Vevey

Vevey persuaded the twentieth century's most famous man to stay. Charlie Chaplin, hounded out of America in 1952, chose the lakeside manor above the town and lived his last twenty-five years here; the Manoir de Ban is now Chaplin's World, the museum of his art and exile, and the Tramp's statue stands on the flower-lined quay, gazing at the water with the Savoy Alps for a backdrop. He had chosen the Swiss Riviera's sweetest spot: Lavaux's UNESCO vine terraces begin at the town's edge, Le Corbusier built his mother the exquisite Villa Le Lac in neighbouring Corseaux, and Courbet painted out his own exile just along the shore.

Vevey's older fame is fed daily: Nestlé was founded here and keeps its world headquarters on the lake, the Alimentarium runs its museum of food — with the giant fork planted in the water as the town's wittiest monument — and once in a generation the town performs the Fête des Vignerons, the winegrowers' festival crowned by UNESCO as living heritage: an arena rises on the market square, thousands of costumed locals enact the year of the vine, and then it vanishes for two decades or more, last seen in 2019.

The concert record's register — chamber music, churches, festivals, visiting ensembles — suits a town that treats culture as conviviality. A tramp, a fork, a once-a-generation opera of the grape: Vevey earns its riviera.