Gruyere, Switzerland - Cheese, Chocolate and Plenty of Charm

When I was little, I always remember my dad getting up early on a Sunday morning to watch Swiss Railway Journeys which essentially follows the routes of various trains across Switzerland. At the time, I found it funny that he was captivated by such a programme, but as I got older I realised that it was pure escapism and we started to enjoy watching it together. As my dad's 50th birthday was approaching, I knew I wanted to do something special and that was to take him on a real Swiss Railway Journey.

Our journey begins in Geneva, where we stayed for the weekend. Over the weekend, we planned to take various train journeys to different locations in Switzerland. For this, we purchased a Swiss Pass which essentially covered our tickets for the duration of our stay. I will discuss more of our time in Switzerland, but today I wanted to discuss my favourite place we visited, Gruyere.

                                                                                                       

Our Sunday began with an early start, as we wanted to make the most of our day trip. We were so fortunate in that our hotel, Warwick Geneva was directly across from Geneva's Train Station, Geneve-Cornavin. I will speak more about our experience in Geneva in a later post, but I was super happy with the hotel that I had booked, particularly because of how fantastic the location was for reaching the train station. So, we walked across to the station and with a Boule de Berlin Vanille, Cappuccino and Swiss Travel Pass in hand, we boarded our train heading for Gruyere.

Our Journey takes a total of 2 hours, with two stops on the way - Palezieux and Bulle along the Fribourg/Freiburg Line.

We only had to wait around five minutes at each stop before our next train arrived and it wouldn't be Swiss if the train didn't arrive exactly on time. I just want to take a moment to mention that the Swiss Railway system is an absolute pleasure. It was so easy to navigate every station we visited and the trains are so beautifully comfortable. Riding on the top deck of a double decker train through the Swiss countryside, with a backdrop of snow-topped mountains is definitely an experience I will never forget.

Our view was of course spectacular. We spent the majority of our journey trailing along Lac Leman, past vineyards and wooden chalets. I could quite honestly spend all day looking out the window of a Swiss train, as the views are just incredible and you can really appreciate just how beautiful this country is.

When we arrived in Gruyere, also known as Gruyeres, our first point of call was actually just behind Gruyere train station - La Maison du Gruyere, where they produce and sell the reason you may have already heard of this little town - Gruyere cheese. Gruyere is my favourite cheese on the planet, but I'm ashamed to say I hadn't even heard of it until we visited!

The factory do offer tours, which you can book on the La Maison du Gruyere website. You can also experience the Cheese and Chocolate Train Tour from Montreux, with coffee and croissants provided on route, a tour of the Maison Cailler chocolate factory in Broc, cheese tasting at La Maison du Gruyere and a guided tour of Gruyeres village. I believe that it costs around 95 CHF but is also covered by the Swiss Pass, with reservations at an additional cost.

We however, were much more interested in exploring Gruyere village and so we left La Maison du Gruyere (after picking up some souvenirs and leaflets) and headed for the village. Gruyere village is situated atop an 82 metre high hill overlooking Lake Gruyere. After spending the previous day hiking up the Harder Kulm, the ascent was not easy on the legs, however we did discover that there is a car park near to the the top of the hill, for those who are driving.

 Gruyere village is entirely pedestrianised in the centre however, which helps to retain it's medieval charm. 

The village is absolutely beautiful and unspoiled after 400 years. La Fontaine at the centre of the village was once a substitute for running water and the water for the village would have been delivered from the Chesalles mountains in wooden pipes.

Gruyere is more than just charm however, as it is also home to some very interesting museums, such as the Tibet Museum.

Here, curator Alain Bordier has assembled a plethora of Tibetan art, including paintings, sculptures and ritualistic articles. 

Next door to the Tibet Museum is the fabulous HR Giger Museum which is the permanent home to the largest collections of paintings and sculptures by the Swiss artist, including pieces related to the film Alien.

My dad of course had to get a photo outside the museum, but as we were on a strict time schedule we didn't have enough time to visit. Instead, we headed straight to La Chateau de Gruyeres, where we could admire just how beautiful the view from the village really is.

The Church of Eglise Saint Theodule was built in 1254 and is free to visit. In 1679, the bell tower was struck by lightning and much of the interior of the bell tower was burnt. Fortunately, however the rest of the church was not badly damaged.

La Chateau de Gruyeres was somewhere I also did not have the chance to properly visit, but made for a perfect viewpoint and looks incredible from the train station, back down on low ground. 

At this point, we were starting to get hungry and I had a quick look on TripAdvisor for the best restaurants (so as to not fall into the tourist trap) and headed over to the restaurant. Now, no visit to Switzerland (and particularly Gruyere) would be complete without...

Cheese fondue (Gruyere cheese fondue to be precise)!

Now, let me tell you that I fell in love on this day. My dad has since even bought me my own cheese fondue set, because I am obsessed with cheese fondue. There were actually balcony seats in many of the restaurants, where you could overlook the mountains while enjoying this Swiss delicacy, but unfortunately they were super busy, so pre-booking is definitely advised.

The cheese fondue of course came with bread and potatoes, as well as other vegetables for dipping. Be aware though that cheese fondue is incredibly filling and would probably be better shared than ordered individually. I don't think I could move for a good 30 minutes after eating this, but it was incredible.

After my cheese fondue, we decided to continue exploring the village and the areas that surrounded the castle. Of course, we had to pick up souvenirs as well. Anyone who knows me will know I am obsessed with St Bernards and I got myself the most adorable pair of St Bernard slippers, as well as fridge magnets and a Switzerland snow globe with tiny St Bernards in. Just gorgeous.

We then made the descent back down to the train station, where I actually caught a woman talking about me in French, not knowing I could understand everything she was saying. I wish I could have taken a photo of her face when I spoke in French, letting her know I knew everything she was saying. 😉

We were also quite tempted to take the train even further, on to Montbovon, but time had run out.

Overall, we had an absolutely fabulous time in this beautiful place and I cannot wait to visit Gruyere again, especially for another cheese fondue!