The lakeside promenades running south from Bellevue are crowded with people all summer long, blading, strolling and chatting in the sunshine. On the easy walk south to the lush Zürichhorn park, you’ll pass the Johann Jacobs Museum at Seefeldquai 17 (Fri & Sat 2–5pm, Sun 10am–5pm; free), a small, mildly diverting place in an elegant lakeside villa that is devoted entirely to the cultural history of coffee. Selections of Rococo and Neoclassical porcelain ware, silver coffeepots, painting, prints and drawings all show the impact of coffee on European society, while videos of TV ads for coffee from the 1950s onwards will make you grin. Needless to say, you can help yourself to free coffee throughout.

Well south of the Zürichhorn park is the small but extremely high-quality private fine-art collection of E.G. Bührle, at Zollikerstrasse 172 (Tues & Fri 2–5pm, Wed 5–8pm; Fr.9; tram #2, #4 to Wildbachstrasse, then walk 10min). The paintings are mostly by French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, displayed in a tastefully furnished private mansion. Manet, Van Gogh (including an 1887 self-portrait) and Cézanne’s landscapes form the centrepiece of the collection, but there are dozens of other artists represented, including Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, Matisse, Braque and Picasso. Filling out this extraordinary collection are works by Rembrandt, including Portrait of Saskia, a rare painting of his wife.