Biel / Bienne:
Just so you know what you're in for...
Biel/Bienne is the largest bilingual city in Switzerland, with 50,000 inhabitants, and about 85,000 in the "agglomération" (i.e. the "greater Bienne").
Biel is the German form, Bienne the French form (usually also used in english).
BNC is a joking shorthand for "Bienne City" (=> "Bee-Enn-Cee") with a nod to NYC, which you may encounter locally.
A the north-eastern end of Lake Bienne, the city is at a crossroads between the (french-speaking) Jura mountains to the north, the (French- and German-speaking) vineyards along the northern shore of the lake to the west, the (German-speaking) Seeland countryside, very much Switzerland's vegetable garden to the south and the Swiss-German industrial hinterland along the plain to the east, towards Zurich.
Bienne's sister rival Nidau, bordering to the south-west, is very much german-speaking, although the area is built-up throughout. From your hotels walking a few hundredmetres to the north will get you to bustling multi-cultural, bilingual Bienne, and the same distance to the south-east will get you to Nidau's german-speaking old town, clean and quiet, if not sedate.The bilingual status arose in the second half of the 19th Century, when an industry centered on watchmaking and precision mechanics developped in German-speaking Biel and saw large numbers of french-speaking Swiss workers and entrepreneurs move into the city from neighbouring areas (the language border is at Twann /Douanne, a few km down the lake, or at Péry-Reuchenette just north). Confronted to a population of over 40% french-speaking Swiss, the local council just decided Biel would become Biel/Bienne, with bilingual administration, etc.
It also means every street or square has both a german- AND a french-language name, which can be confusing.
Following this smooth integration of this first wave of immigration, Biel/Bienne became an immigration centre with Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Yougoslav, West and North African as well as Balkans and Near East immigrants settling in the city and integrating in general more easily than elsewhere in Switzerland. This helped build a dominant culture where most people switch easily from one language to another if necessary, and don't feel threatened for it.
The watchmaking industry was rather badly hit by recession - and far east competition - in the late 60s, which saw Biel-Bienne lose one quarter of its population (notably about half of all Italian immigrants left). The city has very much recovered since (Omega, or rather Swatch Group, and Rolex are still producing watches in Bienne), boasts very good living standards... and affordable rents too.
Yet people in Geneva, Lausanne of Zurich are still likely to ask you "why the f*ck are you going to Bienne ?" as they still think of it as a sort of disaster area where unemployment and urban violence rule. Well, they have no clue, don't mind them. Confronted to such preconceptions the locals have a rather self-deprecating, biting sense of humour, on the lines of "we survived the recession, we're still standing, we like it here, so get stuffed".
Beery Bienne
Being on the language border means Bienne is at a beery crossroads between the western Switzerland beer culture and its Belgian- and British-influenced micros, and the Eastern Switzerland beer culture which is very much lager country. Which means the Bienne beer landscape is probably as varied as you can get in Switzerland, far better than what you can get in either Basel, Berne, Geneva, Lausanne or Zurich, if only because it all fits in a very concentrated area !
Seeland-Bräu in the Lago Lodge backpackers hostel, is the one brewery in town.
But more local beers are available in Bienne's bars, including the offerings of Aare-Bier (in Bargen, including the Bier-Bienne 1 and 2), Felsenau (in Berne, distributed in Heineken outlets too), Egger (in Worb, near Berne). Products of other Swiss breweries such as BFM, Trois Dames, Öufi and Locher/Appenzeller appear here and there in town.
Along, of course, with the ubiquitous, uninspiring local Carlsberg (Feldschlösschen, Cardinal, Gurten, Warteck, Hürlimann, Valaisanne...) and Heineken (Calanda, Haldengut, Eichhof... if in an Heineken outlet ask if they've got any Felsenau beer) offerings. Try them at your own peril - they are what gave Swiss beer a bad name !
Here's a map with notable beery places, both bars and restaurants.
Tourism and shopping
O course Switzerland is not all about the beer, so here are a few tips, and a dedicated Google Map.
The Tourist information office in Bienne is in a stand-alone kiosk on the Square in front of the main train station building. Their web page gives quite a few tips on things to do and see in and around Bienne.
The one beer shop in town is Bier-Bienne just behind the Pooc bar. Weekdays 11-6.30 / Saturdays 10-4. Closed Sundays and Mondays. The entrance is in the passage to the left of Pooc bar.
There's a small distillery in the outskirts, in Port, run by the Zürcher family, producing many specialities, including carrot schnaps, fennel schnaps and a local "whiskey". Their production is available in quite a few shops around town and are sold by the glass at the Eldorado Bar and the Café du Commerce (q.v. beery places map, above).
Specialty cheese shops : Zaugg on Neuengasse in Bienne has closed down, but there still is Markus Chäslädeli on Hauptstrasse in Nidau (at the far end) Beware, they close at 16:00 on Saturdays !
The Manor department store (food division downstairs) on the northern edge of Zentralplatz / Place centrale, and the large Coop supermarket next to the southern exit of the train station both have pretty decent specialty cheese counters.
Note about maps : Google mapping is a bit dodgy at times,especially in the way the maps do not correspond too precisely to the satellite pictures. If you want a more reliable map source, look this one up : http://map.search.ch/biel-bienne.en.html which also includes an online telephone directory, should you need to look up an address or phone number.
Laurent
PS : Free Wi-Fi ? Well, there at least is one at Lago Lodge, one at POOC, and a public one that stretches along the Bahnhofstrasse between Guisanplatz and Centralplatz, and on along the whole of Nidaugasse, so basically any café or bar along this stretch is going to have it.
