Chocolate, Cheese, and Castles

A great little day trip from the Geneva area is Gruyere, Switzerland. It's about an hour and a half drive (at least from Sergy). When the hubby's mom and her childhood friend came to visit in June this was one of our first trips in the area. The day after they arrived we packed them into our little Lancia and headed off for a day of tasting and touring.

Our first stop was the Cailler chocolate factory. Which is a bit confusing to get to as it's actually in Broc, not Gruyere and there are not as many big tourist signs pointing the way as you would think. So you often think that you are heading in the wrong direction and then suddenly, boom, there's a little sign pointing you on. Once you arrive at la Maison Cailler you buy a ticket for a tour in the language you would like. They have recently remodeled and they have a very spacious cafe/boutique where you can wander around planning what you will buy while waiting for your tour group to be called to the 'boarding gate'. In the boutique there is a floor to ceiling wall filled with all their different flavored bars of chocolate. Mouthwatering as well as cool to look at. I totally want one for my house!

hmm....which chocolate's should we buy?

Once your group is 'boarding' you line up and wait to enter the tour. The entire tour is automated. They tell you before you enter not to push or pull on any of the doors or touch anything. When you are expected to leave a room the doors will automatically open for you. Pretty cool! It sometimes feels like you are in a Disney ride. Sadly, much of it is quite dark so I couldn't take many good photos. Once you are finished with the automated tour you go into a room with bags and bags full of cocoa beans and big explanations about where they come from and how each different bean is different, which characteristics they possess, etc. You can pick them up, smell them, there is even a microscope so that you can look closely at them. I couldn't get the microscope to work...all I could see was black nothingness - oh well! Every day 56 local farmers supply fresh milk to the Cailler factory. According to the sign by these milk jugs, "The milk is condensed and is mixed within 48 hours with the cocoa by a secret procedure. This is what gives Cailler chocolate it's caramelized milk taste, which is incomparable and unique world wide. All other major industrial chocolate manufacturers use milk powder instead of slightly condensed milk. So suck it, Hershey's!" (I added that last part myself). Next up on the tour is to see the famous branches Cailler being made. If you grew up in this area you know what Branches are and most people seem to love them. In my opinion their alright but nothing to write home about. It is fun to see them being made. I'd like to sit underneath that sheet of chocolate with my mouth open. Yum! You get to taste one of the Branches chocolates and then you exit. At first you think, is that it? Is that my tasting? Really? One measly little Branches? But oh no, that's not it. You are in for the best part of the touring - the tasting room. There is a room with a circular counter filled with all sorts of Cailler chocolate. You are allowed to taste as much as you'd like. I advise you pace yourself because no matter how much you like chocolate if you don't go easy you will end up with a stomach ache. Trust me.

Now, while you are indeed welcome to try as much as you would like while in the tasting room, you are not allowed to put samples in a napkin and leave with them as one French lady attempted to do. She had to stand by the door with her napkin full of chocolates and eat them! I think she ended up throwing some out. Seriously, it's difficult to eat that much chocolate in such a short period of time. I mean, no one wants to be the person standing in the tasting room for hours munching on the goodies. Also, it's not like they have teeny tiny pieces for sampling. They have the regular old size pieces that you would buy in a box of assorted chocolates. So, don't gorge yourself on the first counter - remember you have 3 counters full of chocolate to sample. We love the Ambassadors so I recommend you save some room to taste those. Also, it's not a bad idea to share samples with the people you came with - each take a little bite of the samples. This way you can taste more varieties without feeling like you're about to vomit all over the other guests! Once your belly is full of luscious chocolate samples head back to the boutique and make your purchases. Those Cailler people are clever - we buy way more after sampling than we normally would!

Then, if you can stomach it head off to la Maison du Gruyere for some Gruyere cheese tasting. This tour is not quite as high tech as the chocolate tour and let's face it a packet of 3 pieces of Gruyere cheese at different ages is not quite the same as an entire room full of chocolates for tasting...but then again it IS cheese. How much can one really sample? On this tour you get a little hand held audio guide and Cerise (or Cherry) the cow tells you all about the process of making cheese. There are photos to look at of the beautiful Alpine grasslands where she grazes in the summer as well as an array of different plant scents you can smell - not for those with sensitive noses or allergies. A few of them made me sneeze.

Then you get to view the work area from a window looking down into the factory onto a giant vat of cheese being swirled around. Well, it's not cheese yet, bu you get what I mean. If you are really lucky then you get to see a cheesemaker down there doing something. Like this guy who was checking the temperature or something on cheese that were packed in salt (I think) and waiting to be turned over (or something
to that effect). That's pretty much the tour. Once you go back downstairs to the entrance area you can look through windows at the massive cheese wheels being stored aging, you can stop in at the restaurant for fondue or other cheese based dishes or pop into the gift shop and buy all sorts of ridiculously wonderful tacky "swiss" items. I always want to buy something and my hubby always says no. What a spoil sport. I'm sure one of our loved ones would be thrilled to receive a gigantic cowbell with a swiss mountain painted on it for Christmas!
Isn't it nice that they had a little stuffed animal of Cherry, our cow guide? Isn't she cute?







Once you've done your tours and tastings (I immediately ate my 3 pieces of cheese others stored them away for later) you can hike up the steep path to the actual town of Gruyere. This little medieval village is on the top of a hill surrounded by walls with a castle, which you can tour. The town itself is very picturesque and very touristy. Hey, they've got to survive somehow. We've managed to go in off peak times and have not found it over crowded with tourists. From what others have said it sounds like in the summer time it can be quite packed with tourists and therefore not quite as lovely. But, we didn't have this problem. We stopped to get a drink a little bite toeat...well, I wanted something to eat. Yes, yes I know the only one to eat every sample. What can I say? I like food! Some of our party still had their cheese samples left, which gave birth to the phrase, "Would you like some cheese from my purse?" It still makes me laugh to think about it. How horrified would the Swiss wait staff have been to hear that!?!
The hubby and his cheese sample

After our little rest and refreshment - I had some soup to warm me up and decided to hold off on consuming the cheese from the purse until later - we headed to the Chateau de Gruyer (aka the Castle). A tip if you want to do both the Cheese factory and castle tour you can by a combo ticket from either place and save a few francs. The castle is interesting and very well preserved. I'll be honest, since there was no food involved I don't have all that much to say about it. So, I'll just post some photos. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So here we go.













Well, that's about it from me. After our tour of the castle we were all done in I'm pretty sure I took a nap on the car ride home. We made tartiflette for dinner to top off our day of cheese and chocolate and drank lots of wine to help us digest the days tastings. I hope you enjoyed sharing in our excursion to Gruyere and if you're ever in the area I highly recommend a day trip. It's fun and filling!