Hotel Arbez

Built by a private landowner and businessman specially to take advantage of an impending border adjustment between the two countries, the structure was originally used as a grocery store (its Swiss portion) and a pub (the French half).

The unusual situation of the Hotel Arbez grew out of a dispute between France and Switzerland over possession of the Vallée des Dappes, just south and west of the tiny town of La Cure.

After several attempts to acquire the area were firmly rebuffed by the Swiss, France decided in 1862 to offer a nearby section of its own territory, comparable in size, in exchange.

[5] The owner at the time, Max Arbez, was posthumously honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for rescuing Jews along with his wife Angèle.

[7] The hotel was chosen in 1962 for the initial (secret) contacts between the French government and the Algerian FLN (with the latter entering from the neutral Swiss side), which led to the negotiation of the Évian Accords between France and Algeria, which resulted in the independence of the latter.

Hotel Arbez in La Cure . The border runs lengthwise through the two buildings, passing just to the left of the mural . The mural and everything to the right of it lies in Switzerland; France lies to the left.