In the 1920s Le Corbusier built a house for his parents on the shore of Lake Geneva, and he called it, a little ruefully, the little house, la petite maison. It stands at Corseaux, just east of Vevey, and it is tiny, only about sixty square metres of living space on a strip of garden between the railway and the water. The design is a manifesto in small. A single long window frames the lake and the mountains of Savoy like a painting, the garden wall has a table and a window cut into it, and every cupboard and corner has a purpose. His mother lived there into her nineties, and he wrote a little book about it. The house is part of the UNESCO listing of his works, and it can be visited in the season, with timed guided tours.
The setting matters as much as the house. Above it, the terraces of Lavaux, a UNESCO landscape in its own right, climb the slope in steps of stone-walled vineyards, producing the Chasselas that locals drink with fondue. The lake lies wide and silver in front, and the French Alps stand across the water, with the Dents du Midi at the end. Charlie Chaplin lived in Corseaux for his last decades, in a manor house a few minutes away, and is remembered with a museum and a statue in Vevey.
The ride along the lakeshore is one of the loveliest short rides in Switzerland. The road from Vevey toward Lausanne passes through Lavaux, with the vineyard terraces on one side and the lake on the other, narrow, curving, with stone walls and tiny villages like Chexbres, Cully and Epesses. In autumn the vine leaves turn gold and red. Traffic can be thick on weekends, and the road is narrow in places, with parking at a premium. A short climb to the Rochers-de-Naye or the Jaman pass gives alpine views and a change of scene.
Chardonne, one kilometre away, is a village with a few cafés and good views, and Vevey, a lively town with a market, cafés and fuel, is a short distance away. The Alimentarium food museum and the statue of Chaplin are worth a stop. Tasting rooms in the vineyards open for walk-in visitors in summer and autumn, and a glass of wine on a terrace is hard to resist, so plan a place for the bike. Swiss speed limits are strictly enforced.