Switzerland Guide
Lausanne and Lake Geneva
Place de la Riponne
The huge Place de la Riponne in the Old Town is usually dotted with students sitting on the steps of the overbearing Palais de Rumine on the far side – an absurdly grandiose late nineteenth-century neo-Renaissance structure adorned with lions, angels and pink marble, named after a local philanthropist and designed by a Parisian architect who hadn't actually bothered to visit Lausanne beforehand. The palace is now home to a clutch of museums, most interesting of which is the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts (Tues & Wed 11am–6pm, Thurs 11am–8pm, Fri & Sat 11am–5pm; Fr.10; SMP; free on 1st Sun of month; 
www.beaux-arts.vd.ch ). A huge percentage of its works, including those from the medieval and Baroque periods, and all its Renoirs, are currently in storage in the basement; instead it displays three rooms of Swiss art from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries (including many Vaudois artists), and devotes most of its time and energy to high-quality exhibitions of contemporary art hung in the brighter, less fussy rooms at the back.