Le Locle was able to preserve in parts old habits and structures. There is a flock of retailers around the Guesthouse. The people, „Les Loclois“ are surprisingly cosmopolitan: friendly, curious, highly cultured. Human traits which are typical for border towns, but also for a very long industrial and commercial tradition.
Watchindustry has stayed important up to this day.
Tourists are often attracted by the Jura mountains and the rich gastronomic offer.
The Guesthouse is surrounded by bakeries, groceries, butchers, an old style haberdasher and a hardware store as in old time villages. Across the street you find the postoffice, cashpoints and pharmacies.
The town is proud of its rich gastronomic offer (except on Sunday evenings).
We have three Gault Millau cooks, a big and animated „Brasserie“, a Crêperie, Turkish and Sicilian places with native food. Nothing to be worried to stay hungry.
The urban architecture of Le Locle, leading the town to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site is marked by the need of pre-industrial watchmakers to have a well-lit workplace. Le Locle and it's sister town La Chaux-de-Fonds have until today a strong hold in applied arts as enameling, engraving, leatherworks, or grinding diamonds.
During the Art Nouveau times, around 1900, whealthy, openminded industrials let their buildings be embellished. It was the time when Le Corbusier started his career as an architect building his first houses in the two towns.
Le Locle is at 925m above sea level and belongs to the Swiss mountain regions, famous for their healthy climate. The town’s old center, including the Guesthouse, is imbedded in a valley between chalk hills. The landscape opens up like a flower: the higher up you go, the less steep it gets. You can walk for days on trails leading through forests, silvopastures and through magical, moss-covered woods. It’s a paradise for rare animals as lynx and wildcats. And for us.
Walking in the Jura mountains is in every season rewarding. Wintertime is special. As soon as snow conditions allow, more than 300km of tracks for cross country skiing are prepared. And the lakes freeze for weeks or months to the delight of ice skaters.