Switzerland is surrounded by five countries: Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein. The official language is Swiss German but there are areas of the country where the language is French and Italian. Lausanne is a French speaking area.
Lausanne is a combination of Swiss and French and the architecture reflects that. The house have tiled red roofs that are upturned. In the downtown area there are apartment buildings that look like they could be in France.
The steep winding cobblestone streets look European. This is the first place that we have been in that has more of a European feel. No sidewalk cafes though, the streets are too steep.
They have the Norte Dame cathedral, built in the 1100's. (Weren't they all built in the 1100's?) It started out Catholic with all the fancy statues and doo dads of your typical Catholic cathedral. In 1500 the Protestants took over and removed all of that. It is now very simple and stark.
Interesting thing about the cathedral is that it has a night watchman. From 10 pm to 2 am, he stands in the bell towers and each hour shouts the time. Historically he rang the bell too but it's automated now. The role was also to keep watch over the city, protect it, watch for fires. This has been going on for 600 years. Current watchman is Renato Hausler.
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