The Great Escape

In the train from Lausanne to Zurich, my head is turning between the computer screen and beautiful vineyards, ornamenting the Leman lakeside, modest sunshine is reaching down through fluffy white clouds… In spite of terrible torrents and mid-October temperatures, this week spent in Lausanne was very special and saturated with small surprises and discoveries. And in spite the hours of work, I had time to enjoy the lake - observing swans, fishermen, and tourists. It was a kind of escape. 

A great escape, maybe?.. if I can borrow the name of a nice resto I discovered these days. 

Rue de la Madeleine 18

CH-1003 Lausanne

They serve tastiest burgers, the atmosphere is informal, the crowd is colorful and the location is perfect. 

The great escape is located two steps away from the Rumine palace, where the biggest surprise was awaiting. Stepping in with some visitors to marvel at the palace's  finest renaissance decor,  we saw this poster: 

For the first time in Switzerland, the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne is showing an outstanding collection of major works from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Around seventy paintings document the finest achievements of the Russian landscape school in the 19th century.

The sea, mountains, forests and skies of the vast Empire, the passage of the seasons from dawn to nightfall, peasant customs, and rural and urban buildings convey that new sensibility and that aspiration for renewal. The artists exhibited include Ivan Aivazovsky, Ivan Shishkin, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Mikhail Nesterov, Ilya Repin, Alexei Savrasov, and Vasily Vereshchagin.

Slightly changing our day's program we went in, and it was a true escape into the magic of Russian landscape. Beautifully painted showrooms varied from dark grey to bright pink, enhancing and accentuating each painting. You have time till 5th October to go and see the exposition, and I need to change trains soon. 

Have a surprising weekend,

Love,

AB