Being so far across towards the French border on the west side of Switzerland, the French influence is very noticeable in so many ways, just like we saw the Italian influence down in the south. This gave me an opportunity to practice a bit of my rather rusty French language skills. More often than not my attempts fizzled out and we reverted to English.
The town of Gruyère is famous for making cheese that goes by the same name. Our first stop was to visit the factory and visitors centre. The morning production run was coming to an end, but we were still able to watch the final few steps from the visitors viewing platform behind big glass windows. We were each given one of these hand-held electronic devices with which you can listen to a prerecorded commentary of what you are watching, by keying in a number at each of the stages on the visitors tour route. I have visited cheese factories for work, so am familiar with the production process, however it was a new experience for Ann. Nevertheless it was interesting to see it being done on what I consider to be a fairly small scale. I'm not sure whether the employees would thank me for saying that - they are surely very proud of the 48 round cheeses they produce each day.
After following the tour we stopped for a cup of tea in the on-site restaurant and browsed through the shop.
Next stop was just across the road and a 10 minute walk up the hill to the old medieval village of Gruyère. It has been lovingly maintained since it first came into being in about the 13th century and now is comprised mainly of a few hotels, shops and restaurants. At the top of the village (i.e. also on the top of the hill) is the Gruyère castle, now converted into a museum that reflects the history of the village and it's inhabitants. Although not huge, it was nicely set out and made for a very interesting visit. Predictably, we took lots of photos as we made our way around the village and castle.
When all had been seen, we headed back down the hill and returned to the factory restaurant where we had a meal of traditional Swiss fondue, in the Swiss factory right where the cheese was made. It was delicious! By the end we were so maxed-out with cheese that we felt like we had this Gruyère flavoured vapour cloud that drifted along with us wherever we went. But still we went back into their shop and bought some of their cheese to take back home.
That was about it for today. A few trains and buses brought us back to the hotel by around 19.45. Last one tomorrow before we return home in the evening.
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