We’ve been to the Lavaux area a few times now, and it continues to be one of our favorite locations in Switzerland.  It’s the complete package.  There are unbeatable views of the Alps, water activities in Lake Geneva, and fabulous wine from hundreds of vineyards.  This past weekend, we were introduced to another component that made us appreciate Lavaux even more: music.

We loved attending concerts while we lived in DC, so once we heard that Montreux hosts an annual Jazz Fest (which was actually the inspiration for the song “Smoke on the Water” — full story available from NPR), we were pretty pumped.

On Friday, we headed to The Lumineers concert and while they were very good, we actually enjoyed the opening act, Passenger, more.  Some of the band’s songs were a little low-key for our tastes, but the lead singer had great stage presence and a certain way with the crowd.  On the whole, it was definitely an enjoyable/memorable experience.

Saturday was an absolute blue chip day.  We headed about 20 minutes outside of Montreux to a small village called Chexbres (pronounced Cheb) for wine tasting.  As previously stated, there are hundreds of vineyards and tasting rooms, and we typically like to try a different one each time we visit; however, with Britton and Julia in town, we settled on our tried and true location, Domaine Bovy.  The wine is tasty, the staff is friendly, and their terrace is a perfect place to spend the afternoon.

Post wine, we had planned to go on Jazz Trains (a 2.5-hour train ride that features a variety of New Orleans style jazz bands), but sadly Sarah bought tickets for the wrong day.  Womp womp.  It was a certainly an expensive mistake, but luckily the day was not completely ruined.  We spent the late afternoon drinking rosé while sunbathing on the hotel roof.

Saturday evening was definitely the highlight of the trip.  We had a delicious (and rather expensive) meal at the Fairmont Restaurant, Montreux Jazz Cafe, followed by drinks and music at their partner bar, Funky Claude’s.  The live music was just mediocre, but the people watching was … let’s just say the bar lived up to its name.

After a few cocktails, we were ready to embrace the craziness of SILENT DISCO!  No idea what this means?  Basically, every participant wears a set of wireless headphones.  These headphones receive three different radio signals from the three different DJs.  All the participants can choose the music they want to listen/dance/sing to (note: they also played the most popular channel of music aloud).  It ends up looking absolutely ridiculous as everyone is dancing/singing to different music.  We weren’t really sure what to expect when we arrived, but we ended up staying for multiple hours and we had an absolute blast.

Sunday’s weather was just as beautiful as the previous day, so we decided that some sort of water activity was in order.  Unfortunately, if you do not have a boating license you cannot drive a boat with anything more than an 8-horsepower engine (we know … Switzerland has crazy laws).  Even with this silly rule, we felt that a slow boat was still better than no boat at all, so we rented a boat for 2 hours and putzed around the lake.  It was an absolutely perfect cherry atop a weekend filled with fun and pals.