Voltaire (1694-1778)

“I owe my happiest days to this town” wrote Voltaire who lived in a house situated behind numbers 2-12 of the road bearing his name, then in a residence on the site of the present Lausanne Palace Hotel.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

In 1766, the family of the young prodigy came to Lausanne to meet the renowned Doctor Tissot. Wolfgang gave two concerts at the Town Hall.

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Napoléon Ier (1769-1821)

Before crossing the Saint-Bernard, Bonaparte stopped in Lausanne in May 1800, three years after his first triumphal arrival. He stayed in a house which stood at Rue de la Grotte 1 until 1946 and dined in the Maison Villamont.

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Lord Byron (1788-1824)

In 1816, at the Hôtel d’Angleterre, the great poet composed «The Prisoner of Chillon». His stay in Switzerland might have ended tragically when he nearly drowned during a boat trip on Lake Leman.

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Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Guest of honour at the Peace Congress in 1869, Hugo stayed at Beau-Rivage Hotel. Back in Lausanne in 1883, he completed “The Rhine” in which he gives a beautiful description of the view from the esplanade of the Cathedral.

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Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

The first street in Lausanne named after a foreigner was that of Dickens. Accompanied by his wife, six children and four servants, Dickens resided for six months in the Villa Rosemont, then situated at No.14 Avenue Tissot.

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Elisabeth d’Autriche (1837-1898)

Five years before being murdered in Geneva, Sissi spent a day in Lausanne, stopping for a coffee in St-François steps from the building site of the Hôtel des Postes where her murderer-to-be, Luigi Luccheni, was working.

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Dr John Watson (1852-1939?)

At the Avenue de la Gare, opposite Edipresse tower, a plate commemorates the visit of Conan Doyle’s character. On this spot, until 1951, stood the National Hotel where Lady Carfax mysteriously disappeared…

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Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

In December 1931, dressed in a sari, the Mahatma made his way to the Maison du Peuple, then in the rue Caroline 11-13, to extol the virtues of vegetaranism. Sixteen years earlier another orator preceded him: Lenin.

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Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

After coming to Switzerland at the age of 19 to escape the army, Mussolini was arrested for vagrancy whilst sleeping under the Grand-Pont. The dictator came back in 1922 for the Middle East conference at the Château d’Ouchy where Heminway assisted as a journalist.

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Coco Chanel (1883-1971)

The famous dress designer settled in Lausanne in 1945. Her faithful companion is buried in the dog cemetery at the hotel where she resided, Beau-Rivage Palace. As for Coco Chanel, she reposes in the Bois de Vaux cemetery.

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Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)

A faithful guest in Lausanne’s luxury hotels, Chaplin lived in Switzerland for more than 25 years. His last four children were born in the Clinique de Montchoisi.

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Georges Simenon (1903-1989)

A commemorative plate at No.22 Rue de Bourg indicates the place where Maigret’s « father » bought around two hundred pipes. He lived in Lausanne for seventeen years at 155 Avenue de Cour, then at 12 Avenue des Figuiers.

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Joséphine Baker (1906-1975)

“I will always be delighted to return to Lausanne!” wrote the famous artist during one of her many stays. Did you know that between 1925 and 1927, Josephine who was dancing in Paris in « La Revue nègre » had a liaison with Georges Simenon ?

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Rita Hayworth (1918-1987)

On 28 December 1949, Prince Ali Khan’s wife left the Lausanne Palace for the Clinique de Montchoisi to give birth to Yasmina. In 1970, another star gave birth in Lausanne: Audrey Hepburn.

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Grace de Monaco (1928-1983)

In 1957, shopkeepers in the Rue de Bourg caught sight of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier shopping “incognito”.

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Maurice Béjart (1927-2007)

In 1987, the renowned choreographer settled in Lausanne where he created the Rudra school and the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, giving performances worldwide. Béjart lived at a stone’s throw from the Place de la Riponne where he liked to go to the market.