1. Schedule
Usually
- Monday - Friday : around 8:00 - 19:00
- Saturday : around 8:00 - 18:00
- Sunday : closed
To check out more detailed schedules you can, for example, google “Migros Lausanne horaire”. Also, good to know, the Migros at EPFL closes later in the week.
2. Shops
Disclaimer : Shopping in Switzerland is expensive, we know, so check for products on sale which will have a tag with « Actions » or « Rabais » written on it.
Migros:
The go-to shop for groceries, it probably has the best price-quality ratio. To make your bill cheaper you can look for the « M Budget » (green and white packaging) or « actions » tags.
You can find food, basic clothes, stationary, beauty products, cleaning products, however no alcohol or cigarettes.
Specialties:
- Ice tea, or as the Swiss call it : « Thé froid Migros ». You can’t live in Switzerland without having tried this, it is by far the best ice tea you could find anywhere. The basic flavors are lemon or peach (and the Swiss often debate on which one tastes better).
- Farmer: cereal bars with different flavors, often covered with chocolate. Personal favorites: blueberry and blackberry, cornflakes, chestnut, brownies).
- M Budget wave chips paprika.
- Frey chocolate (personal favorite : Japonais)
Denner:
A little cheaper than Migros, still good quality. Cheap alcohol, however almost only mainstream beers.
You can find food, beauty products, cleaning products, alcohol, cigarettes.
Coop:
Very similar to Migros, however a bit more expensive. Make sure to look for the « Prix Garantie » and « actions » to find cheaper options. You can find a larger diversity of beers than in Denner, including some great local beers and sometimes great deals on the large beer packages. There are also more brands than in Migros (as Migros often uses its own brand to sell products, so don’t be surprised to find similar products named differently).
You can find food, basic clothes, stationary, beauty products, cleaning products, alcohol, cigarettes.
Specialties:
- Bio Naturaplan ice teas: many different flavors. Personal favorite: green tea and mint. They all taste as good as the thé froid migros considering they’re different flavors (but psst, don’t tell anyone we told you that).
- The good old PG beer: a student’s classic, cheap and might taste like it but a must for any student in Lausanne.
Aldi :
https://www.aldi-suisse.ch/fr/
Probably the cheapest, still good quality.
You can find food, basic clothes, beauty products, cleaning products, alcohol.
Manor Food:
https://www.manor.ch/fr/u/manorfood
More expensive than Coop, however you can probably find a larger diversity and more exclusive products. Personal note: they have great bread and some nice beers to discover!
You’ll mostly find food as this is Manor Food. Other products can be found in the other parts of Manor.
Globus Delicatessa:
https://www.globus.ch/fr/delicatessa
Probably the most expensive, but an even larger diversity and exclusivity than Manor. If you fancy fondue with champagne and truffles, that’s the place to go!
3. Some Swiss products
Salty products:
- Aromat: powdered salty condiment.
- Flûtes: puff pastries, if you want to impress your parents when they come to visit you we can only recommend the one’s from ‘Vincent’ ;)
- Roesti: Switzerland wouldn’t be Switzerland without Roesti, their own kind of hash browns. In other countries, you always have some pasta at home, in Switzerland you always have a pack of Roesti. Fun fact: the separation between the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland is known as “Röstigraben”, the Roesti ditch.
- Viande séchée: “dried meat”, you can eat it any time, perfect side with Raclette.
- Zweifel paprika chips: the most iconic Swiss chips, our country’s favorite. The brand Zweifel also has other flavors.
Cheese:
-
Fondue: Basically a pot, called ‘caquelon’, of melted cheese that you dip little pieces of bread into. Don’t you ever dare to put stuff into your fondue that doesn’t belong there, go for the classic moitié-moitié and we won’t have to come after you ;)
PS: no fondue shall ever be made in a rice cooker, please, we beg you not to do this.
- Raclette: Once again melted cheese but this time not in a caquelon. Raclette or Fondue? Let us know what you think on this major national debate topic.
- Tête de moine
- Tomme vaudoise
- Gruyère
- Vacherin Fribourgeois
- Vacherin Mont-d’Or
Sweet products:
-
Basler Läckerli: resembles gingerbread
- Bâtonnets à la noisette: hazelnut biscuits
- Biberli: soft biscuits with almond paste
- Branche Cailler: chocolate bars, great for long study sessions
- Carac: chocolate tartlet
- Kägi fret: chocolate wafers
- Kambly: original Appenzeller biscuits
- Mocca yoghurt
- Double cream & Meringue: If you ever wondered what to have as dessert after a fondue (yes, there are people thinking about dessert after a fondue) then you’ve just found the perfect answer. Please let us know if you still manage to move after the Double cream fondue combo, we’d be impressed to know ;)
- Mövenpick ice cream: Personal favorite: “Caramelita”, which contains pieces of caramel and “Double Cream & Meringue”, try to find more Swiss than that as ice cream.
- Ovomaltine: a brand producing several products containing malt. Personal favorite: Ovomaltine crunchy cream, which tastes much better than Nutella in our opinion!
- Wernli: biscuit brand
- Chocolate: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!! If not for chocolate then why did you even come to Switzerland? Joke, we know you came for the cheese ;) Cailler, Lindt, Sprüngli, Suchard, Villars, Caotina (best hot chocolate ever <3) and so many more, Switzerland has many chocolate brands and if you prefer something a bit fancier, luckily for you Lausanne is filled with chocolate shops! One of the most famous ones is for sure Blondel (beware, it’s expensive!) but there are also plenty of other ones such as Durig, la Chocolatière, L’Espace Chocolat and so on.
Drinks :
- Abricotine/Willamine: apricot / pear alcohol from Valais
- Ramseier: sparkling apple juice
- Rivella: typical Swiss soft drink produced from milk whey!
- Suze: alcohol (actually French but pretty popular in Switzerland).
- Wine: “Mieux vaut un vin qui Vaud qu’un vin qui Valais”, you’ll find lots of Swiss wine in the shops, we can’t tell you which region produces the best wine, we can only recommend to try for yourself ;)
- Our favourite thing to do: grab a bottle of wine from Lavaux, jump on a train to get to one of the villages in Lavaux and enjoy a mindblowing apéro in the middle of the vineyards! (but please don’t sit anywhere, there are many benches and tables in the vineyards where you can enjoy your snacks and wine ;) Please don’t forget to check out these few rules before heading to Lavaux : http://translate.google.com/translate?client=tmpg&hl=en&langpair=fr|en&u=https%3A//www.bourg-en-lavaux.ch/content/lavaux-ne-se-visite-pas-mais-se-vit )
For more inspiration you can check out this video of two British people trying Swiss snacks: https://youtu.be/6_UNxBsRGOE
4. Some recipes
And if you want to try cooking some Swiss dishes or desserts, here are some recipes (you can also find the videos on Youtube): https://www.24heures.ch/vivre/gastronomie/incontournables-cuisine-vaudoise-celebrer-independance/story/28200705
Personal favorite: tarte à la raisinée, also called tarte au vin cuit.
5. Contacts for more info
Camille PESCATORE
telegram : @camilke
Tina CURRAT
telegram : @annachrii