Gruyères

View from atop Gruyeres

My parents arrived in Geneva on Friday afternoon; it didn’t feel like we had been apart for 10 weeks, in fact, except for the fact that we were in Europe, it felt like very little had changed since I left Miami.

After settling into Geneva and unloading our luggage, I took my parents to CERN to give them a taste of what my summer has been. Unfortunately, when we got there, the one exhibit that CERN has for tourists--“The Universe of Particles”, an interactive display of the LHC—was closing for the day. As such, we were only able to walk around the buildings and see the few outdated detector and accelerator parts that CERN has on display as you walk between buildings. It was not the most exciting tour of CERN--though to be honest, no CERN tour really is that exciting--but my parents both seemed to thoroughly appreciate seeing where I worked and spent countless frustrating hours this summer. We ended our first day together with a short walking tour of Geneva; we meandered around Lake Leman, wandered up to Cathedral San Pierre, and ate at a pizzeria in the center of town.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and departed for our day trip to  Gruyères. The trip to  Gruyères consists of a series of 3 trains, for a total travel time of ~2 hours, leaving from Geneva and arriving in Gruyères. However, this is not just a typical 2 hour train ride; the ride itself consists of a spectacular view of Lake Geneva and the Swiss/French country, thus granting the journey its name “The Golden Pass.”

The Chocolate Train!

We began our time in  Gruyères with a tour of the cheese factory, Le Maison du fromage, at the foot of the town. The tour included a sampling of three types of Gruyere cheeses made on the premises: 6 month, 8 month, and 10 month aged Gruyere. An interactive guide led you through the factory with information about the cows that produce the milk and the process of turning the milk into Gruyere cheese. Did you know that on average a cow eats 100 kg of grass and drinks 85 liters of water to produce 25 liters of milk a day? Or that it takes 400 liters of milk to produce a 35 kg round of Gruyere cheese? There was a huge vat of milk that was being fermented at the beginning stages of creating the cheese and we were able to see the milk being churned and tempered before it solidified.

Fake Gruyeres cow.

view from Gruyeres

Churning milk to make Gruyere cheese

The basement of Gruyere cheese rounds in the Maison du Gruyeres

We left the cheese factory and climbed up to the village center: a darling little Swiss country town complete with cows, small boutiques, mountains, and a castle. I have seen lots of small Swiss and French town over my time here, but this was one of the first for my parents, so it was really exciting to get to explore the mountain village with them.

Real Gruyeres cows!

view looking down from Gruyeres watch tower

Mom and me on the watch tower

Dad, Mom and me at the top of Gruyeres 

chateau d'Gruyeres

view from the chateau 

In the afternoon we took a short trip to a neighboring town Broc-Fabrique. This is where the Callier chocolate factory (the first Swiss chocolate ever) is located. One is able to take an interactive tour of the factory that delves into the history of Callier and chocolate making. It then shows you modern chocolate making techniques and production and you are able to watch one of the typical Callier chocolate candies be built in a machine from start to finish in their wrappers (and yes, we were able to eat and pocket these finished products).  There were also rooms devoted to educating the consumer about the chocolate making process, the quality of ingredients used, how the ingredients are processed, and why, in moderation, chocolate is an edible form of pure happiness.  Undoubtedly, the best part of the tour was the final room—the chocolate tasting. We tried so much chocolate I could barely move by the end. But every piece was just too incredibly tasty to let pass and its perfect melt-in-you-mouth texture made it even harder to say stop eating.

Giant chocolate candy statue!!

Mommy and me at Cailler

Decorations lining Callier factory

This cow makes chocolate milk. I wish. 

the machine we watched make chocolates at Callier

final step: wrapping each candy in its wrapper

After the factory tour, I can honestly say that Callier (which is partnered with Nestlé) is one of my favorite chocolate companies. Not only does their chocolate reflect the top-quality ingredients used and the care and diligence put into production, I am very impressed by their efforts to enforce sustainability. In 2009, Nestlé and Callier implemented ‘The Cocoa Plan’ which promotes sustainability by training and educating farmers in Africa and South America (the prominent leaders in cocoa beans) directly in more efficient ways to grow crops. The program also educates to decrease the frequency of HIV/AIDS outbreaks in the regions and to eliminate the existence of child labor and poor labor conditions. By working directly with farmers and reducing the middleman, the Cocoa Plan is working to grant farmers a maximum income. I always find it extremely encouraging when large successful companies invest in improving food quality and worker’s conditions.

We finished off our day trip by returning to Gruyères for a traditional fondue dinner. We indulged in two types of fondues: a chantiere mushroom fondue and Gruyeres’ traditional half-and-half Gruyere and Vecheron fondue. Our restaurant was on a terrace that overlooked the mountains—it was the perfect dinner that combined culinary excellence with a gorgeous view.

Daddy in front of a fondue restaurant in the shape of a cuckoo clock

fondue dinner!

sunset over Gruyeres

While Gruyères may be a very small town with little to do, its attractions are the exact things that I love most. I adored learning about the processes for which the factories make cheese and chocolate, learning more about the history of these companies, and hearing about their role in sustainable farming and education that expands outside of Gruyères and the company itself. More importantly, it was a wonderful, relaxing and beautifully sunny day in the countryside that I was able to share with my parents. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed the visit, each of us with different favorites about the day, and unanimously agreed that it beat a day in Geneva.

In front of a fromagerie in town