There are lakes you look at, and there are lakes you spend a whole lifetime along and still don't exhaust. Lake Geneva - or Léman, as they call it there - is one of the second kind. The largest Alpine lake in Western Europe, 73 kilometres long, with one shore in Switzerland and the other in France. And on every kilometre, something worth stopping for.

Geneva is the first stop - the most international city in the country, seat of the European arm of the UN. It has a charming old core, waterfront promenades, a watchmaking tradition and the Jet d'Eau - the tallest water jet in Europe. Those who want a view over it all take the cable car up Mount Salève.

From there the shore leads towards Lausanne, a city with the largest Gothic cathedral in Switzerland, but also with the Olympic Museum and the Rolex Learning Center - a building the locals count among the masterpieces of contemporary architecture. Between Lausanne and Vevey stretch the Lavaux vineyards, terraces carved into the slopes above the lake, protected by UNESCO, where family wineries offer tastings of chasselas with a view of the Alps.

Vevey is quiet, elegant and full of unexpected details - a giant fork jutting out of the water, a statue of Charlie Chaplin, who spent the last 25 years of his life right here. Montreux, meanwhile, is the town of famous guests: Vladimir Nabokov lived seventeen years in the legendary hotel on the shore, Freddie Mercury found a creative refuge with Queen, and his statue still looks out over the lake to this day. Every summer the renowned jazz festival is held here.

The most photographed frame on the whole lake, though, is Chillon Castle - a medieval fortress on a rocky islet that looks as though it floats on the water, just three kilometres from Montreux. The Dukes of Savoy built it in the 13th century, and its beauty inspired both Rousseau and Lord Byron. Inside - 25 buildings, three courtyards and two defensive walls, through which the visit runs from the dungeons to the watchtowers.

And whoever wants to cross the lake to the French side finds Évian-les-Bains, an elegant spa town with Belle Époque charm and the spring that made its mineral water famous the world over, and Yvoire - a medieval walled village of stone houses covered in flowers, named one of the loveliest in France. From Geneva to there - half an hour. From a postcard to a real town you'd want to stay in - even less.