I'm guessing it's his sense of humour coming out again here.

Ah, the french speaking folks, still confused about cardinal points of the compass?

North-West? Or just up t'road from me.

La Chaux de Fonds and Le Locle are the only cities in CH to have made it on the Unesco list. Not the prettiest of towns, although there is much art deco stuff if you search a bit- and was of course the birth town of Le Corbusier, where you can visit 2 of his houses, La Maison Blanche which he built for his parents, and La Maison Turque, now owned by Ebel watch manufacture. They are most unusual towns as they were built on the New York style grid system specifically for the needs of an industry, namely the watch industry. Rolex, Ebel, Reymond Weil, Nardin (their family home in Le Locle being the most interesting watch museum) and so many others.

If one is to trust cartographers, then one might be led to believe that Le Chaux du Fonds is located in the west (that is, where the sun rises) of Switzerland.

Considering, however, that Le Chaux du Fonds is situated in the Welschland, where people speak a barbaric corruption of Latin, rather than the infinitely more civilised language of Goethe, Mann and Einstein, one might be forgiven for considering the town to be part of the South, wherein lie also the cities of Rome, Madrid and Athens.

Let's face it, regardless of its location according to those unreliable pieces of paper we call 'maps', Le Chaux du Fonds is practically in Africa.

I wonder - did it belong to us or the French?

Part of Burgundy for a very long time, then part of Prussia until the beginning of the 19C. Of course the watch industry came with the French Huguenots- as it did in the UK.

Quote from Wiki:

La Chaux-de-Fonds is a Swiss city of the district of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometres from the French border. After Geneva and Lausanne, it is the third largest city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of the country, with a population of 37,523 (as of December 2010).
The city was founded in 1656. Its growth and prosperity is mainly bound up with the watch making industry. Completely destroyed by a fire in 1794 La Chaux-de-Fonds was rebuilt following a grid street plan, which was and is still original among Swiss cities. Karl Marx said about the very special urban design of the city that it was a "city-factory". The famous architect Le Corbusier, the writer Blaise Cendrars and the car maker Louis Chevrolet were born there. La Chaux-de-Fonds is a renowned centre of Art nouveau.
In 2009, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, its sister city, have jointly been awarded Unesco World Heritage status for their exceptional universal value.

Although rolex was started in la chaux de fonds it's no long based there.

There is a Rolex factory I often drive past- but in fact if I remember correctly it is in Le Locle, but the main site is in Bienne/Biel nowadays.

Although Rolex was started in La chaux de fonds it is no longer based there

I never said there wasn't a factory there.

What is a Fond then?

A tricky question! It is Fonds actually - could be short for Fontaine (fountain) or an old word for poor limestone meadow.? Nobody knows the origin for sure. Chaux is 'lime' (noth the fruit but the material).

In modern French

fond (le/masculine) means the bottom, base or the end of something. Le fond du jardin (the end.back of the garden) - au fond can mean at the end, or 'basically'.

A silly joke about the Belgians : pourquoi est-ce que les Belges nagent sous l'eau?
Parce qu'au fond ils ne sont pas si cons.
Doesn't translate of course- but literally: why do belgians swim under water? Because at the bottom (actually) they are not so stupid.
Please note : I have nothing against Belgians at all- but like the Welsh in UK or Hobos in the US, they are often the victims of daft jokes.

fonds (les/plural) goods, income, means (financial).

I hope you're not a geography teacher.

So, The Chalk Bottom. What a romantic sounding place. Honestly I am not sure I care where it is anymore.

Change it slightly to Chalky Bottom and it could be a village in rural Kent.

Ironic really since it's at the top of the mountain.

..or chalk fountain. Has a lovely b^name in French though.

A mountain guide from the French Jura told me that Chaux was a local dialect word for a mountain pasture... Odile, as a local, have you come across this explanation before ?

There are "Chaux" all over the place in the Jura... La Chaux-du-Milieu, La Chaux-d'Abel, Chaux-Neuve and so on.

Just to bore you a bit further Colinwheeler, and in response to some green bloobies sent by another member:

When the house of Orléans-Longueville became extinct with Marie d'Orleans-Longueville's death in 1707, the Principality of Neuchâtel (German: Fürstentum Neuenburg) went to King Frederick I in Prussia of the Berlin-based Hohenzollern, who then ruled Neuchâtel in personal union. Napoléon Bonaparte deposed King Frederick William III of Prussia as prince of Neuchâtel and appointed instead his chief of staff Louis Alexandre Berthier.
Le Locle , 1907


In 1814 the principality was restored to Frederick William III. A year later he agreed to allow the principality to join the Swiss Confederation, then not yet an integrated federation, but a confederacy, as a full member. Thus Neuchâtel became the first and only monarchy to join the otherwise entirely republican Swiss cantons. This situation changed in 1848 when a peaceful revolution took place and established a republic, in the same year that the modern Swiss Confederation was transformed into a federation. King Frederick William IV of Prussia did not give in immediately and several attempts at counter-revolution took place, culminating in the Neuchâtel Crisis of 1856–57. In 1857, Frederick William renounced his claims on the area.


Stephen there is a very interesting site about place names in the area
http://henrysuter.ch/glossaires/
it says access denied, and yet it works if you Google it, do not know why.

This is veering way off topic but I got a question for Odileson the history meister.

A friend of mine who lived in Neuchatel told me that when they connected Lake Neuchatel with Lake Bienne it dropped the level of Lake Neuchatel enough to provide additional real estate along the shore. I had never heard that and tried to look up more information but failed at the time to find anything. Got any more details on that?

Absolutely no idea- I was 19 when I went to live in UK and had very little interest in history at the time - just catching up now a bit, lol. I am always surprised when I see in the paper the 2 slightly different levels of the 2 lakes even now. Interesting, will look into it.

Edit: not found anything so far. Will ask a friend who is the Curator of a local Museum about the Lake when I next meet him.

Anyway Transition - why this sudden interest in La Tchaux as it is affectionately called here. Have you ever worked or lived there, or recently visited?

I'm a professional diamond & gemstone thief, just down there for a look around recently...