Jura and the Three Lakes

The northern Jura

North and west of the Three Lakes, the Jura continues the same limestone folding seen further south in canton Vaud, but here it spreads across several cantons at once: Neuchâtel, Jura, and the Bernese and Solothurn Jura, plus a stretch of France just across the border. This is the folded Jura, with Chasseral, at 1,606m, the highest summit in canton Bern outside the Alps, and the range offers hiking, cycling and both downhill and cross-country skiing, with signposted trails that include a 310km ridge route. Two cross-country ski routes follow the range: the Grande Traversée du Jura, about 180km through the French départements of Doubs, Jura and Ain, and the Traversée du Jura Suisse, its Swiss counterpart, marked out in 2012.

Watchmaking towns

High in the Jura above Neuchâtel, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle grew into centres of Swiss watchmaking on land ill-suited to farming, and after extensive fires both were replanned in the early nineteenth century along an open-ended scheme of parallel strips on which housing and workshops intermingle. That layout, which UNESCO describes as well preserved and still active, made both towns a joint World Heritage Site in 2009.

The three lakes

At the foot of the first chain of the Jura, three lakes, Neuchâtel, Biel/Bienne and Murten/Morat, sit in a line along the edge of the Swiss Plateau, connected to each other by the Broye and Thielle canals. Vineyards lie on all three, and the shores hold prehistoric lakeside settlements that form part of the transnational UNESCO listing for pile dwellings around the Alps. Neuchâtel itself, built where the Jura drops to the lake, is the cantonal capital; Biel/Bienne, on the lake of the same name, is the region’s largest town.

Season and access

Neuchâtel and Biel/Bienne sit on the Jura Foot Railway between Geneva and Olten, with a line from Biel/Bienne up to La Chaux-de-Fonds. The Creux du Van, a rock cirque in the Val de Travers, is climbed on the Path of the Fourteen Bends from Noiraigue, a station on the Neuchâtel to Pontarlier line.