Fribourg and Neuchâtel Part 2: Lake Towns, Neuchâtel, Castles, and Cheese

Book: Fodor’s Essential Switzerland (3rd Edition)
Author: Fodor’s Travel
ISBN: 9781640977280

Part 1 covered Fribourg, Gruyères, and Bulle. Part 2 is the lake loop: stained glass, Romanesque churches, frog museums, watchmaking androids, and castles where Swiss soldiers hanged Burgundian prisoners from apple trees. Fodor’s packs a lot into country most visitors drive past.

Romont and Payerne

Romont is a 13th-century town best approached from above via the castle terrace. Ramparts frame Alps from Mont Blanc to the Berner Oberland. The Vitromusée inside the castle shimmers with ancient and modern stained glass. A workshop shows current techniques. Trains from Fribourg take 17 minutes.

Payerne has pastel 18th-century buildings along meandering streets, but the star is the Église Abbatiale, one of Switzerland’s finest Romanesque churches. Built on a Roman villa site in the 11th century. Barrel vaulting, primitive capitals, organ concerts. CHF15, closed Mondays September through June.

Estavayer-le-Lac and the frog museum

Estavayer keeps a 1599 map that still works. Medieval arcades, multitowered Château de Chenaux (now government offices), and access to Grande Cariçaie, Europe’s premier lakeside nature reserve.

The Musée des Grenouilles (Frog Museum) is 108 embalmed frogs posed in 19th-century daily life scenes. Plus a 17th-century kitchen, military artifacts, and objects dredged from Lac de Neuchâtel. CHF5. Closed January, February, and Mondays March to October. Completely weird. Completely worth it.

Murten: where Switzerland won

Murten (Morat) sits on Lac de Morat, one of Switzerland’s warmest lakes because it is shallow. Boat-lined waterfront, windsurfing, ramparts, fountain-studded cobblestones.

On June 22, 1476, Swiss Confederates crushed Charles the Bold’s Burgundians here. The siege cost the Swiss 410 men. The Burgundians lost 12,000. A runner carried a linden branch to Fribourg, collapsed by the town hall, and a tree grew from the branch for 500 years until a drunk driver knocked it down in 1983. Now a steel sculpture stands in its place. Every first Sunday in October, 15,000 runners race 17 km uphill from Murten to Fribourg.

Aventicum near Avenches has Roman forum ruins, bathhouse, and amphitheater (12,000 seats, under restoration until 2027). Gold bust of Marcus Aurelius in the museum.

Hotel Murtenhof & Krone dates to 1428. Hotel de l’Ours in Sugiez sits on a canal between two lakes with an indoor pool.

Neuchâtel: Watch Valley and butter buildings

Lac de Neuchâtel is the largest lake entirely inside Switzerland (38 km long). Neuchâtel city faces southeast with vineyards and Alps in view. Alexandre Dumas called it “a city with the appearance of an immense toy dressed in butter” because of the yellow-sandstone buildings.

Watchmaking started in the early 18th century. The Watchmaking Route runs 200 km from Geneva to Basel with 27 stops.

Château de Neuchâtel housed Prussian royalty until the canton joined Switzerland in 1848 as its only monarchy. Guided tours access the Tour des Prisons with original wooden cells.

Église Collégiale: Romanesque and Burgundian Gothic with a colorful tile roof. Le cénotaphe grouping of life-size painted figures is among Europe’s best medieval art.

Laténium at Hauterive is Switzerland’s largest archaeological museum. Bronze Age stilt house, Gallo-Roman barge, standing stone from Bevaix. Free shuttle boat from Neuchâtel port weekends April to September.

Musée d’Art et d’Histoire hosts the automates Jaquet-Droz: three 18th-century androids that draw, play organ, and write with a real quill. They perform first Sunday of each month at 2, 3, and 4.

Centre Dürrenmatt in Mario Botta’s underground gallery holds the writer-artist’s disturbing paintings.

Absinthe originated in Val-de-Travers west of town. Since 2005 relegalization, Neuchâtel distillers brew some of the world’s best. Order it in a restaurant just to watch the serving ritual.

Fête des Vendanges fills the last September weekend with parades.

Grandson and Yverdon

Grandson on Lac de Neuchâtel has a time-burnished old town. A Grandson knight followed William the Conqueror to England in 1066.

Château de Grandson saw brutal Burgundian Wars action. Charles the Bold hanged 418 Swiss from apple trees in 1476. Days later the Swiss returned the favor. Inside: Charles the Bold’s war tent replica, jousting knights in full armor, oubliettes, torture chambers, and a vintage-car museum with Greta Garbo and Winston Churchill’s cars. Renovation until 2026; reserve ahead.

Halfway to Grandson, Creux du Van is the “Swiss Grand Canyon,” a horseshoe cliff with ibex and a fondue-serving restaurant at the top.

Yverdon-les-Bains at the lake’s southern tip has been a spa since Roman times. Traffic-free center, thermal waters, 2 km of beaches. Château de Yverdon museum covers prehistory, Egypt, natural history, and educator Pestalozzi’s 20 years in town.

Cheese (again, because this region deserves it)

Fodor’s returns to cheese because you cannot separate this landscape from what the cows produce.

• Gruyère AOP from La Maison du Gruyère demonstrations.
• Vacherin Fribourgeois for fondue fribourgeoise.
• Emmental in fondue neuchâteloise.
• Crème-double on berries: no whip needed, the spoon stands.
• Oeil de Perdrix: Neuchâtel’s famous Pinot Noir rosé.
• Chasselas white wine in lakeside vineyards.

Musée Cantonale de la Vigne et du Vin at Château Boudry covers the Three Lakes wine region.

My take

This half of the chapter is why you rent a car or study train timetables. Murten and Grandson are history with lake views. Neuchâtel is precision craft and slightly unsettling robots. Estavayer is frogs and nature reserves. Romont is light through glass.

If you love fondue, start in Neuchâtel (two-cheese birthplace). If you love castles, do Grandson and Murten’s ramparts on the same day. If you love weird museums, the Frog Museum wins.

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