Luxury escorts in Lausanne

Lausanne steps down the hillside to the lake in terraces, and the evening follows it: an aperitif in the old town near the cathedral, dinner at Ouchy where the palace hotels keep their lakefront gardens, and — on the right night — a drive east into Lavaux, where the vineyard terraces hold the day's last light longer than anywhere else on the lake. Our Lausanne companions are at home on every level of that descent, in French and English both.

The city's calendars bring their own occasions. The Olympic capital hosts federations, congresses and galas the year round; the hospitality school and the universities give the town a polish and a youth that Geneva sometimes lacks; and the Riviera — Vevey, Montreux — is twenty minutes along the shore when the evening wants music. The Beau-Rivage Palace anchors more of our Lausanne engagements than any other address, but the city rewards curiosity: a chef's table in the Flon, a private tasting above Épesses, a suite with the Savoy Alps filling the window.