The heights of Lausanne are complaint-worthy but at least they mean we catch sight of the lake from multiple angles. It is our changeable backdrop. A living painting that is never quite the same colours, never quite the same strokes. You can walk through streets as familiar as home, or stand on a balcony you already know, only to still be held captive by a view of the water.
It’s an everyday luxury. Léman’s omnipresence and our consistent admiration punctuates our routines and our camera rolls. To live by it means becoming slightly dependent on its reliable beauty and capacity for emotional regulation. Whether that’s the dip that resets, a shared sunset reflected in the water or a spike of adrenaline to erase a working day. We notice and experience the lake through the lens of our own enjoyment. A provider of needs, so inextricable from life in the city, it even flows through our taps and our buildings.
What we tend to overlook, or willfully choose to ignore, is how much pressure we place it under. Beyond feeling the extra tickle of algae that loved this summer’s record heat, we don’t really give a wider thought to what is happening beneath. How the lake is changing. How it is forced to respond to invasive species, like the catfish that went viral online, or the widely reported quagga mussels, that clog surfaces at astonishing rates whilst decimating ecosystems. As recreational users, we stay purely on the surface. Inspired by the lake we think we know, keeping its depths and processes a convenient mystery.
In our new series, The Lausanne Guide is excited to bring you three different Lake Perspectives. Locals who interact with Léman in exceptional ways, that stay closely attuned to its health and idiosyncrasies. Some of them work on it. Some of them want to get to the bottom of it. All of them have a desire to understand it and feel the urgent need to protect it.
Their ways of looking go back generations, but with an even keener eye on what is ahead. Lake Perspectives will take you fishing on a boat at dawn. It will show you who is examining Léman through microscopes. And finally, you’ll be going scuba diving down to almost freezing depths. For like us and our all consuming lives, the lake is in constant motion. These stories will encourage you to not only view this open museum in passing, but to stop and look again.
We’ll meet you by the water.
Read our pieces on LéXPLORE, and Laura Fayat, and Pier-Luca d'Arman.
Vanessa Tracey also writes on Substack. You can read more of her work here.
