Gruyères - June 27, 2010

Day trip to the cheese factory!

Today Christine and I took a day trip to see how and where Gruyère cheese is made. It's only about an hour and a half from Geneva by train, very easy to access. The cheese factory, conveniently, is located directly outside the train station in Pringy.

As you might expect, the minute we stepped off the train we were in a Swiss cheese wonderland. The hills are green, the cows are wearing giant bells, and there is a medieval castle and hilltop village. We immediately went into the cheese factory to the restaurant to consume a meal that consisted almost entirely of different kinds of gruyère cheese. After stuffing ourselves full, we went on the factory tour! Our English audioguide host was Cherry, the cow. She delightfully lead us through the whole cheese process, from the time in the Spring when they take the cows to higher elevations to munch the fresh grass, to the smells of different native herbs of the alps, to the process for collecting the milk and making the cheese. It was pretty funny, but also educational. Sadly the factory was not producing cheese because we got there in the afternoon and actual production only happens until 2 or something.

After our cheese tour we walked up the hill to check out the village. Everything looked just as you might expect in a medieval Swiss hilltop village. Lots of stone buildings, a castle, great views of the valleys around it, lots of cows, fresh ice cream, and some sort of town production called, "Deliverance". I still haven't figured out what the production was supposed to be, but there were signs everywhere and the whole town was involved. The other strange thing about the town is the presence of the HR Giger Museum, housing the largest collection of Giger art, including famous pieces from Alien, Dune, and Poltergeist. Giger isn't from Gruyères, he is from Chur, Switzerland...but he apparently really like it in Gruyères and decided to have the museum there. It really is disconcerting when you are wandering through a hilltop village and see creepy alien statues.