Rochers-de-Naye

A balcony at 2,042 metres

The Rochers-de-Naye close off Montreux’s horizon to the south-east, at 2,042 metres. From the summit, the view takes in the whole of Lake Geneva, the Fribourg and Vaud Prealps, the Valais and French Alps, from Mont Blanc to the Eiger: one of the finest viewpoints in French-speaking Switzerland.

This emblematic summit is one of the only peaks above 2,000 metres that you reach directly, without changing trains, from a town on the lakeshore. The contrast is striking: in less than an hour, you go from the palm trees of the Riviera to the edelweiss of the alpine garden of the Rambertia, with Lake Geneva as a backdrop.

You climb up effortlessly from Montreux station, on a rack railway that rises along the mountainside through Glion and Caux. The line was built in two stages: the Glion – Rochers-de-Naye section opened in 1892, the Montreux-to-Glion section following in 1909. That boldness made the summit a sought-after destination as early as 1892, and more than a hundred and thirty years later the mountain still cultivates the same spirit, between tradition and present-day pleasures. Run by the GoldenPass, the line links the town to the summit in about fifty minutes.

At the top, the panoramic Plein Roc restaurant and its terrace offer the view with a glass of chasselas; it is one of the Riviera’s favourite excursion spots, summer and winter alike.

Claude Nobs’s dogs on the Naye line

The mountain keeps the memory of Claude Nobs, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival. His two Bernese mountain dogs, Kiku and Kuki, so often followed walkers to the summit that they were given lifetime passes on the Naye line. One of the train’s carriages now bears the portrait of “Funky Claude” and the festival’s logo: from Montreux to the summit, the music rides up with the passengers.

The alphorn at the summit

Every summer, alphorn players gather on the esplanade at the summit, near the yurts. Facing the lake and the peaks, the long wooden horns sound the music of the high pastures where it was born, within earshot of the town of jazz. It is the same breath heard lower down, in Montreux, around the Swiss Alphorn Academy.

The Montreux–Les Rochers-de-Naye race

Every summer since 1981, the mountain is also won on foot. The Montreux–Les Rochers-de-Naye race, run by the Club athlétique de Montreux, links the lakeshore to the summit along the trails, close to two thousand metres of climbing for the most enduring. Several courses run side by side, from the long Classique starting on the Riviera to shorter formats, and even a Hike and Fly where runners climb on foot before gliding back down to Lake Geneva by paraglider. A popular celebration that, over one weekend, sends a whole crowd up to the ridges.

Santa’s House

Every winter, the Rochers-de-Naye turn into a kingdom of Christmas. At the end of a long, mysterious corridor cut into the mountain, children discover Santa’s House, his grotto and his workshop, 2,042 metres above the lake. In December you ride up by the rack railway, well wrapped up, to meet the old man himself: an outing that has become a Riviera holiday classic.

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La Rambertia, the garden at the summit

Just below the ridge lies La Rambertia, one of the oldest alpine botanical gardens in Switzerland, created in 1896 and dedicated to the poet Eugène Rambert. Among its founders was a Ribaupierre, of the family of violinists from Clarens: here the mountain and the music of the Riviera meet once more. Admission to the garden is included in the train ticket.