Towns & landscapes
Dent de Jaman
- Type
- Summit and pass
- Address
- Dent de Jaman, sur les hauts de Montreux
The Dent de Jaman raises its distinctive tooth-shaped outline above Montreux, between the lake and the Pays-d’Enhaut. In August 1831 the young Felix Mendelssohn crossed it on foot during his journey through Switzerland, on the stretch that took him from Chernex to Château-d’Oex. The composer, a tireless walker, kept a dazzled memory of the crossing, set down in his letters. Today a waymarked walking trail, “In Mendelssohn’s footsteps”, follows part of his route through the canton of Vaud.
1831: Mendelssohn and Pauline
“It was so beautiful!”
At Chernex, Mendelssohn stops “to drink a warm milk” before crossing the Col de Jaman. A young country girl “wearing her Vaud hat”, named Pauline, takes his luggage into her carrying basket and walks with him towards the Dent de Jaman. Around midday they reach Allières; there he takes his bag back, shakes her hand and goes down alone through the meadows to Château-d’Oex, reached in the evening “across meadows of a dazzling green”.
That evening he closes his letter with a now-famous tribute: “Of all the countries I know, this is the most beautiful, and the one where I would most like to live if I grew very old. The people here are so content, they look so happy, and so does the land!” (“Voyage de jeunesse, Lettres européennes 1830-1832”, Éditions Stock Musique).
A tooth above the lake
Unmistakable with its fang-like point, the Dent de Jaman (1,875 m) is one of the favourite summits of Riviera walkers. It is reached in a few hours from Caux or from the neighbouring Rochers-de-Naye, and its short final scramble rewards you with a panorama over Lake Geneva, the Alps and the Pays-d’Enhaut. At its foot, the Col de Jaman was long a pass between the Riviera and the mountains.
Related artists :Felix Mendelssohn