You’ve got mail: A postcard from Neuchâtel!

A wonderful city in the french-speaking part of Switzerland where you can indulge yourself with the charm and savoir vivre of the citizens.

Walk around in the pedestrian zone and pay a visit to one of the many bakeries that still smell and look the way they have when you were a child. Buy your cheese in a tiny fromagerie (cheese dairy) choosing from a ton of different creamy cheeses, mature Vacherin, Gruyère and other delicacies of the region.

Be amazed by the imperfection, the friendliness and the joy of spending time outdoors in what is supposed to be a winter day.

You may well hear things like: “Est-ce que je vous dérange?” (Is it okay for you if I take a seat here?) from a young man who is about to take a seat on the bench behind you. Or “Vous êtes chou!” (You are a sweetie!) from your waitress who wears a smile while serving the guests during a busy lunch time on the terrace.

Or you watch another young man smoking a cigarette and being mindful not to come sit next to you until the cigarette is finished.

Stroll along Lake Neuchâtel and mingle with families, students of the Université de Neuchâtel, and with people from all walks of life.

Gaze – maybe in disbelief as a non-smoker like me – into the shop window of the first e-cigarette shop you have ever seen (see photo with the love sign below).

Be stunned by or ride on a trolleybus so old that it reminds you of the many happy endeavors you undertook with your grandmama some thirty years ago. I am overjoyed that Neuchâtel uses these trolleybuses as long as they do their job not bothering about a marketing image somebody may think is important to attract visitors.

Look for the heart and not for the show! Neuchâtel tells you how.