Sainte-Croix

Sainte-Croix sits high in the Vaud Jura, and when winter shut down farming the households turned to fine mechanical work - first watch parts, then from the early nineteenth century music boxes, and the town became the dominant producer worldwide, later adding singing-bird automata and mechanical figures of great complexity. Cheap recorded music destroyed the mass market, and the town moved into other precision manufacturing, but the craft survived: two museums, the CIMA and the Musee Baud, hold large collections and - crucially - demonstrate them, so visits involve hearing the machines rather than looking at them silent. Restoration workshops still operate, and new movements are still made in small numbers.

What you actually see

• Music boxes played, not displayed silent - demonstrations are part of the visit.
• Singing-bird automata - the mechanical figures the town also made.
• Two collections - the CIMA and the Musee Baud.
• Living workshops - restoration and small-scale making still going on.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Museum visits are guided with demonstrations at set times, mostly in French - check the timetable, since arriving between tours means waiting. The town itself is plain. The branch railway is slow.

Nearby

Yverdon-les-Bains is below; the Creux du Van is south along the Jura.