Excenevex beach

Lake Geneva is a shingle lake almost everywhere; Excenevex is the exception. A curved bay of real sand shelves so gently that the water stays shin-deep a long way out, which is why families come, and why it is unusually good for photographs: you can put people out in the lake with reflections around them and no drop-off to worry about.

The backdrop is pines and low dunes, and across the water the Swiss shore and, on a clear day, the mountains behind it. The sand is pale and the water goes green-blue in the shallows, so the palette is closer to a coast than to an alpine lake. Late afternoon is the frame: the light comes down the length of the lake, the sand warms up and the wet strip at the edge turns into a mirror.

It is a managed public beach. Parking is paid in season, the dunes behind are a protected habitat with marked paths, and in July and August the sand fills up from mid-morning. Out of season it is close to empty and still works — the water is cold, but nobody is asking you to swim.

Combine it with Yvoire rather than choosing between them: ten minutes by road, and the two locations are opposites — stone and flowers, then sand and open sky.