Things to Do in Lausanne in September

September is when the terraces between Lausanne and Montreux turn into a patchwork of gold and green, with the air thick with the smell of crushed grapes. The harvest trails from Grandvaux to Dézaley are still accessible but you'll share them with pickers rather than tour groups. Morning light on the stone walls makes the villages look like they've been dipped in honey.

The lake hits its warmest temperatures in early September, and the morning fog burns off by 10am to reveal mirror-calm water good for paddling past the Olympic Museum. Locals know the shallow shelf at Ouchy stays comfortable until the third week, when the first autumn winds start whipping up whitecaps.

Cooler September mornings make wandering the Escaliers du Marché manageable, the covered arcades smell of roasted chestnuts and Gruyère from the Tuesday/Friday market. The tour timing works because shops aren't slammed with cruise passengers like July, so you can talk to the chocolatier at Durig who'll let you taste single-origin bars while he explains the September harvest.

The Jura's beech forests start turning rust-colored in mid-September, and the air is crisp enough to make the 800m (2,625 ft) climb to Mont Tendre feel refreshing instead of brutal. Alpine huts are still serving melted raclette from summer milk, the flavor is richer than winter cheese because the cows were still eating fresh grass.