Swiss Cheese and Swiss Chocolate

My good friend from high school came to Switzerland for the weekend and we indulged in a grand tour of some excellent Swiss cheese and chocolate. Our first stop was in the small village of Pringy in the canton of Fribourg.

A view over the Saane valley

Here we visited La Maison du Gruyère, a cheese dairy which produces the famous gruyère cheese. The audio tour explains the long tradition of cheese-making as it has been handed down over many generations of alpine cheesemakers and visitors can actually watch the cheese-making process from a viewing gallery.

The dairy where the cheese is made

The cellar where the cheeses mature for five months to a year

After the tour we headed up the hill to the medieval town of Gruyère for a spot of lunch. Of course, fondue was on the menu and we found a wonderful terrace overlooking the Saane Valley to enjoy our cheese and wine.

Gruyère takes its name from 'grue' meaning crane

Quaint restaurant-lined cobbled street

Another beautiful alpine village

Laura and me :)

Fondue!

Words to live by!

After filling up on cheesy goodness we drove down the road to the neighbouring village of Broc to visit the famous Maison Cailler, a chocolate factory. The tour here was excellent and well worth a couple of hours. It includes a brief history of chocolate and the Cailler family, a detailed and interesting explanation of all aspects of how chocolate is produced today, and the obvious highlight of the chocolate tasting! It is unlimited and almost too much... Almost! There is a great gift shop at the end where you can stock up on the entire range of Cailler products.

Maison Cailler

Chocolate tasting

More chocolate tasting

A wall of chocolate bars to welcome you to the shop

It was a spectacular gastronomical day out, but this tour is not for the faint-hearted. We indulged in so much cheese and chocolate and that kind of indulgence takes some time to recover from :)