Sunshine Walk near Mont Soleil in the Bernese Jura

Sunday January 19, 2025 -- The lengths we go to to find a sunny place for a Sunday walk!

This interminable fog in all of the central part of Switzerland really gets depressing. But on this Sunday, even the forecast for above the fog wasn't looking great, not that we want to go into the mountains much on weekends, what with hundreds of ski-happy people lining up for hours at the chair lifts. But we can't even do the riverside walks which are pleasant at this time of year, because the fog is simply too uncomfortable.

We don't often go to the Jura region of Switzerland (in the West, near the French border) as the landscape there isn't "exciting" enough for us, and many of the suggested trails are either on paved roads or through a lot of forest. Plus the travel time is usually too long to simply go for a 10-km walk there. But when there is a thick blanket of fog in the lake valley on the eastern side (Lakes Murten, Biel, Neuchatel), strangely enough there is sunshine on the west side. And sunshine is what we were looking for on this day.

So off we went without much of a firm plan (our initial planned walking trail in the valley bottoms also turned out to be in the fog), and ended up taking the funicular from Saint-Imier to Mont Soleil, an apt name for this mountain (Sunshine Mountain) from where we did an acceptable 10-km walk before the 3½-hour trip home, a long way for four hours in the sunshine. But the stretch of railway with the "Chemins de Fer du Jura" was a nice ride through the Bernese Jura, before re-entering that nasty fog in the city of Biel.

Side notes: Mont Soleil is the site of a huge solar power plant which went into operation in 1992 and was, at the time, the largest photovoltaic installation in Europe. There are at least 10 wind turbines up there as well, which should have been an indication that we would have some cold winds as well as sunshine up there! Also, the Saint-Imier Valley was shaped historically by the growing watch industry in Switzerland in the early 1800's. 

As we got closer to where we were originally going to start our walk (Tavannes), we found that this valley bottom was also full of fog, and even though the frosted trees look pretty, I wasn't prepared to walk in the fog!

We changed plans and took a train in the direction of La Chaux-de-Fonds, which was showing clear skies on the local webcams. Along the way through the "Vallon de Saint-Imier", the fog started to lift.

These are farmhouses in the French part of Switzerland. The frost-covered trees looked very pretty in the sunshine!

We got to the village of Saint-Imier at 11 a.m. We had decided to get out here as there is a funicular up the mountain to "Mont Soleil" ("Sunshine Mountain"), a funicular we had not yet tried. 

The next funicular (a 15-minute walk from the train station) was leaving at 11:35, so we had time to stroll through the village. This is the St.Martin Tower which dates from the 11th Century. 

This placard near the Collegiate Church shows some of the historical sites in the town. 

The collegiate church in St.Imier dates back to the 11th Century, to the Ottonian Dynasty. It was renovated to its original state in the early 1900's.

The outside of the building was not very ornate, but the large main doors are beautiful. 

The interior of the church is very plain, with several arches and lots of rock. But impressive nevertheless, considering the age of the structure. 

Late Romanesque paintings on the ceiling above the altar. 

The most impressive part of this church was the organ. Look how HUGE it is!

On several columns in the town, there is historical information. Before the industrial boom in the 18th Century, there were fewer than 100 houses here, but lace and watchmaking attracted foreigners, changing the whole make-up of the valley.

We got to the funicular station at 11:20, and had to wait 15 minutes here for the next funicular run. 

A look down at the town of Saint-Imier as the funicular heads up to Mont Soleil. 

The Mont-Soleil funicular. It runs on a single line every half hour. 

At the top station of the Mont Soleil funicular, we started out right away on our hike southward along Trail No.2: "Trans Swiss Trail". Our original plan was to walk to La Cibourg, but we ended up heading to the train station in La Ferrière instead. 

Having left home at 8:10, we got to Saint-Imier at 11 a.m., but could only continue to Mont-Soleil at 11:35, a short ride up the mountain. Our walk was just over 10 kilometers to the train station in La Ferrière, and in all we spent about four hours in the sunshine. 

The first 30 minutes of our walk was on this pleasant forest trail parallel to the valley bottom. 

Across the valley to the southeast is the tower at the summit of Chasseral, which is the highest mountain in the Bernese Jura. 

It took only 15 minutes to get to the look-out point at Belvédère, where we stopped for our lunch break. This particular section of trail is part of four themed trails: No.2: "Trans-Swiss Trail", No.38: "Via Berna", No.91: "Chemin du Jura Bernois", No.422: "Chemin de Mont Soleil". 

The look-out point at Belvédère, where there was a convenient bench in the sunshine, perfect for a break. 

A look down at the town of Saint-Imier. Originally we had planned to do a valley-bottom walk, but it looks like there is a lot of shadow still on the east side of the valley, with lots of frost. Across the valley is the Chasseral, a range we walked on a very cold and windy day in October 2019 (those photos are HERE). 

Also down below we saw the Longines Watch Factory. This entire valley became industrialized through the manufacture of watches in the 1800's.

Enjoying our picnic lunch at noon on a sunny bench at the Belvédère look-out point. 

As we left Trail no.2 (which heads to the valley bottom), we did have to make our way on some snow-covered trails before reaching the upper plateau, continuing along the "Chemin du Jura Bernois". 

A very neat painting on the side of a garage!

There are many wind turbines around Mont Soleil, which is also the site of a huge solar power plant which went into operation in 1992 and was, at the time, the largest photovoltaic installation in Europe

We weren't really planning to do any walking on snow-covered trails, but it was still better than fog! 

The wind turbines look very elegant. 

Below the wind mills, horses graze in the pastures. Up here in the Jura mountains, there are a lot of horse ranches. More horses than cows. The only Swiss breed of horses called the "Freiberger" roam partially free here in the Jura mountains. 

We were right at about 1000 meters above sea level. An altitude just above the fog, but just around the point where the snow had not yet melted!

More wind turbines on Mont Soleil

We got to the horse ranch at the Auberge l'Assesseur at 1:10 p.m. The horses here were very nervous and jittery because a horse-drawn carriage was bringing guests to the Inn, and it looks like they don't like strange horses. 

A horse-drawn carriage bringing guests to the Auberge l'Assesseur. 

From here the trail continued in a southwesterly direction. A long, straight flat stretch. 

We decided to leave the themed trail because it continued straight ahead and was going to pass through shady forest sections, so we simply followed a parallel road called "Les Pruats", which took us past several farms with very typical old Jura farm buildings.

Along the road we passed many lovely houses

This one was a farm called Gros Verron

There were two lovely old Jura houses here at Gros Verron. 

This farm was set back from the road we were walking along. 

Even though this road was also fairly straight, it had less forest, and more interesting things to look at. This hillside is called "Combe du Pelu".

A villa on a small hill aptly called "Sur le Crêt ". 

A farm where the cows are grazing outdoors!

Now we are reaching the village called "La Ferrière", where we are planning to board the train to Le Noirmont. It is now 2:54 p.m., and the train leaves at 15:13. Enough time to check out the church... which was locked. 

A building near the train station has a painting of a clock or watch on its facade. This reflects the history of watch-making in the region. 

We got to the train station at 15:08, and only had to wait 5 minutes for the train. 

The private railway in this part of the country is called "Chemins de Fer du Jura" (Jura Railways) an this was the cutest little two-wagon train which we took to Le Noirmont, changing there to the next train to Tavannes. We rode in the front section, where we could open the windows!

What our walk looks like on Google Satellite Maps. 

Even though the entire trip back home was 3½ hours (longer than I had hoped to travel this day), it was a lovely train ride through the Bernese Jura region with the little red train. This series of houses here is in a community called "Les Bois" ("The Woods").  

Heading northwards, we saw more of the wind turbines here along the ridge called "Montagne du Droit". 

Further along in the tiniest hamlet called "Le Boéchet", there was a museum called "Musée du ski" which I thought was very funny, as this is so far from what one might consider ski regions!

More fabulous Jura farm houses. 

At 3:30 p.m. we switched trains in Noirmont, and continued on via Tavannes and Biel to get back home by 6:45 p.m. We spent about four hours walking in the sunshine, and had a nice 90-minute sunny ride on the Jura Railway before entering the fog again in Biel. 

Location of Mont-Soleil and the Saint-Imier Valley within Switzerland.