UNESCO World Heritage: Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds

Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds are cities just above the 1000m altitude and in Geneva it is common to ask someone who is planning on going up there whether they have mounted the snow tires. It's not that bad, actually in winter it's beautiful because there is real white snow and it's often above the fog level. What made the two cities - Le Locle being smaller but older - make it onto the list of UNESCO's world heritage sites is their history - and legacy - of watch making. It's the cradle of watch making and thriving until the time when the Japanese took over with the transistor technology and Quarz watches. The Rabbi of La Chaux-de-Fonds told a catechism class I took to the local Synagogue some years ago that the Swiss watch was invented there but it was the Jewish community that took the watches around the world which made their reputation. Both the Jewish community and the watch making have become rather small. The city's international watch making museum is a fascinating place to visit.

La Chaux-de-Fonds has another interesting side to its history: the socialist and the pacifist movements were very strongly rooted there. Both Karl Marx and Mahatma Gandhi had connections and make references to La Chaux-de-Fonds. It seems both socialism and pacifism had, just as watch making, some golden years in the area. Churches and the media recognized the reality and significance of these movements. Elie Ducommun, born in Geneva and 1902 Nobel Peace Laurate, had his origins in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Louis Chevrolet, the founder of Chevrolet cars was a child from La Chaux-de-Fonds, and his father was a watch maker. Le Corbusier was from La Chaux-de-Fonds, and according to legend, the inventor of the apéritif Suze, may have been from there as well, or, still according to legend, the apéritif got its name from the little river that has its spring in the valley just below La Chaux-de-Fonds. Fernand Moureaux, the founder of the company that makes Suze and which began in 1889 is said to have promised that the apéritif would flow in France just as la Suze in Switzerland. As far as I'm concerned, I like both, walks by la Suze and the drink. Suze, by the way is based on gentiane, which grows on rocky pastures in the area. And this year, 2009, Suze celebrates its 120th anniversary, along with the Eiffel tower, which features on the label of the first bottle of Suze, in honor of Gustave Eiffel - Santé! I just wish pacifism were as famous and common today as watches and Suze!