondue. We opted instead for a few other traditional swiss dishes, like rosti and sausages. However, watching table after table order fondue gave me a slight (perhaps even more than slight) case of FOMO.

Though the food we did end up with was delicious, I have to point out that the service was abysmal. Though we purposefully made a reservation for the beginning of the dinner hour, we had to wait to be seated. We then weren’t seen again by any of the wait staff for nearly twenty minutes. We put in an order for wine and raclette to start while we decided on our entrees, neither of which ever showed up at our table. When we finally were able to order our entrees, the waiter was never seen again! This means we were stuck with one glass of wine for the entire meal — quelle horror!!

Despite our wine-less dinner, we were all feeling so tired by the end of the meal that we decided to make the journey back Hôtel Angleterre & Résidence and relax for the rest of the evening. With our transportation passes, we were able to hop right on the Lausanne metro again and rode it all the way down to the lake and our hotel, which was serenely quiet at night.

While my mom and Mari packed up their bags, I took a long bubble bath and soaked up every last minute of relaxation I could before our trip came to an end the next day. Our little piece of lakeside luxury at Hôtel Angleterre & Résidence proved to be the perfect way to close out our grand Swiss adventure.

À bientôt, Switzerland!

xo!

the wino

Thank you to Hôtel Angleterre & Résidence for taking great care of us during our stay. All opinions are my own.