Event
The Concours d'Elégance Suisse is Switzerland's longest-running automotive elegance competition, held annually in the grounds of the Château de Coppet on the northern shore of Lake Geneva. Each edition presents between 80 and 100 rare collector cars drawn from Swiss, European and American collections, judged by a jury of automotive historians and designers on equal measures of elegance and authenticity. The 2026 edition is the tenth since the event's revival and carries the theme "Années 1930: De l'Art déco à l'Aérodynamisme," focusing on the decade that defined the golden age of coachbuilt bodywork. The edition also pays tribute to the centenary of Carrozzeria Touring, the Milanese coachbuilder whose work shaped some of the most celebrated automobile bodies of the twentieth century.
The concours traces its origins to 1927, when it was first held in Geneva during the Fête de la Rose. Over the following decades it moved between several locations in the city, including the Parc La Grange, the Parc des Bastions and the Jardin Anglais, before going dormant in 1955. After more than sixty years, the event was revived in 2016 at the Château de Coppet, the 18th-century lakeside estate historically associated with the writer and intellectual Germaine de Staël. The setting, with views across the lake toward Mont Blanc, has since become central to the event's identity.
The weekend programme includes a Tour d'Elégance, in which participating cars drive a scenic route through the surrounding region, and the main concours on Sunday 21 June, where class prizes, special awards and two Grand Prix are presented: one for elegance and one for the finest engine sound. The outdoor format, with cars displayed on the château grounds rather than in exhibition halls, allows visitors to experience the collection in natural light and at close range, alongside other collectors and enthusiasts.
Coppet is a small town in the canton of Vaud, approximately 15 kilometres north of Geneva and easily reached by train on the main Geneva to Lausanne line. The château grounds sit directly on the lakefront. For visitors combining the event with a longer stay, the Lake Geneva region offers some of Switzerland's most celebrated driving roads, including the routes along the Lavaux vineyards and up into the Jura above Nyon.
