I’ve been living in Switzerland for three years now, and I’m trying to get to know the country as much as possible, not just the big cities, I visit them with friends and family anyway, but also smaller towns and villages. It’s a pretty useful hobby not only because I can use my GA travel card (which allows me to travel unlimited on trains, railways, as well as on much of the public transport) but also because I can get to know the country and the people a bit better.
Last time I visited Yverdon-les-Bains. I didn’t choose this small town without any hidden agenda: the first Café Frei in Switzerland opened here a few weeks ago. And I figured that if I was going to travel almost 120 km by train to have a delicious coffee, I might as well take the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing.
Short history of the city
Yverdon-les-Bains is located in the French-speaking canton of Vaud, about 20 minutes from Lausanne and an hour from Bern. The town of 30 000 inhabitants has been inhabited since 5000 BC, and it was later also discovered by the Celtic Helvetians and the Romans. In the Middle Ages, the walls surrounding the town and the castle (can still be seen today) were built, along with the first residential buildings. The townscape became more or less complete in the 18th century when Yverdon was connected to Lake Geneva, with direct boat service from one of its ports to London. Even Jean-Jacques Rousseau fled here from France, although he left the city soon after, but that’s another story 🙂 In short, the city’s rich history makes Yverdon a perfect destination for a day trip.
Things to do in Yverdon-les-Bains
The highly chatty bench
When I arrived, I knew immediately where to go, because the castle and the towers of the great church were already visible from the train station. After about 5 minutes of walking, I arrived at the main square of the town, called Pestalozzi Square. I managed to visit Yverdon on one of those rare occasions when it was 30 degrees already in May, and it was terribly hot, so I immediately headed for the drinking fountain at the edge of the square, next to a shady and luckily empty bench. Soon enough I realised why no one was sitting on the only seat that wasn’t burning hot… The bench was talking, and believe me, it was talking very loudly. It tells the story of the city in German, English and French, which shouldn’t be a problem, but when I pressed the button I didn’t know it would literally shout. At first, I tried to pay attention, but then I noticed that others were staring at me with wondering eyes, so I quickly pushed the button again.
The castle
The castle was built in the 13th century by Peter of Savoy and later reconstructed several times during the 16th and 18th centuries. Today it houses the Museum of Yverdon and its Region and the Swiss Fashion Museum. I must admit that I was most looking forward to visiting the fashion history museum, because according to its website and Instagram page, it is supposed to show the most important milestones of Swiss fashion history from the 18th century to the present day. Theoretically. Because the museum is closed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out why or when it would reopen to the public. I actually asked the cashier in French, but I didn’t understand the answer 😀 I didn’t want to go into it any further, because by then I had been talking to the ticket agent in French for a quarter of an hour more or less fluently, and so I didn’t want to ruin the experience.
The Museum of Yverdon and its Region
The museum on the history of the city and its region occupies pretty much the entire castle building, with its medieval towers, 13th-century Gothic chapel and impressive courtyard.
The exhibition presents the history of the city in chronological order. First, on the ground floor, you can see the different forms of the castle over the centuries, then you arrive through a small door into a dark room. When I entered, I thought I was in some dank, dusty storage room, but after a few steps, the light turned on and in fact, I was in a nearly 500 years old ceremonial hall from the city’s Bernese period. I lingered here for quite a while because the details carved into the wood are so finely detailed that it took minutes for my brain to process what I was seeing.
The time travel continues upstairs, where you can see the largest tower of the castle, as well as countless relics of ancient fishing and hunting. And, as a pleasant surprise, the Celtic and Roman collections include a wide range of jewellery and other objects of daily use, which kinda made up for the fashion history museum. Moving on, we arrive at a Gothic chapel, whose foundations were laid in the 13th century, but after several fires, only the rose window frames remain intact.
The museum contains a good number of late medieval and Renaissance artefacts, but apart from a celestial globe, I was not so impressed, so I soon moved on to the 19th-20th century collection, which has Yverdon as a spa town in its centre. As the name of the town suggests (‘bains’ is French for baths), Yverdon-les-Bains is a famous thermal spa resort, especially popular in the 1900s. The exhibition covers this period and gives an insight into the spa and beauty practices of the time.
Museum of science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys
Out of all the attractions, the Maison d’Ailleurs, Yverdon’s comic book museum, was my favourite (but that’s obviously because I’m crazy about superheroes). You’d think that in a town this small, an exhibition like this would have at most one or two unworthy comics. Well, I have to disappoint everyone. The Yverdon Comics Museum has three floors of posters, video installations, and of course comics from the 1930s to the present day.
The museum’s founder first started collecting comics in the 1950s, his collection was first unveiled in the 1970s, and since then has grown to more than 50,000 comics and exhibits. There is a dedicated room for the first superhero, Superman, as well as a special section for Batman and Joker, and you can check out original first-issue Captain America and Wonder Woman comics.
Much to my surprise, the creators of the exhibition don’t ignore the bad reputation of comics, and in fact they raise many questions about it. Are comics necessarily inferior from an aesthetic point of view? Can they compete with artistically or scientifically recognised works? To what extent are film adaptations of comics manipulated by big corporations? Wouldn’t it be appropriate, in line with the more open-minded ideas of our time, to slightly adjust some characters and stories? And finally, what do superheroes give us? Is it really possible to learn from them about our faults and shortcomings? They don’t answer the questions for the visitors, but they do shed new light on quite a few aspects.
Café Frei
Finally, I ended the day at Café Frei. I was planning to spend most of the afternoon here, reading, taking notes, and summing up what I had seen, but I was sadly disappointed. The cafe itself is in a grocery store, where you can buy takeaways, bubble tea, seafood, and even fresh meat. All of this would be fine, but unfortunately, they don’t have a terrace or air conditioning ( for some reason air conditioning is not really trendy in Switzerland :D), and it was terribly hot. However, just as in Hungary, there are several types of iced coffee to choose from, as well as several kinds of other coffee drinks, and the names of the different spices are written in Hungarian, which I must admit was quite heart-warming. So all in all, if you’re in Yverdon I would definitely recommend stopping by Café Frei, but in the summer it’s probably better to ask for takeaway.
Some useful tips
- It’s worth spending at least 1-1.5 hours in the museums if you want to see everything properly.
- In most museums you can buy a combined ticket. For example, you can visit the history and comics museum for 12 francs, and they even give you a discount coupon to visit Swiss castles or fortresses.
- Opening hours vary from museum to museum, but most of them are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. And on Sundays, shops are closed, so Wednesday to Saturday is probably the best time for a visit.
- Locals are incredibly nice, but they don’t speak any other language apart from French. So it’s worth planning in advance what you want to see, where you want to go, and learning a few phrases in French.
- There’s no need to buy extra bottles of water, because as in most Swiss cities, there are plenty of fountains to drink from, so it’s enough to bring your own bottle.
- In the summer, it’s not unusual to have 30+ degrees, so it’s best to spend the morning hours in the thermal baths and plan your sightseeing for the afternoon or evening.
For more activities in Yverdons, as well as for hotels, restaurants and the latest events, visit myswitzerland.com or drop me a message via email or Instagram.
