Repeated heatwaves and prolonged droughts across Europe are reshaping tourism, especially when it comes to boat tourism and watery beauty spots. Travel Tomorrow has already reported on low river levels and their impact on Danube cruises, and now low levels in the River Doubs in eastern France and Switzerland have also left boats stranded on Jura’s Lake Brenets—usually a picturesque destination on the French-Swiss border.
The liminal body of water is 200 metres north of Lac du Joux, which is fed by different rivers and is the largest lake above 1000 metres altitude in Switzerland. In contrast with that, Brenets (also called Lac de Chaillexon in French) is described on a local tourism website as a “little gem,” its perimeter walkable in an hour. It’s also known for the natural ice formed and exported from there in winter.
At the start of the main 2026 season in April, social media posts from the Jura3lacs account showed leisure boats bobbing on clear and tranquil waters against a backdrop of forested, limestone outcrops, and a 27-metre waterfall that has around 17,000 Instagram tags.
But, despite the growing popularity of Switzerland as a “coolcation” spot, this year’s spring temperatures(March–May) averaged 1.6°C above the long-term average, ranking as the third-warmest spring since records began in 1864. May was 1.8°C above average. June was 3.5°C above the 1991–2020 norm, and July was the warmest on record, at 3.2°C above the reference period, according to SwissInfo.ch
A mountain lake in high heat sounds idyllic, but the heat and drought mean the lake has currently lost its charm for visitors and is largely deserted, due to rainfall since April at about half the usual rate, according to Méteo Suisse, and catastrophic water levels in the River Doubs.
Instead of its usual 1.5-km length and 500-metre width, the lake has shrunk. Boats now sit on the lake’s exposed brown silt bed, taunted by a meagre stream of muddy water in the lake’s middle—now more than nine metres below the average level. Worse, the situation is deteriorating by around 22 centimetres every day, with drought conditions predicted to last through mid-August.
One vessel stranded on the lake is “Jumbo,” owned by Yvan Durig’s Société de Navigation des Brenets, who reports being hit hard and feeling “powerless” to improve his lot. Regional data notes that, together, three local boat companies usually ferry thousands of tourists across the lake in the summer season.
As countries like Switzerland pivot away from snow sports and promote their year-round tourism offer amid growing concerns about snowfall, recent drought conditions and their impact on summer tourism activities are likely to contribute to the ongoing conversation about tourism and climate adaptation.
