Lausanne Christmas Market

The Lausanne Christmas market, Bô Noël, fills the squares of the city centre from 20 November to 31 December 2026, for a twelfth edition that will also be the last under this name. Craft chalets, fondue and raclette restaurants, a Children’s Village in front of the cathedral: the market is spread over several squares linked by Rue Centrale, and access to the squares is free. In 2025 it had 60 chalets and welcomed more than 450,000 visitors. From late 2027, a new project takes over, under a working title, Lausanne Magic Winter.

Lausanne Christmas market 2026: dates and opening hours

Bô Noël opens on 20 November 2026 and closes on 31 December, with one closing day on 25 December. The hours published so far are those of the restaurants and bars: Monday and Tuesday noon-10pm, Wednesday 11am-10pm, Thursday and Friday noon-11pm, Saturday 11am-11pm and Sunday noon-9pm, until 23 December. The Refuge du Dahu, at the foot of the cathedral, only opens at 5pm on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Over the holidays the timetable changes: 24 December noon-5pm, 26 December 11am-9pm, 27 to 29 December noon-9pm and 30 December 11am-9pm. On 31 December, service starts at noon and some squares may stay open until 2am, depending on the New Year’s Eve programme.

The chalet opening hours for 2026 have not been published yet, nor have the list of exhibitors and the programme of events. In 2025, the shopping chalets closed at 8pm on weekdays and weekends alike, and at 5pm on 24 and 31 December.

Where is the Christmas market in Lausanne?

Bô Noël has no single square but a trail through the city centre. Five locations are confirmed for 2026: Place Saint-François, the heart of the market, the Portes de Saint-François with Rue Centrale, Place des Pionnières under the Grand-Pont bridge, Place Bel-Air and the cathedral esplanade. Saint-François, the Portes and the Pionnières all sit within about a hundred metres of each other.

In 2025, three more spots completed the trail: Place Pépinet and its Marché des Artisans, Rue du Lion-d’Or turned into a Canadian quarter with a 25 m toboggan run, and the Flon esplanade around the Bô Sapin. Whether they return in 2026 has not been confirmed. There was neither a Ferris wheel nor an ice rink in 2025.

What to eat at Bô Noël: fondue, raclette and Vaud produce

In Lausanne, the market’s restaurants matter as much as the chalets. On Place Bel-Air, the big heated tent of the Belvédère du Mondial de fondue is back, and the Tonnelle Chez Steph serves its fondues upstairs or a raclette in a cable car cabin. On Place Saint-François, the Bô Pêcheur pours mulled wine and Christmas teas and serves a Christmas hot dog, while the restaurant En terre vaudoise puts the canton’s produce on the plate. At the Portes de Saint-François, the Bar des Fromages goes for melted cheese and mulled wine, and under the Grand-Pont, the Cœurnotzet builds its menu around cheese.

In 2025, the Mini Labô on Place Pépinet served Glühmost, a hot cider, the Bô Noël mugs were collected from one market to the next, and the winegrowers of Tartegnin cooked their Grande Raisinée on Place Bel-Air non-stop from Friday 11am to Saturday 6pm, on 12 and 13 December.

Children’s Village, parade and New Year’s Eve at the cathedral

In front of the cathedral, the Children’s Village is on the 2026 programme, with the Refuge du Dahu for the parents. In 2025 it brought together Father Christmas, pony rides, a storytelling yurt and a workshop yurt: stories and workshops were free, with no booking, the carousel cost CHF 3.50 per child, and Father Christmas received visitors on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 3pm to 6pm until 24 December. The rest of the 2026 programme is still to come: the opening parade is planned, with no date set yet, and the Advent calendar, the festive Saturdays on Rue Centrale and the Christmas Run were the fixtures of 2025.

On 31 December at midnight, the cathedral tower is set alight (the embrasement), a tradition going back more than a century, organised by the Amis de la Cité association. All year round, the cathedral watchman, a post held since 1405, calls out the hours from 10pm to 2am from the top of the belfry, 153 steps up, and the belfry can be visited from 10.15pm by reservation. In 2025, Rue Centrale hosted a giant Silent Disco from 8pm to 2am for New Year’s Eve.

2026, the last Bô Noël before a new project

Bô Noël has existed under this name since 2015, following a market launched by Lausanne shopkeepers. The City asked the organiser, Bô Noël Sàrl, to run its concept again in 2026, and awarded the 2027 to 2030 year-end festivities to another project, led by the Lausanne Winter association and chosen unanimously from six bids. Its title, Lausanne Magic Winter, is provisional, and its outline will be presented in autumn 2027: a Christmas market, a programme of events, partnerships with local players and a joint programme across the whole city. The 2026 edition is therefore the twelfth and last Bô Noël, after attendance rose from 380,000 visitors in 2023 to 450,000 in 2025.

How to get to the Lausanne Christmas market

From Paris, the TGV Lyria links Gare de Lyon to Lausanne with no change, via Vallorbe, in 3 hr 41 min to 3 hr 57 min. Throughout 2026 and until 4 April 2027, the Paris-Geneva-Lausanne trains do not stop in Lausanne: with those, you change in Geneva onto an SBB train. Geneva airport is 60 km away, 45 minutes by train or by car.

From Lausanne station, the m2 metro serves the market squares: Lausanne-Flon station for Saint-François, the Portes, the Pionnières and Bel-Air, Riponne-Maurice Béjart station for the cathedral. On foot, Saint-François is about 400 m from the station as the crow flies, uphill. Until 18 December 2026, the underpass between the station and the m2 is closed for works, and the metro is reached at street level. In 2025, park-and-ride car parks were free at weekends with a public transport ticket, except Vennes, free on Saturdays only, and public transport in zones 11 and 12 was free on the first three Saturdays of December, from 8am to 8pm.

The country’s other markets are gathered on our page of Christmas markets in Switzerland, including two close neighbours of Lausanne.

• The Montreux Christmas market combines with Lausanne in a single day.
• The Geneva Christmas market is on the same line as the airport, handy if you arrive by plane.