Thursday 19th May
Visit to Aarberg, Biel and Neuchâtel,
Switzerland
OK,
now the historic part of the expedition begins with a visit to Aarberg to see
the old home and interrogate the authorities for family history. Thanks to our Swiss-speaking friend, Caro, we
found the local “Council” office who looked up records about Jules Samuel
Bouvier. No luck…it turns out that Jules
was baptized here, rather than being born here, so we must travel to Biel for
their official records about this Canton, to see if there’s any information
about any rellies who once lived in Aarberg.
(We later found that we need to go to Neuchâtel to their offices as it
was in this Canton that he was born). Confused?
So were we.... Fortunately the distances are small and the country
beautiful so there’s no problem undertaking this paper chase…
Aarberg
is a charming village, and the Altstadt (old part of town) has shops and
buildings surrounding a town square.
Armed with a photocopy of a postcard of the town square sent to Grandpa
decades ago, we stood by the same fountain and took a photo of the same
building that his father lived in before leaving for Australia.
So
after coffee in the Konditorei and a walk around the square we walked through the
old wooden bridge over the river and to the rear of his house. The back of this tall building is a wall of
wooden shingles, all quite weathered now.
Biel
(in French it’s called Bienne) is a lovely city on the lake. Tall buildings, organized streetscapes,
upmarket, expensive shopping and more Konditoreis and chocolate shops! The Admin office was closed for the 2 hour
lunch break, so we’ll come back here for sure; but it’s now on to Neuchâtel
along the lake to see the old part of town.
