The most beautiful natural sites to discover Montreux

Also known as "Swan Island" or "Rat Island", Salagnon is the last of the five islands in Lake Geneva (Peilz Island, Choisi Island, Harpe Island and Rousseau Island)... and the only inhabited island on the lake!

Until 1880, there was only one set of rocks, "les roches aux mouettes", in front of Clarens. During the construction of the railway from Le Bouveret to Evian, the Tonkin, the Montreux engineer Joseph d'Allinges loaded barges of Meillerie stones and poured them onto this set of rocks to form an island which he surrounded with a wall. He named it Salagnon in reference to the salt from Burgundy which was formerly presented to the customs in Clarens before being transported to Valais. The island was bought 10 years later by a French painter, Théobald Chartran, who had a sort of Florentine villa built there, by the architect Louis Villard, as well as a small port. Chartran used to organize sumptuous evenings there with illustrious characters and fireworks. When he died, the island was taken over by a Russian count, a Zurich merchant, and then an American, Mary Shillito. In 1947, Salagnon became the property of a Zurich resident, Baron Pflüger. Then in 1950, the small port of Le Basset is built, which will be quickly enlarged and which then seems to bring the island closer to the coast. The property was only accessible by boat; at the time, a boatman, who was rung with a bell, made the trip. Today the island, as well as the villa, are classified as cultural property of national importance.

The Bex Salt Works is the story of almost three hundred and fifty years of salt extraction. The first gallery was dug in 1684. Since then, it has been transformed to be accessible to the general public, but the place has kept its originality and the unique setting allows us to appreciate the gigantic labyrinth cut into the heart of the mountain, and to discover the underground world of salt mines. A small train takes you to the heart of the mine to continue 1 hour on foot in a vast maze of galleries, shafts, staircases, gigantic rooms ..

Many Locals and even Veveysans come to fill their barrels of this pure water!