This article offers a comparative reading of two travel accounts, the Voyage pitoresque aux glacières de Savoye by André-César Bordier and the Relations d’un voyage fait aux Salines et aux Glacières by Georges Constantin Naville, based on the tour along Lake Geneva and across the Alps that the two men undertook together in July 1772. These two works differ less in their content, which is essentially a description of lake and mountain landscapes, than in their form. The first is a published work, the second a personal diary, which explains the differences in tone and style. Focusing on these two texts, the aim of this article is to examine the perception of the natural environment in Switzerland in the second half of the eighteenth century and the way in which it is expressed in writings with distinct purposes.