The south shore of Lake Biel is a gentle place of reeds, vineyards on the far bank and farmland stretching back towards the Seeland plain, and at Lüscherz, one of the small lakeside villages, the remains of a prehistoric pile-dwelling settlement lie in the shallows. Dorfstation, as the site is known, is part of the transnational World Heritage Site of Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, inscribed in 2011. Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers built their houses on wooden piles along the shore, and the waterlogged ground preserved timbers, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years.
Nothing is visible from the shore: the remains are underwater or buried in mud. But knowing they are there changes how you look at the lake. People have been living, fishing and farming here for six thousand years.
Across the water, St Peter's Island, actually a peninsula since the lake level was lowered in the nineteenth century, is where Jean-Jacques Rousseau spent a few happy weeks in 1765, later writing that they were among the best of his life. On the north shore, the wine villages of Twann, Ligerz and La Neuveville cling to the slopes beneath the Jura, and their white wines are worth tasting.
The riding around Lake Biel is varied. The south shore roads are flat and pastoral, through villages and fields of vegetables, as the Seeland is Switzerland's market garden. The north shore road is busier and squeezed between the lake, the railway and the vineyards. For real curves, climb into the Jura: the road from La Neuveville or Nods up to the Chasseral, the highest point of the Bernese Jura, offers a fine climb with views over three lakes and, on clear days, the whole chain of the Alps. Swiss speed limits are strictly enforced, and the fines can be eye-watering.
Erlach, four kilometres away, is a charming small town with a castle, a covered arcade street and a lakeside promenade. For fuel and more services, head to Ins or to Nidau and Biel at the north-eastern end of the lake. Remember that Swiss motorways require a vignette, and that many roads in the Jura can be foggy in autumn.