Day 2 : Switzerland Trip : Cheese , Chocolate Factory Visit

Aug 30, 2014:

Gruyeres Cheese Factory—Broc Fabrique Chocolate Factory—Back to Gruyeres again for completing cheese factory visit—Hike to Gruyeres Chateau 

We definitely wanted to include cheese factory and chocolate factory visit on our trip to Switzerland.

There is a special chocolate train http://www.goldenpass.ch/en/goldenpass/offer/view?id=15

It costs CHF 99 per person.

Saw this chocolate train on way and posed with it the previous day... we took normal trains for our trip

We can do the same at very nominal rates on our own—here are reasons to do it independently:

The "Chocolate Train" is a marketing gimmick, expensive and used only by tourists

Normal trains run over the same lines and are a lot cheaper

 If you do the Chocolate train you are forced into a pre-determined schedule which might or might not suit you - ie you could be waiting around for a departure time when you are ready to move on!

How to include cheese factory and chocolate factory visit on your own

Trains leave Montreux roughly once an hour for Montbovon. (timetable is on www.sbb.ch/en) Change in Montbovon for Gruyères.

 On the timetable the station in Gruyères is listed as "Gruyères Gare" and the hilltop village as "Gruyères Ville". The Demonstration Cheese factory is at the station Gruyères Gare.

After cheese factory, walk up to the village. then come back down and take the next train on to Broc Fabrique.

Use www.sbb.ch/en time-table

Enter "to: Broc-Fabrique" - that factory is below the village of Broc. there are no direct trains between Gruyères and Broc Fabrique. You have an additional change in Bulle.

The trains from Montreux to Montbovon and Montbovon to Bulle and Bulle to  Broc are slow (lots of stops), takes 1h40 to 1h47

 Go straight to the desk at the Chocolate Factory and get your admission time. There is a tiny café there too!

After the visit (and chocolates!) take the train either back to Montbovon and change for Montreux OR on to Bulle (which is a charming "market town") and then via Palèzieux to Lausanne and Montreux.

 The ride from Palèzieux down to Lausanne is very lovely - sit on the left side of the train.

In good weather, you might consider a round trip Montreux - Montbovon - Broc/Gruyères by train and return via Châtel-Saint-Denis for the scenic road to Vevey by bus.

HOW WE DID IT  

Vevey to Gruyeres...

Gruyeres has a lot to offer…we can visit the cheese factory, go up to the village, visit the Chateau there.

If we do all these before going on to Broc Fabrique, the chocolate factory will get very crowded. It’s a conducted tour -- there is limited number of people per slot and in heavy tourist season, it’s possible to miss your chance if you go in very late.

We decided to break up the Gruyeres visit. We can keep the same ticket and visit the factory again in the afternoon after seeing the 1^st stage. In the early morning we only see the milk boiling…instead of waiting there for the next stage, we decided to go to the chocolate factory as soon as it opened at 10am, to avoid crowds.

We were at the cheese factory at 9 am when it opened 

All coaches have electronic displays...

This board display at 8.40 leaves out Gruyeres... but see the dotted lines...Gruyeres got displayed later as seen in next pic

As seen the arrival at Gruyeres station for our train is 8.57....current time as in the clock dial is 8.47...

At Gruyeres station --9am

The Cheese factory is right across the station.

Twice a day 36 farmers deliver their milk to the fromagerie (cheese dairy), milk from cows that graze the lush grass and fragrant flora of alpine meadows situated between 800 and 1600 m above sea level (2400-4800 ft). 4800 liters of milk is being boiled in each vessel.

The dairy is equipped with 4 x 4800-liter vats

The cheese is produced 3 or 4 times a day, between 9 am and 11 am and between 1 and 2 and half pm, according to the season. The duration of a cheese production is 2 and half hour

Under the watchful eyes of visitors the master cheese-makers and their team produce up to 48 wheels of Gruyère a day

Saw the prelim stages of cheese production: milk boiling in huge vats...cheese making demo can be seen from behind big glass windows from 9-11; 12.30-2

Holding our free samples of cheese...all 3 types are awesome!

Took the train at 9.50 to Broc Fabrique to arrive at the chocolate factory half an hour after it opened.

AT THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Got our tickets for our slot for the English tour at 10.45, then went out and took pics in the chocolate theme park till our time for tour came up!

Lovely sign board appropriately shaped like a chocolate bar...the cows have a choco square as their body..

François-Louis Cailler was born in Vevey in 1796. He established the oldest Swiss chocolate brand still in existence.

During a stay in Italy,  Cailler discovered a yet-unknown mixture of ground cocoa beans and sugar: the chocolate! At the time, this exotic product was sold in the finest grocery stores at a price affordable only to the richest.

1825: François-Louis Cailler wanted to change this. Upon his return to Corsier-sur-Vevey, he bought an existing chocolate factory, the Chenaux Ziegler mill. He opened a store where he used industrial processes to produce high-quality chocolate that anyone could afford under the name of CAILLER.

1875: Milk chocolate wan invented by Daniel Peter, husband of Cailler's daughter.

1890: Invention of pralines.

1898: Alexandre-Louis Cailler opened a new plant in Broc

1929: CAILLER becomes a brand of the NESTLE Group

chocolate theme play ground

mmm... just the right size for a cup of hot chocolate...

Chocolate swing

We don’t get to see the actual chocolate making process as in Cologne, Germany, for instance, but the history and production details are shown in an interesting way.

CHOCOLATE SAMPLES TASTING

People were having a go at the free unlimited chocolate tasting at the end of the tour! Long tables were set up with several samples and we walked through enjoying the different varieties 

Presently CAILLER is the only Swiss chocolate manufacturer using condensed milk to produce its chocolate (other manufacturers use powdered milk), which gives it a milky flavor and incomparable smoothness

All the samples put out for tasting were excellent. We bought loads of chocolate after the free tasting—there are decent discounts!

We retraced our way back to Gruyeres and entered the cheese factory to see the last stages of that day’s cheese production. 

Cellar used to mature 7000 wheels of cheese....Cheese stacked up for ageing on wooden shelves...

Then we visited the Chateau there—it’s a short scenic trek up a hill and the views all round and the inside of the Chateau are terrific!

On the way to the Chateau

 Gruerius, the legendary founder of Gruyères, captured a crane (in French: “grue”) and chose it as his heraldic animal inspiring the name Gruyères. 

Between 1080--1554, 19 counts held power over this region and they built and expanded this medieval castle.. It was the property of the Counts of Gruyères until the bankruptcy of the Count Michel in 1554..

 In 1849 a wealthy Geneva family bought the castle and encouraged painter friends to decorate the castle.  The castle was then bought back by the canton of Fribourg in 1938, made into a museum and opened to the public.

Bronze shield representing Mars...

The entrance with mural... heraldic banner of crane...

Read this church has an auto closing door and may lock in unwary visitors at  night... 

Chapel in the esplanade... 

Drinking water fountain...

1496: Battle of Morat engraving on the wall

Burgundian Room contains in glass display booths some of the war booty captured by the Swiss Confederates from Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, at the Battle of Morat (Murten) in June of 1496.

Château de Gruyères: Music room… Pianoforte / Hammerklavier that was built in 1835

The paneling and furniture of this room was made in the style of Louis XV.

Stained glass

Lovely paintings

Bed chamber with huge tapestry hung on the wall... for beautification and insulation from  the cold.

Carved headboard

Hunting trophies

Wheel chair

The severed hand

The exhibit of a severed hand is famous...

SOME STORIES RE THE SEVERED HAND EXHIBIT

According to the most popular version, the hand was brought back from the Holy Land by valorous men from Gruyères gone on the first crusade in 1099. Probably the hand was thought of as a relic or talisman.

It is also said that the hand came from the confrontation of “La Tine” in the “Pays d’Enhaut. In the Spring of 1476 - not long before the battle of Morat against “Charles le Téméraire” - a troupe of five hundred riders from Burgundy and Savoy were ravaging the valley of “la Sarine”.

But the count Louis de Gruyères and his mountaineers made good guard and dispersed them. In the scuffle, one of the solders had his hand ripped off. It was brought back to Gruyères and kept in memory of this glorious victory at the Castle.

The following tale is no less tragic. In 1493, one year after the death of the Count Louis, the manor is said to have been the prey of a devastating fire. The hand, remains of a calcinated body, was found after that. It was given to the Countess Claude de Seyssel, widow of the beloved Louis. She had the Castle rebuilt and kept the hand in memory of the catastrophe. [The recent archaeology soundings reveal that there has been no major fire on the site]

Because of the violent cut through the wrist, one thought that the hand was one of an unlucky thief. Caught, he was condemned to have his right hand cut off by the executioner.

The fingers of the severed hand are so slender that they seem to belong to a beautiful woman. The unfortunate would have been judged for witchcraft and burnt at the stake. 

…and reality

The analysis made in 2003 reveals with certainty that it is in fact the right hand of an Egyptian mummy. It has been treated and bandaged according to the classical method, used until the III century.

Had our picnic meal in scenic surroundings in the Chateau grounds... pretty late as our cheese and chocolate samples had been quite filling!

After our chateau visit, we roamed around the charming village.

There was an Indian movie being shot in the village square... a song... the girl below in orange dress was the main lead!

Indian movie shoot... 

Then we came down to the Gruyeres train station and wanted to go toward Bulle.

The ticket machine was not working and it swallowed a Swiss girl’s coins when she tried to buy her ticket.

This ticket machine acted up when we tried to buy our ticket....we moved off... a Swiss girl tried her luck and it swallowed her coins! May be a good idea to take a pic of the out of order sign....

Meanwhile the train heading to Montbovon arrived. We got in, went to the driver‘s cabin and explained in our poor French the ticket machine is broken and we don’t have tickets for the ride. He gestured us to go, sit… there was no ticket checking on that short leg.

When we reached Montbovon, we bought tickets from that machine for our trip to Vevey. The Swiss girl did not buy any ticket... she had become our friend and sat chatting with us on the trip.

 When the ticket inspector came, she explained to him that her money was swallowed by the machine…(the girl knew only Swiss German as she was from that part of the country, the inspector is from the French speaking part where Gruyeres is situated, so they were conversing in English). We corroborated we had seen what happened and the girl did not receive any fine!

We saw an amazing sunset on the train ride back and that was the end of DAY 2.

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/04/day-3-switzerland-aug-31-trip-to.html
covers our day trip to Zermatt and Klein Matterhorn

Sunset view from the train...

https://picasaweb.google.com/108910506663540711253/6272982759068429265#6276280690852010530

has the video of Cheese, Chocolate factory visits.