GETTING THERE

Anthea Gerrie discovers the wilder side of Switzerland as she explores Lake Geneva’s celebrity legacy

You’d think the serene shores of Lake Geneva, framed by alpine meadows and majestic snowcapped peaks, were as far as you could get from the wilder climes of showbusiness. Yet perhaps because of its very serenity, many controversial figures in the arts have made the Swiss Riviera their home, from Charlie Chaplin and Vladimir Nabokov to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury.

And most have left their legacy, making this picturesque region a place of cultural treasures as well as tempting visitors with its gorgeous scenery and surprisingly fine wine.

Notably, this year marks the first anniversary of Chaplin’s World, a remarkable conversion of the actor’s fabulous Swiss family mansion into a superb museum 40 years after his death and 65 years after he moved into the house where he was to raise nine of his 11 children, once he had been Freddie Mercury’s lakeshore statue denied re-entry to the USA.

Actress Geraldine Chaplin, the oldest and best-known of the brood — and an old acquaintance — remembers the children’s dining room being situated in what is now the ladies’ loo. “This is where we’d wait for our lift to the local school, which Dad insisted we attend for the first couple of years,” she reminisced as we walked round during her first visit in several years.

“My father was very Victorian, and we were presented to our parents for 45 minutes while they had cocktails, but didn’t get to join them in the formal dining room until we were grown up.

“After our mother died, two of my brothers raised their own families here, but when I was last here the house had already been abandoned for several years, and there were trees growing up through the living-room

RETURN flights from Heathrow to Geneva cost from around £83 with Swiss (swiss.com) in June.

Rooms at the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace cost from £257, room-only. www.fairmont.com/ montreux

Rooms at Modern Times cost from around £137 room only. www. moderntimeshotel.ch

Entry to Chaplin’s World costs around £19. www.chaplinsworld.com

For more information visit lakegeneva-region.ch