SWITZERLAND TRAVEL, HOTEL, HOLIDAY & ACCOMMODATION GUIDE
HOTELS IN MONTREUX - LAKE GENEVA - SWISS RIVIERA - VAUD

Montreux Guide

Hauts de Montreux

Less than 20 kilometers away from and 800 meters above the swanky Swiss Riviera, Hauts de Montreux is a hiker's dream. On a good day you can see to Geneva in the west and Bern in the east. If you look hard, you can even see the sparkle of all those flashy watches and dripping diamonds on the rich old people shuffling around the muggy lakefront. Château de Chillon +41 21 966 89 10. Open every day until 6pm. A historic castle, the country's most visited say the Tourist Board, on a small island in Lake Geneva only a few meters from the shore. It was built originally to allow the occupants to extract a toll from people and goods passing between Italy and the rest of Europe on the road north from the St. Bernard pass.

Buy This Allposters.com

The roadway here is wedged between the lake and the cliffs, so there was no way to get around Chillon. The Castle is more famous in modern times for having inspired Lord Byron's poem, The Prisoner of Chillon, based on the true story of François Bonivard, a political prisoner from Geneva who was released in 1536. Byron is said to have carved his name in one of the columns in the dungeon where Bonivard was detained during a few years. 

Buy This Allposters.com

Marmots' Paradise. The mountains around Hauts de Montreux are threaded with forest trails, suddenly isolated villages, caves, grottos, and wildlife. Rochers-De-Naye itself is home to an odd little compound called "Marmots' Paradise" where marmots from all over the world live in an observable system of underground burrows. Kind of a rodent UN or something. Any of the train stops will lead to several hiking options. For a real hiker's hike, tackle the four hour, 1000 metre climb from Caux to Rochers-De-Naye. Saner folks might want to get off at Dent-De-Jaman, just below the peak, where you can enjoy the views and fresh air with out the huffing and puffing.  The Golden Award of Montreux, which takes place annually in April in Montreux, is traditionally, since 1989, the first international advertising and multimedia competition in Europe- starting the global season for awarding creative excellence.

The object of this competition is to honor creative achievements within the cultural surroundings of television and music festivals, reflecting in this way the advertising is part of the global world of creativity.

Concerts - Smoke On The Water   by Michael Russell

In this article we're going to tell the true behind the scenes story of one of the most famous songs in rock history that was actually the result of an incident at a concert.

Everyone knows the song "Smoke On The Water". Every kid who ever picked up a guitar for the first time plunked out that four chord blues riff. For many kids, it's the only thing they were ever able to play. And many of these kids think they know the story of how that song was recorded. Yes, there was a fire, a bad one. But what most, if not all of them, don't realize is that the fire that broke out that day was during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention concert. The date was December 7, 1971. It was thirty years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Maybe that should have been an omen. Certainly this was not an insignificant date in history. Anyway, Deep Purple, the band who recorded "Smoke On The Water" was setting up their camp in Montreux, Switzerland to record their next album.

Buy This Allposters.com

They were going to use a mobile recording studio to do this which they rented from The Rolling Stones, known as their Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They set up at the Montreux Entertainment Complex which was part of their casino. This is referred to as the "gambling house" in the lyrics of the song.

Buy This Allposters.com

Well, on the eve of their recording session Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention were performing live in concert at the casino's theater. They were to perform a number of their popular songs including the epic "The Nancy & Mary Music", "Sharleena", "Duke Of Prunes", and "Hungry Freaks Daddy". Frank Zappa was strange to say the least. However, before they could really get into the meat of their performance a fire broke out during the concert. It was said to have been caused by a Swiss fan shooting a flare gun at the ceiling, as was stated in the "some stupid with a flare gun" line that ultimately destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all of Frank Zappa and The Mother's equipment. The smoke on the water that was talked about in the song was the smoke from the fire that spread over all of Lake Geneva. From their hotel across the way from the casino, the members of Deep Purple watched the fire burn and the smoke cover the lake. In the lyrics they mention a "funky Claude" running in and out. This was actually the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival running in and out of the casino trying to get people to safety. The aftermath of all this was that Deep Purple had no place to record and Frank Zappa and the Mothers were part of the most famous concert in history to get cancelled mid way through.

Deep Purple eventually found another place to record, using a near empty Montreux Grand Hotel. They converted its hallways into a makeshift recording studio.

As for Frank Zappa, the concert was cancelled and never rescheduled. But he had become a part of history that little kids with electric guitars will be thankful for, for a very long time.

About the Author - Michael Russell - Your Independent guide to Concerts

FEATURED HOTELS IN MONTREUX, LAKE GENEVA, SWITZERLAND