Jura & three lakes region

Slow travel here means moving between two kinds of landscape. The lakes sit on the plateau: broad, calm, connected. The Three-Lakes Cruise crosses all three in a single day, past vineyards and small harbours. St. Peter's Island in Lake Biel is where Rousseau spent two months in 1765, calling it the happiest period of his life. It's reachable by boat and still quiet. The Jura hills are the other half. The Chasseral rises to 1,607 metres. The Creux du Van is a rocky cirque six kilometres across, formed by erosion over millions of years, standing 160 metres above the valley floor. The Franches-Montagnes plateau, in the canton of Jura, belongs to horses and wide skies. La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle were built around one industry: watchmaking. Their grid-plan streets were designed in the 19th century to maximise northern light in the workshops. UNESCO recognised both in 2009. The precision that built those streets still shapes the region.