He was baptised in Lausanne, Pays de Vaud, Switzerland, the eldest son of a minister of the Reform Church, François-Louis de Saussure, and his wife, Jeanne-Emilie.
After the death of his father in 1724, Saussure went travelling for fifteen years, arriving in London on 24 May 1725.
[1] After returning to Switzerland, Saussure wrote down his travelling experiences.
[1] Henri de Saussure (1708-1761), a younger brother of César-François de Saussure, emigrated from Lausanne to the English colony of South Carolina about 1730.
Largely unpublished, the surviving letters between César and his brother in America are now in university-affiliated archives in Lausanne and Geneva.