The wooden roof
A covered medieval passage still standing.
Gzzz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jean Housen — CC BY-SA 4.0
Honestly yes — it is built on three hills and the difference between the lake and the old town is about four hundred vertical metres, so walking means continuous climbing and descending. The remedies: **metro m2**, which covers the whole gap in minutes and serves the main stops (Switzerland's only metro), and the free transport card hotels give their guests. With small children or a pushchair: rely on the metro and do not plan long uphill routes.
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The Escaliers du Marché are the covered wooden stairs linking the Place de la Palud below to the cathedral above — Lausanne's most famous passage and its most photographed: stone steps beneath a wooden roof carried on posts, climbing between the façades of old houses and cafés. Their origin is medieval: pilgrims and merchants climbed this way to the cathedral, and the roof was added in the thirteenth century to shelter them from the rain — restored repeatedly since while keeping its form. They are a direct expression of what Lausanne is: a vertical city built on three hills, where you move up and down rather than left and right. Free and always open, the climb takes minutes. Take them on your way from the old town to the cathedral instead of winding around by the streets — the route itself is the attraction, and it is loveliest in the evening under its warm lighting.
A covered medieval passage still standing.
A city crossed up and down rather than side to side.
Escaliers du Marché, 1003 Lausanne