Palms before snow
Mediterranean growth facing white summits — Montreux's climatic signature.
Maude Rion — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Adoscam — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Adoscam — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Corno Bob Evans — CC0
Queen came in 1978 to the casino's Mountain Studios and the town captured Freddie: the band bought the studio and he recorded his final works there, dying in peace far from London's noise — the last 'Made in Heaven' cover is his present statue's scene. The studio is now the free 'Queen: The Studio Experience' in the casino — complete the pilgrimage there.
For music lovers a pilgrimage: the quays are back-to-back free stages, the air planetary, the greats in paid halls — but prices summit, hotels near-impossible late, crowds total. For quiet-and-castle seekers: any other week — the town is lovely all year by its climate.
The old town stairs behind the quays with its lanes — and above, rail treasures: the Rochers-de-Naye cog to the panorama-and-marmots summit, and the GoldenPass panoramic to Gstaad and Interlaken from the station — Montreux as mountain gate as much as quay.
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The Swiss Riviera's most famous walk: Montreux's quays running kilometres along Léman in their pampered Mediterranean microclimate — genuine old palms, flowers rotating seasons without pause, and Savoy's snowed mountains across the water: the contradiction that amazed Europe a century ago and still does. Along the quay file the sculptures — most famously Freddie Mercury, fist raised to the lake: Montreux's lover who recorded his last years here and said 'for peace of soul, come to Montreux', his 1996 statue the daily shrine of Queen's flower-bearing faithful — and near it the festival hall whose quays blaze each July with the venerable Montreux Jazz. From here the famous hour's walk runs south to Chillon, the old town climbs its stairs behind — and sunset on France's mountains is the promenade's golden appointment beyond dispute.
Mediterranean growth facing white summits — Montreux's climatic signature.
The statue facing his lake — the daily flower pilgrimage since 1996.
Plantings rotating entire seasons — the walk as garden walked.
Europe's most venerable music festival firing the quays a fortnight.
Quais de Montreux, 1820 Montreux