A Trip through the Val-de-Travers in Canton Neuchâtel

(Note: This album was created on May 16, 2020. This refers to an outing we did several years ago to the Western part of Switzerland, specifically Canton Neuchâtel, where we don't often go. As I don't have many photos of that part of Switzerland, I thought I would do up a small album of the photos of this trip, that I never even looked at till now...)

October 5, 2016 (a Wednesday) -- On this day, what we had planned was a trip to Noiraigue in Canton Neuchâtel, which is most well-known for the starting point of the hike to the top of the Creux du Van, a fantastic horseshoe-shaped canyon, and one of the most memorable places in Switzerland.

As we had already hiked up to the canyon rim in August 2013 (one of the very first hikes I did after moving to Switzerland), what we had planned this time was to rent electro-bikes at the Noiraigue train station and ride up instead. I had really wanted to get some better photos than the first time. 

We had already called ahead to reserve the bikes, but when we got there, after leaving early to get there by 10 a.m., it turned out that the sky was very overcast and there was a very uncomfortable strong cold wind blowing. So we cancelled the reservation of the bikes, and decided to just spend the day on the train traveling with a variety of special private railways through the hills of the Val de Travers. Even though the wind continued to blow cold, the skies cleared, so we had lots of nice sunny views from the train. The unfortunate part was that we had to change trains/buses often with lots of waiting time in between. Our ultimate destination was "Les Ponts-de-Martel" (actually only about 5 km from Noiraigue "as the crow flies", and a journey we could probably have done faster on foot (2hrs,30mins?) if it hadn't been so cold) from where the small-gauge railway aptly called " La Chaux-de-Fonds–Les Ponts-de-Martel Railway" connects this town with La Chaux-de-Fonds.... a railway that was new to Urs and he wanted to ride it.

We also didn't have too much luck with lunch plans, having found on the Internet a restaurant that we could visit on one of the longer transfers we had to do ("La Chaux-du-Milieu"), but that restaurant turned out to have been out of business for several years already (a fate of many businesses in this part of the country), so we had a picnic at the very old church cemetery instead, and had a late lunch at the station restaurant in Les Ponts-de-Martel, where the cook comes out of the kitchen regularly to ask you if you are enjoying your meal.

Another point of interest was the chocolate shop in Noiraigue, (where we had to wait for an hour for the next train after cancelling the e-bike reservations) where you can buy a very special absinthe-filled chocolate, (absinthe = a liqueur made from wormwood, anise and fenchel, first made in the Val-de-Travers in the 18th century, and rapidly rising to success in 19th century Paris). Very expensive, but a necessary purchase when in this part of the country!!

In front of Jacot Chocolatier in Noiraigue, where we bought some very expensive Absinthe Chocolate to send to my Dad for his birthday that year

The cliffs behind Noiraigue. On that upper Plateau, only a couple of kilometers away, is Les Ponts-de-Martel. To get there on foot we would have climbed up this hill. It would have taken about 2 hours 30 minutes

We had an hour to kill in Noiraigue, so we we walked around the little town for a bit.

Some beautiful late autumn colours

It was a schedule very similar to this one that we had, train then three buses to get to Les Ponts-de-Martel, with some long pauses in between. We planned for lunch in La Chaux-du-Milieu

Somewhere along the road from Couvet to La Brévine

Somewhere between La Brévine and La Chaux-du-Milieu

The countryside of the Val de Travers

Typical old farmhouse of this area

The pastures of the Val de Travers

Arriving in La Chaux-du-Milieu, where we had another 45-minutes wait for the bus to Les Ponts-de-Martel

This is the restaurant where we were planning to have lunch, but a look in the windows showed that this hasn't been in operation for probably a while

So we had a coffee break in the cemetery while waiting for the bus, and hoping that the restaurant in Les Ponts-de-Martel would be open

This is a very old graveyard. The oldest stones we found were from 1927. Usually, the graves are removed after about 20 years to make way for new ones. Not a lot of people need spots here, I guess

On the bus toward Les Ponts-de-Martel. This one is a short ride, only about 6 minutes.

Making a bee-line right for the restaurant! It was 13:15, so high time to eat.

After lunch we finally get to ride the "La Chaux-de-Fonds–Les Ponts-de-Martel Railway"

In white is the Train/Bus/Bus/Bus trip we took to get to Les Ponts-de-Martel. Also there, at Les Ponts-de-Martel were some very nice marsh areas I would have liked to see, but the wind was still strong and cold, so no hiking this day. In yellow as our 2013 hike to Les Creux du Van, and in Pink a hike in 2016 through "Les Gorges de L'Areuse" (Areuse Gorges).

And these three photos are from the first trip we did to Les Creux du Van in 2013: