Right in the heart of the “Jura arc” in Switzerland, on the shores of the largest fully Swiss expanse of water and facing the mountain range of the Alps, the Pays de Neuchâtel is an outstanding setting in every respect. Within a relatively small area, it features an amazingly diverse landscape, captivating charm and unsullied authenticity – two-thirds of it is protected.

This landscape of lakes, rivers, mountains, plains and rocks was the birthplace of watchmaking – the result of farmers having to occupy themselves during the harsh winters. With considerable skill, they began crafting timepieces as early as the seventeenth century.

And during the same period, absinthe was invented here, too – and continued to be produced in secret for over a century during the prohibition years.

At the heart of Europe, the Pays de Neuchâtel, largely open to the world by its history and economic trajectory, is close to everything: half an hour from the capital Bern, just over an hour from economic metropolis Zurich and the international city Geneva. Border of France, it is less than four hours by TGV from Paris.