Early September near Les Diablerets. Photograph by the author.

Traveling Switzerland

12 months and 4 seasons discovering the natural wonders of Switzerland’s Canton de Vaud

Hiking, cycling, watching nature, enjoying the microclimates, feeding from the forest.

The French and German names of Canton Vaud / Waadt refer to the large forests that dominated its central, hilly lands (in modern German, “forest” is “wald”). These ample forest lands (once very extensive, now of course much reduced yet quite well managed considering we are in central Europe) are in turn surrounded by sharp geography: the Alps in the East and SouthEast, the Jura mountains on the NorthWest, and a large banana-shaped lake, Lac Leman (or lake Geneva in English) in the South.

Canton Vaud’s geographical configuration and the South-oriented, hence Sun-exposed, slopes going down from the central plateau to the lake set up magnificent natural settings for hiking, biking, and outdoor activities.

All year round, the Canton offers something cool and interesting to experience, somewhere.

And I’ve covered many of these places and times in my many photostories.