The story
The reason to climb to this museum above Lake Neuchatel is a trio of dolls that are nearly 250 years old and still work. Between 1768 and 1774 the Swiss watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz, with his son and an assistant, built three clockwork automata: a boy who writes, a boy who draws, and a young woman who plays an organ. They were made to astonish the courts of Europe and to advertise the family's watch business.
They still do their trick. The Writer dips a real quill and pens up to 40 characters, its eyes following the line. The Draughtsman produces small pictures, and the Musician actually presses the keys and breathes as she plays. Public demonstrations run on the first Sunday of each month, when the mechanisms are wound and set going in front of a crowd.
Around them the museum holds regional history and painting, but almost everyone comes for the three figures, gifted to the city in 1909 and still performing the routines built into their brass insides.
