La Chaux-de-Fonds

La Chaux-de-Fonds is a city in Switzerland with an impressive heritage of watch making. has been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List as "La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Watchmaking Town Planning".

Understand

La Chaux-de-Fonds

La Chaux-de-Fonds is a French-speaking city of 38,000 people (2018) a few kilometres south of the French border.

Local information

• La Chaux-de-Fonds city website

Get in

By train

The 1 train station is well connected with several lines in different directions:

• An hourly RE train from Berne (1 hr 5 min)
• Two hourly RE trains from Neuchatel (30 min), one of which is the train from Berne
• Two hourly RE trains from Le Locle (8 min)
• One RE (40 min) and one R (1 hr) train from Biel
• A couple daily French TER trains from Besançon (1 hr 50 min)

In addition there are regional trains from other small towns in the region.

By car

There is three main roads leading to La Chaux-de-Fonds from other Swiss cities: Road 20 from Neuchatel, road 30 from Biel and road 18 from Delemont and Basel. The closest motorway is A5, from which La Chaux-de-Fonds can be accessed either from Neuchatel or Biel. Road 20 then goes on to France in direction of Besançon.

See

Museums

For the museums located within the parc des musées (the first three on this list), there is a special 3 museums/3 days ticket which allows you to visit all three for the price of one. (Fr. 15/12.50)

• 1 International Museum of Horology (Musée international d'horlogerie), Rue des Musée 29 (in the Parc des musées). Tu-Su 10:00-17:00. Showcases more than 4500 timepieces, including 2700 watches. It also presents the history of watch-making and its technical, artistic, social and economic history. Fr. 15/12. (updated Feb 2017)
• 2 Museum of Fine Arts (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Rue des Musées 33 (in the Parc des musées). Tu-Su 10:00-17:00. International and Swiss art from the 19th to the 21st century. Includes pieces by Modigliani, Anker, Vallotton, Hodler, Le Corbusier, Léopold Robert, Matisse, Van Gogh, Morellet, Armleder, Derain, Rouault, etc. Temporary exhibitions on modern and contemporary art. Fr. 15/12.50. (updated Feb 2017)

La Maison Blanche le Corbusier

• 3 History Museum (Musée d'histoire), Rue des Musées 31 (Located within the parc des musées). Tu-Su 10:00-17:00. Located within a restored villa from the 19th century, this museum gives insights into what life was like in the early days of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Fr. 10/7. (updated Feb 2017)
• 4 Museum of Agriculture and Handicraft (Musée paysan et artisanal), Rue des Crêtets 148. W-Su 14:00–17:00, closed during March. Museum in an old farm from the 17th century, showcasing the life of the farmers and watch makers which used to life here. Fr. 8/3. (updated Feb 2017)
• 5 La Maison Blanche (Le Corbusier), Chemin de Pouillerel 12. F-Su 10:00–17:00. The Maison blanche was built by Le Corbusier for his parents in 1912, after he came back from his travels in the Middle East. Fr. 10/7. (updated Feb 2017)
• 6 Watchmaking Town Planning Exhibition (Espace de l'urbanisme horloger), Rue Jaquet-Droz 23. Daily: May-October 10:00-12:00, 13:00-16:30; November-April 13:00-16:00. Information centre on the UNESCO heritage site La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Watchmaking Town Planning. Free. (updated Feb 2017)
• 7 Civilisations of Islam museum (MUCIVI), Avenue Léopold-Robert 109, ☏ +41 32 910 52 32, accueil@mucivi.ch. Tu-Su 14:00-17:00. A museum devoted to the civilisations in the history of the Islamic world. Fr. 15/7. (updated Feb 2017)

Do

Visit the 'La Plage des Six Pompes' festival, a street theater festival which is held every year in the first week of August. You can also volunteer for a week. It would be good to speak reasonably French.

Eat

• 1 La ferme des Brandt, Petites crosettes 6, ☏ +41 32 968 59 89. Tu Th-Sa 11:00-15:00, 18:30-00:00; Su 11:00-17:00. This restaurant in an old farmhouse outside of town serves regional dishes. Around Fr. 30 for mains. (updated Mar 2017)

Sleep

• 1 Hotel de France, Rue Daniel-Jeanrichard 46. Simple hotel. Double from Fr. 88. (updated Feb 2017)
• 2 Hotel Fleur-de-Lys, ☏ +41 32 913 37 31. Double from Fr. 175. (updated Feb 2017)

Go next

• Le Locle, a town also part of UNESCO world heritage for watchmaking city planning, in between of the two, you will find the unique underground mills