Cheese,Chocolate and Alphorn in La Gruyère,Switzerland: A ‘typically Swiss’ day trip!

What comes to your mind when you think of Switzerland? For many people, it might be a combination of natural beauty, cheese, chocolate, watches (and probably high expenses).While Switzerland is obviously much more than that , I am an ardent lover of all things cheese (I probably love Fondue more than some of my Swiss friends do), chocolate and am elated every time I visit a new place in Switzerland. Having said that, it’s no surprise that one region in particular had intrigued me for long and I had been wanting to go there to learn all about cheese and chocolate while taking in scenic views at the same time – La Gruyère in Fribourg, Switzerland. So, when my friends asked me what I’d like to do for my birthday, I took the opportunity to suggest taking a day trip from Basel to La Gruyère area, combining a short hike with culture and visiting a cheese factory as well as a chocolate factory. Luckily, an Alphorn meetup was scheduled in the old town of Gruyères that afternoon and I was all the more excited at the prospect of witnessing a bunch of Alphorn players performing. Was it all too ambitious? Probably. But, we geared up for a fun day trip nevertheless, aiming to make the best use of time while not rushing through the day too.

I have to say that I was over enthusiastic and excited for this trip. I’m not exaggerating when I say I was breaking out into dances and jumps throughout the day, including our time in the Chocolate Museum and the Cheese Factory. It has been by far the one trip with so many traditionally (or rather popularly) Swiss elements. In fact, even the Rösti I ordered at the end of the day had a mini Swiss flag on it for decoration purposes and we tried out Fondue in summer (absolutely not typical for summer though- but then again Le Gruyère cheese!). Here is an account of how it all went and what to keep in mind while planning to visit cheese and chocolate factories in La Gruyère on the same day:

 

 

 

How to get to Gruyères and how far are the cheese and chocolate factories from each other?

Gruyères can be reached by train from Fribourg in less than an hour. From Basel, it would roughly take 2.5 hours. An example route –

Basel-> Bern-> Bulle (via Fribourg) -> Gruyères

Click on the icons in the map for details.

La Maison du Gruyère, the Cheese factory is located just 30 metres away from the railway station.

Address: Place de la Gare 3, 1663 Pringy-Gruyères

 

Maison Cailler, the Chocolate factory and Museum is located near the Broc-Fabrique station and it would take about 30 minutes to travel by train from the Cheese Factory.

Address: Rue Jules Bellet 7, 1636 Broc

 

The original plan for the Gruyére day trip

Since we were going all the way to Gruyére, we wanted to make the best use of time and also incorporate a short hike. But, there were some other things to consider:

• It would be better to hike in the morning before it gets too hot.
• The Cheese Factory offers a peek into the cheese making process at particular times of the day. Different stages of the process are scheduled from 9 am to 2:30 pm , beyond which you can simply see the equipment and learn from the interactive media.
• No prior reservation was possible for small groups, so we would have to have sufficient time to queue up for tickets, if either of the factories were crowded.
• The Alphorn meetup was a rare event in which 50 traditional musicians would be gathering to perform. The closing ceremony would take place from 5:45 pm to 6 pm.

 

So, we thought of first hiking from Charmey to Broc- Fabrique , visit the Chocolate Factory after the hike, take a train to Gruyére for the Cheese Factory and then explore the old town, watching the Alphorn performance.

This is how our plan looked like :

• 7:30 am – Train from Basel SBB -> Bern -> Fribourg ->Charmey (9:55 am)

• Hike through the Jaunbach gorge till about noon

• Visit the Maison Cailler roughly 12:30-1:30 pm

• Take the train to Gruyére

• Arrive at the Cheese Factory by 2 pm so as to see some of the cheese making demonstration till 2:30 pm, before seeing the rest of the factory.

• Go up to the Gruyére Castle and old town and watch the Alphorn performance before the closing ceremony at 5:45 pm.

 

 

However, since some of us were arriving by car, other things like parking, ease of transport etc had to be considered. So, on the day of the trip, we changed our initial plan and decided to meet up at Broc- Fabrique instead of Charmey , hike through the Jaunbach Gorge and then visit the Chocolate Factory. This is the route we actually followed:

 

Basel SBB-> Bern -> Fribourg ->Bulle -> Broc-Fabrique

 

Due to delays caused by finding a parking spot, figuring out walking directions and hiking to the meeting point, we ended up being about an hour late already. Of course, not everything else also worked according to the plan. More on that later.

 

Hiking in La Gruyère region: Jaunbach Gorge

The Jaunbach Gorge offers a beautiful hiking trail through Charmey – Lake Montsalvens – Broc – Gruyères which would take about 3 hours. In fact, I noted it amongst 5 of the best hikes one could try out in Switzerland. However, since we were short on time, we only hiked through a part of the Gorge and returned to our starting point to visit the Cailler Factory and Museum.

 

With all the greenery all around, wooden bridges and tunnels, I was also reminded of the Vintgar Gorge in Slovenia – another beautiful country i’d recommend visiting.

 

 

 

Visiting the Cailler Chocolate Factory at Broc : Chocolate history and making tour, (too many) tastings.

My excitement was increasing steadily from the time we arrived at the Maison Cailler, found some huge chocolate statues in the play area, bought entrance tickets (9 CHF-students , 12 CHF-adults) and went inside. Granted we were running late,that it was almost 1 pm and everybody was convinced we would not be able to reach the cheese factory in time for the demonstrations, I was still clinging onto the hope that we would be able to enjoy our time at the Chocolate museum but leave soon. Little did I know what exactly was in store for us. Our tour was scheduled to start in a few minutes and there didn’t seem too many people queuing up. Multilingual audio guides were ready to be picked up and the vast variety of chocolates, related books and souvenirs were enticing all of us. Soon, it was time and we entered an elevator to get to the starting point of the tour – except it wasn’t just an elevator – it was THE start of the tour! The lights dimmed, sound effects appeared and a voice welcomed us to what seemed like an incredible experience in store. Cue a whole range of lifelike animated figures narrating the history of chocolate and stories of the Aztec civilization with dramatic effects and gradually moving on to see how chocolate was introduced to Switzerland , how chocolate is produced now by Cailler and the different people across the world involved in the whole process.

With the opportunity to see, smell, taste and touch the different cocoa beans, nuts , chocolate, this Chocolate Tour was truly a delight to the senses. Towards the end of the tour, visitors are encouraged to experience and appreciate the smell, touch, taste of chocolate before getting to sample all different kinds of Cailler chocolates! From dark to milk and in different flavours, we could actually pick and try whatever we wanted. Doesn’t this sound like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory or simply put, a chocolate lover’s paradise

Visiting the La Maison du Gruyère : Cheese factory tour,demonstration and tasting

Now that you know how delayed we were as per the plan , although enjoying ourselves to the fullest, we reached the La Maison du Gruyére Cheese Factory well after 3 pm. I was still beaming continuously and high on happiness. We didn’t get to see the cheese makers at work, but we still got the rest of the interactive tour, audio guided by Cherry, an Alpine cow. It was impressive to learn all about the Alpine cows, even smell and touch the different flowers and herbs grown in the pastures, see all the different equipment used for the regular cheese production and learn about the whole process via videos. We got 3 different types of cheese to sample- one at 6 months old, one aged 8 months and the other 10 months mature. I liked the first two cheeses more, especially the one which was 8 months mature. The tour costs about 7 CHF for adults and 6 CHF for students. If you follow the daily timetable of the cheese production and arrive at the factory well in time, you can witness a part of the cheese making process yourself.

By the way, I recently visited the Graubunden region and made cheese myself! Watch out for the detailed post coming up soon!

 

Exploring Gruyères : Castle , Alphorn meetup , food , ‘Aliens’ art by H.R. Giger and more

• From the Cheese Factory, if you walk back past the railway station and go uphill, you will eventually reach the Gruyères Old town and castle. On some Saturdays in the summer, they have Alphorn performances. Alphorn is a traditional musical instrument used in the Alps for farmers to communicate with each other. For the first time ever, I got to witness 50 Alphorn musicians performing together and it was incredible. There are numerous restaurants and cafes in this beautiful town square and we chose one of them to order some traditional Swiss meals. Only after eating did we realize that the H.R. Giger Museum and Bar were just a few hundred metres away and rushed to check them out. Giger is an artist particularly known for his creations in the movie ‘ Aliens’. The museum shuts at 6 pm and the bar shuts at 8 pm. The decor of the bar also looked straight out of a science fiction movie and I would definitely like to spend more time there whenever I am there next.
• To enter the Gruyères Castle, you would need an entrance ticket which can either be bought separately or a a combo offer at the cheese Factory. We knw we wouldn’t have enough time to enter and explore the castle, which is why we hadn’t bought the tickets in advance.

There is another chocolate maker right there in the town square and also a shop filled with cow bells and souvenirs, in case that interests you.

A flagthrower performing at the Alphorn meeting at Gruyere- that brought together 50 Alphorn musicians from Switzerland.Alphorn is a traditional musical instrument used by people living in the Alps to communicate with each other. I had been longing to see such a performance for a long time and am really glad to have seen this closing ceremony on Saturday ❤️ What traditional things have you come across on your travels? I'm curious to find out! Use #sharetravellerstales to share your photo stories. – – – – – – – – – – #switzerland #fribourg #schweiz #suisseromande #igerseurope #picoftheday #culture #traditional #girlswhotravel #wearetravelgirls #worldnomads #traveldudes #culturegram #exploremore #daytrip #guardiantravelsnaps

A post shared by Menorca@EuropeDiaries (@menorca_c) on Jun 19, 2017 at 8:51am PDT

 

How much does it cost to take a day trip to Gruyères and visit the cheese, chocolate factories?

The main expenditure of this whole trip would be the transport to and fro. A one way train ticket from Basel to Gruyères costs about 33 CHF with a Half Fare Card and 66 CHF without one. But, you should check out the Spar Billet or super saver tickets too.You could find one way tickets for 27 CHF or perhaps even lesser. The best would be to get hold of a day ticket , so you don’t have to keep buying tickets through the day. A TagesKarte from a Gemeinde costs beween 40-50 cHF.

So, costs breakdown would look something like-

• Transport: 40 CHF – 140 CHF
• Chocolate Museum- 12 CHF
• Cheese Factory – 7 CHF
• Gruyéres Castle – 12 CHF (or 16 CHF for combo ticket of Cheese Factory+Castle)
• Meal at Gruyère – 20-30 CHF

What I would have done differently

I think it would have been worth it to leave even an hour earlier from home , so as to have enough time in hand for hiking and have buffer time for finding directions, etc.

I would have also brought more eatables along, as the only actual meal we had was in the evening. If I had checked the Giger Museum and Bar timings in advance, we could have actually spent enough time at both places and had dinner after that.

Other ways to explore La Gruyère  : Chocolate Train, Fondue train, Cheese and Chocolate tour by train, The Cheese Trail

• There are several other attractions for this cheese-chocolate region, such as the vintage styled Chocolate train, which runs from Montreaux to Gruyére, and the price of 99 CHF for adults includes the return trip as well as entrances to the cheese and chocolate factories, spanning about 9 hours in all.
• In the winter, you can board the Fondue Train, a vintage train running from Bulle through the Gruyére region,on which you will be served with fondue and meringue for a journey priced at 49 CHF.
• In Gruyére, you can choose to hike the Cheese Trail, connecting two cheese factories of La Maison du Gruyère and Moléson cheese dairy, and even get a certificate at the end saying you completed this 2 hour Cheese Trail Hike. While in Moléson, you can choose to take a cable car for some some panoramic views and go for another hike if interested. During the summer, the cable cars operate until 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

 

I hope you found the info useful and enjoyed this virtual journey to the land of cheese and chocolate. Are you planning to explore Switzerland anytime soon or you have some favourite Swiss spots already? Either way, do let me know!

Stay tuned for part 2 of the cheese journey when I actually made cheese, although in Graubünden and not Gruyére.

If you liked the post, do share it with your friends . You can also save the post on Pinterest for easy reference later.  You might also be interested in checking out more about Switzerland:

Swiss locals tell you where to go skiing and vacationing

Unique things you can do in Basel, Switzerland

Myths, legends and folklore in Switzerland

 Expat life in Switzerland

 

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