Bex

Location: BEX - pronounced in English/French as [bay/be] - a sheep’s natural bleating sound. The ram is depicted on the commune’s emblem and flag *, is a small, farming, industrial, manufacturing, wine producing and residential municipality/commune in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle, SE of Geneva, Lausanne, and Montreux, south of the Lake of Geneva/Lac Leman, on the eastern banks of the Rhone River, bordering the Canton of Valais and the Haut Savoie of France. Surrounded by pre-Alpine slopes containing Chasselas, Pino Noire and Merlot grapes of distinction with an internationally acclaimed A.O.P. appellation, with visible mountain ranges containing peaks such as Le Dent de Morcles, Les Diablerets, les Dents du Midi.

The population catchment area of the Cantons of Vaud, Fribourg, and Valais consisting of the expanded area known as Chablais. It contains a permanent population in excess of 500,000 people within one hour’s driving or train/bus distance from the city of Bex, and an additional 200,000 who visit the area for weekends, and all season holidays. These includes cities and communes such as Lausanne, Bulle, Fribourg, Vevey, Montreux, Villeneuve, Aigle, Villars-sur-Ollon, Ollon, Bex, Monthey, Les Portes du Soliel, Saint Maurice, Martigny and Sion.  Map of the City of Bex. The entire Commune of Bex covers a large area and is the 2nd largest in Vaud from the Rhone River to Les Diablerets, Glacier 3000, Le Châtel, Les Dévens, Le Chêne, Fenalet, Les Posses, Le Bévieux, Frenières and Les Plans-sur-Bex. The star marks the location of the Protestant Temple, the proposed venue for all Bex Music Festival presentations.

Many communities have music organizations that promote learning and playing musical instruments, choral clubs, memberships in communal bands and orchestras, choirs and theatrical groups. The area is a very  enthusiastic supporter of the arts. Other cities and communes with operating annual Music Festivals which are considered allies and not competition include the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, The Verbier Music Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, 1066 Festival, Paleo Music Festival, and dozens more year-round.  

There are hundreds of sites for year-round sports including skiing, mountain biking, gliding, parachuting, climbing, walking, golfing (Villars-sur-Ollon, Montreux in Aigle),  including five-star hotels and internationally acclaimed schools in Villars-sur-Ollon, a world-class mineral bath at Lavey-les-Bains, the year-round mountain ski and sporting resorts of les Portes du Soleil,  world headquarters of Mountain Biking in Aigle, and four alpine valleys branching on the prime meridian lines along the Rhone Valley.  There are 31 restaurants and 7 locations for tourist accommodation with over +500 beds available.

It is a few kilometres south of its sister town of Aigle. The Bex Population is ~8,000 (2025). It was first mentioned in 574 as Baccis, site of the continent’s first and only remaining operating salt deposit in Switzerland which was formed from an ocean covering the Earth for millennium. It has been continuously mined, traded and distributed throughout Switzerland to dozens of industries and household uses as well as Europe since the 1500’s when Hannibal led his elephants over the Alps from Italy).  

Bex is served by a major national highway connecting it to cities throughout Switzerland, France, Italy, and Europe. It has a highspeed intercity rail service to Lausanne, Geneva, Bern, Zurich, St. Gallen, Basel, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Milan and beyond as well as regional trains to cities within Vaud and neighbouring cantons, and a mountain train service with several stops to communities on the route to Villars-sur-Ollon.