The ship parade of the most beautiful Belle Epoque fleet in the world

One of the most beautiful activity that takes place on Lake Leman is the annual Ship Parade of the Belle Epoque Fleet. This is the world's most important, most elegant and most look-alike fleet of side-wheel paddle boats. All the 8 ships were built by the Sulzer Brothers of Winterthur between 1904 and 1927. It is also the biggest Belle Epoque fleet of the world, in passenger capacity, and it has been classed as a Historic Monument of Swiss national importance on June 17th 2011.
The ship parade of the Belle Epoque CGN fleet

This year the parade took place in the Lavaux area, on the small harbor of Cully. 7 ships took part in this parade, a thing that hasn’t happened from 1998. This year the parade paid tribute to the 10th anniversary of the Lavaux vineyards as a UNESCO world heritage site.

The ships were:
  •         LA SUISSE  - The most beautiful in the world!
  •         SIMPLON - A jewel of neoclassical art!
  •          MONTREUX - The veteran of the CGN fleet!
  •         SAVOIE - Jewel of Lake Geneva's Belle Epoque fleet.
  •          RHÔNE - The last steamer built by Sulzer Winterhur.
  •          VEVEY - Belle Epoque Diesel electric paddle wheel vessels
  •          ITALIE - It is considered as a "mythical" boat by the lakeside inhabitants, especially because, for almost 50 years and every day, it operated the cruise lenght of Lake Geneva (Geneva - Le Bouveret and return). The 8th ship, HELVÉTIE, has missed because it is waiting for the renovation process.
Also read our article about the world's longest suspended pedestrian bridge!
The parade was grandiose, all the ships gathered in front of the harbor, passed two times in front of the people gathered there, then positioned themselves one near the other and tens of thousands of colored balloons were freed into the air. More than 2.000 people have bought tickets to admire the parade from the ships themselves and around 11.000 people were in Cully harbor and in all Lavaux area facing the harbor. It was pure magic! So be sure to see the Leman Belle Epoque Ship parade in 2008!

Do you want a superb cruise on Lake Leman? The ships are active every day from 18th of June to 03rd of September, so be sure to book a ticket fast on their website!

Watch our video of the CGN Ship Parade:




In order to keep the accuracy of the information some part of the text is from the CGN official website. We thank them for this.

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