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East of Lausanne, trains meander through steep vineyards to VEVEY , a small market town looking over to the French Alps across the lake. Vevey's charm centres on the huge lakeside Grande Place , a few minutes' walk southeast of the station - known also as Place du Marche and packed with market stalls (Tues & Sat) - and the narrow streets which lead off into the old town to the east. Vevey's excellent fine-art museum, Musee Jenisch on Rue de la Gare (Tues-Sun: March-Oct 11am-5.30pm; Nov-Feb 2-5.30pm; Sfr10), has Europe's largest collection of Rembrandt lithographs, as well as graphic works by Durer, Corot, Le Corbusier and others. Uphill from the big green building west of the centre (Nestle's world HQ) is CORSIER , location of the grave of Charlie Chaplin, who moved here from the US in the 1950s to escape McCarthyism; there's a statue of "The Tramp" just east of Place du Marche. To head on to Montreux and Chillon, ditch the train in favour of bus #1, which plies the coast road every 10min. If you have time, walk the floral lakeside path at least as far as the town of LA TOUR-DE-PEILZ , which is dominated by a whitewashed thirteenth-century castle now hosting the hands-on Museum of Games (Tues-Sun 2-6pm; Sfr6; www.msj.ch ). MONTREUX , 6km east of Vevey, is a snooty place, full of money and not particularly exciting, but it enjoys spectacular views of the Dents-du-Midi peaks opposite and hosts a colourful Friday market. The whole town is protected from chill northerly winds by a wall of mountains and so basks in its own microclimate, nurturing lakeside palm trees and exotic flowers. The zigzagging streets and hillside terraces of the old quarter above the train station provide marginally more interest than the thronging honky-tonk of the Grand-Rue below (head 100m left out of the station and cut down the stairs between buildings), although you should make time for the touching statue of one-time resident Freddie Mercury silently serenading the swans on the lakefront beside the vast covered market. The climax of a journey around Lake Geneva is the stunning thirteenth-century Chateau de Chillon (daily: April-Sept 9am-7pm; Oct-March 9.30/10am-5/6pm; last entry 1hr before closing; Sfr7.50; www.chillon.ch ), one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Europe. Whether you opt for the 45-minute shoreline walk east from Montreux, bus #1 from Vevey or Montreux, a local train, a bike, or best of all a lake steamer, your first glimpse of the castle is unforgettable - an elegant, turreted pile jutting out into the water, framed by trees and craggy mountains. At the gate you'll get a follow-the-numbers pamphlet, which starts you off in the dungeons where the dukes of Savoy imprisoned Francois Bonivard, a Genevan priest, from 1530 to 1536 (he was manacled to the fifth pillar along); Lord Byron, after a sailing trip here with Shelley in 1816, was so affected by the story that he spent the next day in his Ouchy hotel room writing the poem The Prisoner of Chillon . Byron's signature, scratched on the dungeon's third pillar, probably isn't genuine, but has been absorbed into the legend nonetheless. As you look out onto the lake, it's sobering to realize how sheer the rock is that Chillon's built on: just below the castle walls yawns 165m of cold water, enough to swallow the Eiffel Tower without a trace. Upstairs you'll find more wonders: gloriously grand knights' halls, secret twisting passages between lavish bedchambers, Gothic windows with dreamy views and a frescoed chapel.
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