Montreux: Lake Léman, Chillon Castle and the Queen Studio (100 Days in Europe, Part 2)

Part 2 of 24 in the 100 Days Europe Travel Journal, our 100 days across Europe by train, plane, ferry and bus.

Tap the paper scene

Along the shore of Lake Léman at Montreux you can find a castle on a rock that was first written about in 1150, the studio where Queen made their last album, and a Christmas market that four local business owners started in 1995. We saw all three in two cold days. Part 2 covers Days 2 and 3 of our trip, from the train out of Geneva to a comedy festival. As in the other parts, my diary notes are kept exactly as I wrote them and in their original order, and after each one I have added what the official sources say about the places in it.

Day 2: Geneva to Montreux and the Christmas market

The one-hour journey in my note matches today’s trains. On the current Swiss public transport timetable, a direct train from Geneva reaches Montreux in a little over an hour, close to the one hour between 13:12 and 14:12 in my note. The exact departure time in my note is not on today’s timetable, so check the current one before you travel. The Christmas market we walked through is Montreux Noël, now called Montreux Riviera Noël. According to its official history, four Montreux business owners started it in 1995 to bring people to the town in the off-season. The first edition had 80 chalets on the Grand-Rue. Since 2005 the market has run for a month, from late November to late December, and it now stands on the quays by the lake.

A drone over Lake Léman

My note admits the drone went far out of sight, and today’s Swiss rules require pilots to keep a drone in sight at all times. The Federal Office of Civil Aviation’s current flight rules allow drones in the open category to be flown only within visual line of sight and no higher than 120 metres above the ground, and never over crowds. A drone of the DJI Mini type weighs less than 250 grams, so its pilot needs no certificate, but the office’s registration page says that its operator must still register, because it carries a camera. On Day 3 I found a wide, quiet spot by the lake, far from trains and roads, and that flight went well.

Groceries and the alcohol question

My note says that supermarkets do not sell alcohol. That is true of Migros, where we shopped, but not of Swiss supermarkets in general. Migros has kept alcohol out of its supermarkets since 1928, and in 2022 its members voted to keep it that way. Other supermarkets are different: swissinfo.ch lists Coop, Aldi, Lidl, Manor and Denner among the retailers that sell beer, wine and spirits.

Day 3: Chillon Castle by the lake

The free passes and the museum discount came from the Montreux Riviera Card, which hotels and other hosts in the region give to their guests. It is paid for by the tourist tax and gives free travel on public transport, with 50% off Chillon Castle among other discounts. It works much like the free transport card we had in Geneva (Part 1). My note says tram, but the public transport along this shore today is a bus: line 201 runs along the lake from Vevey through Montreux to Villeneuve, and its timetable lists a stop at Veytaux, château de Chillon.

According to the Chillon Castle Foundation, the castle stands on a natural rocky island about 100 metres long and 50 metres wide, and its name comes from an old word for a rocky platform. It was first mentioned in writing in 1150, when it belonged to the Counts of Savoy, who controlled the road between the lake and the mountains. The Bernese took it in 1536, and it has belonged to the Canton of Vaud since 1798. Its most famous prisoner was François Bonivard, the prior of Saint Victor in Geneva; Lord Byron visited in 1816 and made him the hero of his poem The Prisoner of Chillon. The castle’s visitor information gives adult admission as 15 francs, so the 50% discount was worth having.

The Queen Studio Experience

The studio is Mountain Studios, inside the Casino de Montreux. The Mercury Phoenix Trust says that Queen first came there in July 1978 to record the album Jazz and then bought the studios. In all, the trust’s exhibition page says, they recorded seven albums there, the last being Made in Heaven, which Freddie Mercury never heard in its finished form. The casino gives the dates as 1979 to 1993 for Queen’s ownership. The rooms became a free permanent exhibition, Queen: The Studio Experience, which Brian May and Roger Taylor opened on 2 December 2013. The control room has been kept, with a copy of the original desk that lets visitors make their own mix of Queen songs.

A comedy festival in English

What I called the Montreux Laughter Festival goes by the name Montreux Comedy today. The Commune de Montreux says it began in January 1990 as La Mâchoire d’Or, grew into the Montreux Comedy Festival and is now the most followed comedy festival in the French-speaking world, which fits “Big Francophone festival” in my note. The English show is a more recent addition: Le Matin reported that the 2015 festival added a gala in English for the first time.

Practical notes

Two of these notes need an update. Many supermarkets do sell alcohol, as the section above explains; Migros is the big exception. The exchange rate has also moved. On 22 October 2026 the European Central Bank’s reference rate was 0.92 Swiss francs to the euro, so a euro now buys less than one franc. The notes on bars and banks are my own impressions from two days, and I have not checked them against any source.

MONTREUX IN TWO DAYS
(in diary order)

 DAY 2
 GENEVA
    |  train, about 1 hour
    v
 MONTREUX
    |  Christmas market
    |  drone over Lake Leman
    v
 DAY 3
    |  transport along the lake
    v
 CHILLON CASTLE
    |  walk back for photos
    v
 QUEEN STUDIO (casino)
    |
    v
 COMEDY FESTIVAL

The takeaway: Montreux is small enough to see in two days and full enough to fill them. If you sleep there, ask your host for the Montreux Riviera Card: it pays for the buses along the lake and halves the price of Chillon Castle. Shop at Coop or Denner if you want wine with dinner, because Migros sells none. If you bring a drone, keep it where you can see it, as the Swiss rules require. And check the exchange rate before you go: the 1.05 francs to the euro in my notes is no longer right.

From Montreux the train took us on to Interlaken (Part 3).

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100 Days Europe Travel Journal · Part 2 of 24
← Previous: Geneva in a Day: Jet d’Eau, Old Town and Lake Léman (100 Days in Europe, Part 1)  |  Next: Interlaken: Hiking Up the Harder, Lake Thun and an Old Château Ruin (100 Days in Europe, Part 3) →

More from the journey: the Europe Travel page (all fifteen parts) · every Switzerland post · Part 1: Geneva · Part 3: Interlaken · Part 4: Lucerne · Part 5: Zurich