Stage 4 - Basel to La Chaux-de-Fonds

Just a stone's throw from Schweizerhalle is the city of Basel. Straddling the Rhine where the borders of Germany and France meet it is most certainly a border city. It is the home of many chemical and pharmaceutical companies and also boasts a very attractive old town.

Although we drove through the city - to get to the other side, we didn't stop to take any photographs this time but if anyone is interested, a few impressions of Basel can be seen on my blog posts from January this year:

Basel-1 http://harding.ch/WordPress1/?p=1908

Basel-2http://harding.ch/WordPress1/?p=1927

Heading west we left the German border behind us and continued 'around the edge' with France as our neighbour. Our first photo stop was the very small, deserted looking customs office at Neuwiller, perhaps not the most breathtaking architectural structure but a good start to this stage of the journey.

We drove through both of canton Solothurn's exclaves, which have at some point in history nibbled away at canton Basel Landschaft and somewhere along the way we entered, quite without ceremony, canton Jura and thus the French speaking part of Switzerland.

The road along the border weaves in and out of France and I was never quite sure in which country we were actually in.

In the very small village of Lucelle we stopped for a coffee on the Swiss side of the road, opposite is a large 'Hotel' which I believe is in France.

Refreshed, we travelled northwards to Beurnevésin (simply because it was there) and followed as near as possible the very complicated border through the fresh green scenery of the Doubs region ending up at La Chaux-de-Fonds.

La Chaux-de-Fonds is just a stones throw from the French border and the Doubs national park and is a centre of the watch making industry. It's also the birthplace of Louis Chevrolet the car maker.

Preamble - Stage Three - Stage Five