Glâne

Romont sits on the main railway line from Lausanne to Fribourg and Bern, which makes it one of the easiest outings in the canton without a car: about thirty minutes from Lausanne, twenty from Fribourg. TPF buses continue towards Bulle and the surrounding villages. By car, leave the A12 motorway at Vaulruz and allow a good fifteen minutes on country roads, or come up from Moudon through the valley.

Worth knowing: the old town is reached by a climb from the station. Allow ten minutes on foot with children, and save the downhill leg for the end of the day rather than the start.

The old town is cobbled in places but broadly flat once you are up there, and most of the rampart walk can be done with a pushchair. Children stop mainly at the towers and arrow slits, which give them a concrete reason to keep walking. The Vitromusée, inside the castle, is entirely indoors and works fine with a carrier. The flat lane out to the abbey of La Fille-Dieu, starting below the town, also suits pushchairs.

The classic programme has three parts: the rampart circuit late in the morning, a picnic in the green space along the edge of the old town, then the Vitromusée in the afternoon, when the light comes through the stained glass and the youngest need somewhere calm. To stretch it out, the collegiate church of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption is open to visitors and the abbey of La Fille-Dieu is a twenty minute walk along a country lane. The day stays short, which leaves time to head on down to Bulle or Fribourg.