L'Orient is a village in the

Vallée de Joux The Vallée de Joux is a valley of the Jura Mountains mainly in the Swiss Canton of Vaud. The valley also continues into France ( Jura département) at its higher, southwestern, end. Located north of Geneva and northwest of Lausanne, its mean el ...

Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms b ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It was created in 1904 and is part of the municipality of

Le Chenit Le Chenit is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the Vallée de Joux. History Le Chenit is first mentioned in 1489 as ''Chinit''. Geography Le Chenit has an area, , of . Of th ...

. The village takes its name from the fact that it is located on the right bank of the river

Orbe Orbe (; la, Urba; older german: Orbach, ; frp, Orba) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It was the seat of the former district of Orbe and is now part of the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois. History Orbe is first mentioned about 2 ...

Geography

The village is located in the southern part of the

, at a distance of about 50 km from

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

and

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

. The Mont Tendre chain, part of the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Frenc ...

, extends on the eastern side of the village. The village is located east of the river

, which then flows into the

Lac de Joux __NOTOC__ Lac de Joux () is a lake in the Vallée de Joux in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. With a surface area of 9.5 km², it is the largest lake in Switzerland lying above 1,000 metres.See List of lakes in Switzerland for details. Lac d ...

History

From 1640 onwards, the inhabitants devoted themselves to agriculture and animal husbandry. The watchmaking industry radically changed the life of the population, especially when factories were created (Nouvelle Lémania in 1884, Valdar in 1914, both bought in 1999 by the

Swatch Group The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 by the merger of ASUAG and SSIH to move to manufacturing quartz-crystal watches to resolve the quartz crisis threatening the traditional Sw ...

, as well as Breguet). At the beginning of the 21st century, the administrative council of the fraction (five members) levied taxes, managed the real estate, public lighting and urban planning. It reported directly to the prefect.

Ski area

The ski area of L'Orient is part of a group of four ski resorts in the

. L'Orient has a lighted slope for night skiing. It has several cross-country ski trails.

References

Villages in the canton of Vaud Villages in Switzerland {{Vaud-geo-stub