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 Hearty slow-cooked canaille: Marianne Rohrer's cuisine sublimely plays up regional cooking. The menu is split between pots-au-feu, meat patties and chicken liver, but, even with all that, they haven't forgotten fresh salads for more vegetarian appetites. It also offers a little aquatic detour, especially for the truite saumonée au Mauler, the sparkly wine produced at the Priory, just next door. And of course, since we are in the « Val-de-Travers », the cradle of absinthe, which has emerged from its secrecy after a century of under-the-counter exchanges, the menu consecrates a large place to the Green Fairy. It is found in aperitifs, it perfumes desserts or is sipped as an after-dinner digestive. A true piece of regional history to savour in a 16th-century building which has conserved some beautiful vestiges of that era!
Information: www.sixcommunes.ch
Café-Restaurant - Hôtel des six communes
Famille Pierre-Alain & Marianne Rohrer
CH-2112 Môtiers
Tel. : +41 (0)32 861 2000
Photo: MCG
A whole village to discover:
- Hôtel des six communes: built in the 16th century to serve as a « Hôtel de Ville », or town hall, to the six communes it represented. In 1993, five of the six communes sold their rights to Môtiers commune. Renovated from top to bottom, the building has housed a restaurant since 1999. And upstairs there are rooms from the 16th and 17th centuries which still have fragments of paintings from that time.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived here from 1762 to 1765: from his presence, there remains a museum in the apartment that he occupied in la Grand Rue, 5 minutes from the Môtiers station.
- Maison des Mascarons also located in la Grand Rue, with rooms dedicated to activities of bygone days: the clock and watch maker, the saddler trade and especially absinthe!
- Gorges de la Poëta-Raisse: located at a 10-minute walk from Môtiers are the gorges that Jean-Jacques Rousseau made famous. Following one after another is an impressive series of galleries, stalactites and stalagmites. Reserved for well-informed speleologists.
- More articles about Môtiers:
"Bubbles at the Monastery": read the article of Alexandre Truffer
"Liberalization of Absinthe: read the article
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Switzerland, french part 
It is hard to imagine the existence of such a haven of greenery only a few minutes from the centre of Neuchatel. Nonetheless, once through the maze of highway turnoffs you enter another world: in the midst of wild cascades, of ruined watermills built from the 16th to the 19th century and ancient trees stands the imposing house of the Prussian. This former brewery has been superbly restored and now houses a fine restaurant and a charming hotel. Ten rooms – each one different and some a large as an apartment- recount a part of the life of their former owners, one of whom, from Prussia, gave his name to the building.
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