Past the hills northeast of Lausanne, beyond the Bois de Sauvabelin, you leave the tourist trails behind and enter the classic scenery of Switzerland’s rural heartland – rolling emerald-green hills backed by distant peaks and tinkling with the neck-bells of cows happily munching their way across the slopes. Vaud’s cantonal boundary is only about 20km northeast of Lausanne, and most of the sights in this region fall inside Canton Fribourg; however, unless you have your own transport, Fribourg’s famous cheese-making centre of Gruyères is most easily accessible by train from Lausanne. Romont’s Gothic church and thirteenth-century town centre make a particularly beautiful detour on the journey to or from Fribourg itself, while the untouristed Gros de Vaud region north of Lausanne is perfect for countryside cycling tours.