Night picture © Vincent Bourrut

For eating and drinking, a few pavement cafés are dotted along Avenue Robert offering standard brasserie fare – the Trattoria Toscana at no. 13 is typical. Tiny Café du Musée, 7 Rue Daniel Jeanrichard, has a couscous menu for Fr.10, while the Croix d’Or, 15 Rue de la Balance, has pizzas for Fr.14 and quality fish for under Fr.20. The Hôtel Moreau has higher standards for not much higher prices: menus from Fr.20 or so. The best view in La Chaux is from the Citérama café, on the 14th floor of the Espacité tower; aside from ice cream, coffee and light snacks, they have a spectacular outside terrace with bird’s-eye views over the whole town and, most dramatically, along the full, arrow-straight length of Avenue Robert – best after dark, when with a beer or two inside you, you might just imagine yourself in LA for a brief second. There’s an Internet café, Global Café, at 18 Rue Jaquet-Droz (Tues–Thurs 6–10pm, Sat 2–6pm; Fr.10/hr).

The town’s best live music and arts venue, the Bikini Test at 3 Rue Joux-Perret, was gutted by fire in January 1999 and is undergoing a refit until mid-2000. Until then, the vaulted P’tit Paris, 4 Rue du Progrès, has the market to itself, serving good inexpensive food as well as staging live music sessions in the cellar on weekend nights.