Home  Switzerland, french part Vaud Off the beaten path
Off the beaten path Walks and hikes, sites and activities to enjoy; strolls off the beaten path allow you to discover an unimagined heritage.
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Parc jurassien: see it at an ant's pace |
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 Anthills... as far as the eye can see in the Parc jurassien vaudois.
Good shoes, a picnic slung over your shoulder, and you are ready to discover the wood ant colony in Chalet-à-Roch. It's probably not the largest concentration of wood ants in the world but it is the largest known in Europe, and the fruit of lots of research.
Regarding anthills, you should know that these domes made of twigs can attain 1.5 m in height and are often located at the edge of wooded plots or in small glades.
Sometimes located underground, with built-in ventilation systems, anthills can house anywhere from 20 to 5,000,000 ants. At the centre, protected by the workers, is the queen, who lays up to 500 eggs a day.
There are nurseries in the anthill, with eggs, larva, nymphs and cocoons looked after by nursemaids who attach the greatest importance to their charges.
According to the species of ant, there can also be giant mushrooms, grown and consumed by the ants, where aphids live, protected and fed in exchange for their honeydew, a sweet liquid flowing out of their abdomen.
Since 1966, the federal law on the protection of nature and the landscape protects all the species of wood ants in Switzerland. The protection of wood ants was decided as a means of protecting the forests. Several other countries, such as Germany and Austria, also decided to protect these insects. In Italy, anthills were even transplanted as a means of biological pest control, an action that would merit up-to-date scientific study.
Another feature of the Parc is its dry stone walls (67 km of low walls) that were built to demarcate its boundaries and contain its livestock. Inseparable from the Jura landscape, they are often more than a hundred years old and constitute a heritage which is worth protecting.
http://www.parc-jurassien.ch/
Photo : Monique Grange-Haehl
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Maison d'Ailleurs Yverdon: a passport to the imaginary |
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 Science fiction, utopia and extraordinary voyages: the Maison d'Ailleurs is certainly the only Museum of its kind in the world. Its very creation looks like a dream: that of Pierre Versins who, in 1952, while staying in Leysin to recover from the vicissitudes of the War, receives the first four volumes of « Anticipation ». It was the beginning of a passion for Science Fiction and a gigantic library which has continued to grow over the years.
In 1976, this avid collector, who has meanwhile founded the Futopia Club to bring together lovers of Science Fiction, donates his fabulous collection of 30,000 books to the city of Yverdon. The "Maison d'Ailleurs" was born: it set up its headquarters first at rue du Four 5 before moving in 1991 to the renovated former prison of the Place Pestalozzi. Created as a foundation, this new kind of centre has a double vocation: it provides public access to temporary exhibitions, to tens of thousands of books, some of which are unique or very ancient, but also offers the facilities of a research and documentation centre. As such it has coordinated studies financed by the European Space Agency to find in the works of Science Fiction imaginative inventions in the fields of aeronautics and technology associated with the conquest of space. So, ready for a little voyage beyond reality?
Contact et informations: www.ailleurs.ch
Place Pestalozzi 14
1400 Yverdon-les-Bains
Tél + 41 (0)24 425 64 38
Photo: © Fondation de la Maison d'Ailleurs
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The Prior's House: 7 centuries facing you |
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 This is where the monks' Father Superior, the Prior, received prestigious and passing guests who set out on the long Saint James pilgrimage route. This kings' residence, erected in the 13th C., has been able to preserve its treasures, among which are rooms decorated with mural paintings from the Middle Ages. The owners of the premises, Katharina von Arx and her late husband, contributed generously towards this miracle. These two enthusiasts fell in love with Romainmôtier in 1960, bought the castle, then in ruins, and renovated it gradually, which proved challenging at times. Today, they have started receiving visitors again. They offer a very cosy tearoom, dormitory beds set up in the attic, and events ranging from musical brunches to « Murder Mystery » evenings.
Information and contact: http://www.eventsetsaveurs.ch/51
Access map and practical information: www.eventsetsaveurs.ch/220
Visits (guided only) through the three rooms
Related articles:
Walking dicovery: Romainmôtier in the Nozon Valley
The Romainmôtier Abbey: a jewel of romanic art
Romainmôtier: where time has stopped
Romainmôtier in the Nozon Valley
Romanmôtier: locate
Photo: CCA
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Romainmôtier: where time has stopped |
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 If there's a place that has escaped the passage of time, it's surely the village of Romainmôtier. Picturesque houses that almost all have a story to tell, artisans at work in their boutique-workshops, sober and grandiose buildings around the abbey. Also, at the town's entrance, do not miss the Clock Tower, an ancient 14th C. door along the surrounding wall and the 18th C. Maison de la Dîme built to store the wheat that was deducted as tax, and which today supports an exhibition on the abbey.
Related articles:
A walk to enjoy: Romainmôtier in the Nozon Valley
The Prior's House: 7 centuries facing you
The Romainmôtier Abbey: a jewel of romanic art
Things to do in Romainmôtier
Accomodation, Lieutenant Baillival: return to the past in Romainmôtier
Romainmôtier: locate
Photo: CCA
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Romainmôtier in the Nozon Valley |
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 Nestled in the small valley of Nozon, close to Orbe, the little town of Romainmôtier has put up towers and ramparts around its thousand-year-old abbey. A jewel to be discovered at the exit of a magnificent boxwood and oak forest.
From La Sarraz or Ferreyres, follow the Nozon Valley, along the beautiful Nozon River. The little stream winds its way past fountains, gardens and coppice forests, before digging deep gorges in the limestone cliffs and finally breaking into an impressive waterfall. A walk across moss and ferns, marked by mills and « ferrières » (iron mines), which is a reminder that this region has a rich industrial past.
The route and other interesting things to discover:
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