Bourbaki takes all its meaning in hospitatlity and welcome at Les Verrières, a small home town at the borders of Switzerland and France. As a fact, more than 140 years ago (in February 1871), at the time our ancestors acquired the family resort “Domaine au Mont des Verrières” to which “Le Bourbaki” belongs to, over hundred of thousand french soldiers (at the time under the direction of General Bourbaki) crossed the border of Switzerland in Les Verrières as refugees. To those who survived the brutality of the french-german war and the harsh winter weather, the swiss red cross offered them a home to recover, comfort and food in Les Verrières and surroundings from the Val de Travers in the Canton of Neuchâtel.
Our family originally run a sawmill and acquired the “Domaine au Mont des Verrières” at the end of the 19th century, all forestland, to provide the business with wood. During the 20th century the sawmill business was abandoned and a farming business ( mainly milk and meat production, catttle, horse, sheep, poultry and swine) became predominant.
The family compound “Domaine du Mont-des-Verrières” has lately been shifted into a grassland agribusiness, a mixed pasture for cattle and horses. This extensive management of the meadows fosters the biodiversity of the lands by generating a complex homeostasis of the ecosystem that we believe is unique in this area while including a large variety of endemic flora and fauna hosting the grazing livestock.
Today we are welcoming you in “Le Bourbaki” in the tradition of the swiss hospitality that became the hallmark of Les Verrières.
On top of the Jura mountains you shall enjoy a trecking alongside the trails up to the “Creux-du-Van”, the swiss Grand Canyon, with its wild life and unique scenery. You may rent a bike at the nearby swiss railway station in Fleurier and ride all the way down the Areuse river to the lake of Neuchâtel through the picturesque gorge of the Val de Travers and come back to “Le Bourbaki”. Crossing the Areuse River you will reach Môtiers, the capital city of Val de Travers, and visit the swiss home from the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, then taste in most of the restaurants and bars from the Val de Travers the delicious Absinthe alcoholic beverage called “la fée verte” ( “green fairy” as absinthe has often been portrayed as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug originating in the Canton of Neuchâtel during the 18th century).
-Your Team-
