Château-d'Œx

On 1 March 1999, the Breitling Orbiter 3 launched from Chateau-d'Oex with pilots Bertrand Piccard (Swiss psychiatrist) and Brian Jones (English balloonist). After 19 days, 21 hours, and 47 minutes aloft, they landed in the Egyptian desert near Dakhla on 21 March 1999, completing the first non-stop balloon circumnavigation of the globe. Total distance: 45,633 km. The gondola is now displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Bertrand Piccard is the third generation of a Swiss explorer dynasty: his grandfather Auguste reached the stratosphere by balloon, and his father Jacques co-piloted the bathyscaphe Trieste to the Mariana Trench in 1960.

Johann Jakob Hauswirth (1809-1871) was born in Saanen and worked as a farm laborer, woodcutter, and charcoal maker in the border region between the Bernese Oberland and the Pays-d'Enhaut. Self-taught, he created exquisite Alpine scenes -- cattle drives, flower arrangements, village celebrations -- cut from a single sheet of black paper, which he gave or traded to the farmers who employed him. He died in poverty in L'Etivaz but is now considered the father of Swiss paper cutting. The Musee du Pays-d'Enhaut in Chateau-d'Oex serves as the Swiss Centre for Paper Cut-outs, and decoupage is listed in the Swiss Federal Inventory of Living Traditions.

L'Etivaz is a hard Alpine cheese made by hand from raw milk exclusively between 10 May and 10 October, in copper cauldrons heated over wood fires, at altitudes between 1,000 and 2,000 meters. Named for the hamlet of L'Etivaz in the municipality of Chateau-d'Oex, it is the ancestor and artisanal predecessor of Gruyere. In the 1930s, 76 Gruyere-producing families withdrew from the Gruyere program to preserve traditional quality, founding a cooperative in 1932. L'Etivaz was the first Swiss product to receive the AOP label in January 2000. Today over 3,000 cows across approximately 134 mountain chalets produce the milk.

In February 1979, the Chateau-d'Oex Tourist Office organized the first International Hot Air Balloon Week with 12 balloons from 5 countries. The English film actor David Niven, who had bought a chalet in Chateau-d'Oex in 1960 and lived there for 23 years, sponsored this inaugural event. The valley's microclimate -- sheltered by surrounding mountains with stable winter thermals -- makes it ideal for balloon flying. The festival has been held annually in January ever since, growing into one of the largest hot air balloon events in Europe, typically drawing 20,000-50,000 spectators.

During World War I, neutral Switzerland accepted 68,000 sick or injured prisoners of war for medical care. Chateau-d'Oex was the first community chosen to host internees -- its letter offering to help was the first received by the Swiss government. On 30 May 1916, the first contingent of 700 British soldiers arrived by train to cheering crowds. Witnesses reported that many soldiers were 'crying like children' and some fainted with emotion at the reception. Between January 1916 and August 1919, Switzerland interned 37,515 French, 21,000 German, 4,326 Belgian, and 4,081 British soldiers.

The Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher (1898-1972) lived in Chateau-d'Oex from 4 July 1935 to 1937, fleeing Fascist Italy after his son was forced to join the Balilla Youth Movement. His youngest son Arthur needed mountain air for tuberculosis. Escher befriended local painter John Paschoud and held a joint exhibition of 38 woodcuts and lithographs on 6 January 1937 in Paschoud's studio. The Pays-d'Enhaut's traditional chalets, with their ornamental carved facades and fish-scale shale roofs, are among the tallest and most decorative in the Swiss Alps.

Bertrand Piccard is the third generation of a Swiss explorer dynasty. His grandfather Auguste Piccard (1884-1962) was the first person to reach the stratosphere by balloon. His father Jacques Piccard (1922-2008) co-piloted the bathyscaphe Trieste to the deepest point of the ocean, the Mariana Trench (10,911 m), in 1960. Bertrand himself completed the first non-stop balloon circumnavigation of the globe from Chateau-d'Oex in 1999, covering 45,633 km in 19 days. He later piloted Solar Impulse on the first solar-powered flight around the world (2015-2016).

The Grand Chalet de Rossiniere, built between 1752 and 1756 for farmer and notary Jean David Henchoz, is the largest inhabitable wooden building in Switzerland -- with 500 m2 of ground surface, 5 floors, 113 windows, and a painted inscription of 2,800 letters. The cellar was designed for 600 wheels of cheese in their aging stage. The building later became a fashionable hotel; guests included Victor Hugo, Leon Gambetta, and Alfred Dreyfus. In 1977, the painter Balthus (Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, 1908-2001) acquired the Grand Chalet and lived there until his death.