A Daytrip To Gruyères – A Guide For Culture Lovers
If you’re new to Switzerland, a daytrip to Gruyères has it all: landscapes, chocolate, cheese, and villages that look like a Disney set. With optional extras for those who like to get off the beaten track.
A Daytrip To Gruyères
On my recent trip to Switzerland, I was fortunate to be there with a first time visitor to the country. This is a great opportunity, as it’s nice to see a place through fresh eyes and encourage your inner tourist. I’ve been to Switzerland a couple of times and been once before to Gruyères, but without my friend’s encouragement I wouldn’t have gone all in on our very Swiss day.
Gruyères is an interesting place (and yes, it’s where the cheese comes from). It’s a village of just over 2,000 in the canton of Fribourg. It has a lovely location on a hilltop, meaning gorgeous views of the surrounding hills and valleys. It has a castle, and a central square which makes me think I’m in a Disney film and the villagers are about to burst into song. There’s one incongruous element in town which I will come to later, but overall if you’re picturing a picturesque Swiss village you won’t be far off.
It’s also good for culture lovers because a) it’s not too hard to get to and b) there’s a lot to see and do in the surrounding area. Point a) is a little relative – it’s within easy reach of places like Geneva, Lausanne and Bern, but you’ll need to take a couple of trains and be ready to walk, so it’s a matter of doing that, joining a tour (which we did) or having access to a car. Point b) is what we’re going to explore in this post. If you’re a serious culture lover like I am, how do the admittedly fairly tourist-oriented sights and experience around Gruyères stack up? Read on to find out more. The aim of this guide is to help you pick between options and decide if any of the organised daytrips to this area are right for you.
First Stop: Cailler Chocolate Factory
Our organised bus tour started in Geneva, and after a stop in Lausanne to pick up more guests the first stop was the Maison Cailler in Broc, 5-6KM from Gruyères. Cailler is the oldest chocolate brand still in existence in Switzerland, although it was one of many acquired by Nestlé after the stock market crash in 1929. François-Louis Cailler opened his first factory in Vevey in 1819, and this one in Broc opened in 1898. The hydroelectric plant built for the factory allowed the electrification of the whole village.
The experience at the Maison Cailler is most definitely tourist-oriented, but admittedly slick and quite fun. There’s an ‘experience’ followed by chocolate tasting, and a large gift shop. If you’ve ever been to a big theme park you will be familiar with the format of the experience: you are ushered through successive rooms with a voiceover and animated scenes and dioramas, like waiting in a queue for a ride. Because you’re moving through successive rooms, groups are let through every few minutes so the wait is not too long.
I really had fun here. It’s good for families, but was informative even for this grown-up historian: I learned a lot about Switzerland’s role in transforming chocolate from mysterious aphrodisiac drink to the product we know and love today. After the experience you can see the manufacturing process in action – both mass-produced Cailler chocolates and hand-made ones – with a staff member or two on hand to answer questions. Then of course there’s the taste testing. You can’t take any chocolates out with you so come hungry.
Worth A Look? Yes, if you don’t mind group activities, enjoy chocolate, and can channel your inner child.
Second Stop: A Cheese ‘Museum’ And A Fondue Lunch
Our next stop (and lunch already so definitely worth coming hungry between the chocolate and the cheese) was La Maison du Gruyère. As in Gruyère the cheese, not Gruyères the village. The Maison du Gruyère is near the train station, a 15 minute walk below the medieval town. Again it is very tourist-oriented, one of those places that exists to fulfil an expectation from visitors to the region. A tourist on a daytrip to Gruyères expects to be able to learn about cheese and eat some fondue, hence places like this pop up.
The visitor experience was a lot less slick than the Maison Cailler. The Maison du Gruyère consists of a shop, an interactive exhibition, actual cheese-making, and a fondue restaurant. Included on our tour were the exhibition (which includes seeing the industrial cheese-making in action) and the restaurant. Unfortunately, for me, the former felt like an afterthought. Visitors are given an audio guide, and follow down one side of a dividing wall and back again before accessing a windowed mezzanine around the fromagerie. There are interactive elements such as sniffing some of the botanicals alpine cows eat, but it was uncomfortably crowded with my whole tour bus there at once. And not their fault, but you can’t see much in the fromagerie because of the steam rising from the heated milk and fogging up the windows.
I was more in favour of the lunch. Again it’s touristy, but like I was saying on my trip to Dresden, sometimes a touristy restaurant is mutually beneficial. I want to be out exploring the next thing as much as they want to turn tables around quickly and get the next group in. The quantities of fondue aren’t enormous but they are sufficient, and a glass of wine is included in the price. The staff are admirably multi-lingual if a little harried.
Worth a look? Eh, maybe. If I went again I would skip the exhibition and just have a peek at the cheese cellar and have lunch. Although you can also get fondue in Gruyères itself.
Can’t Have A Daytrip to Gruyères Without Seeing Gruyères Itself!
After lunch, we drove up the hill to Gruyères’ old town, and had free time to explore. From memory we had a bit over an hour on our tour: sufficient to explore, take pictures, buy souvenirs or pop into a museum or the castle. The friends I was with focused on exploring. I had an interest in one of the museums so popped in quickly (more on this in the next section).
Like I said above, Gruyères is adorable, like something from a fairytale. This of course means that it’s overrun with tourists (like me), which must be tiring for locals. But it’s nonetheless pleasant to explore, with several historic sights. The castle, for instance, dates to the 13th Century. The Counts of Gruyères lost it in a bankruptcy in the 16th Century and it became a residence for bailiffs and prefects. It reentered private hands in 1849 and the Bovy and Balland families established Gruyères as an artists’ colony.
Below the castle is the church, L’Église Saint-Théodule. It’s a 19th Century replacement of an earlier church, but is solidly Swiss in style and therefore interesting to see. An earlier calvary chapel on the main street in town is now a slightly disappointing art gallery.
In terms of museums (other than the castle), both options in Gruyères are a little incongruous. Firstly there is a Tibet Museum, the Fondation Alain Bordier. As this suggests it’s a private collection, apparently one of the largest collections of sacred Buddhist art in the world. It’s in a former pastoral building and chapel, so is an interesting Tibetan-Swiss blend of mountain living and religion. The second museum is the one I had in my sights, the HR Giger Museum. let’s take a look now.
Worth a look? Of course, that’s why we’re here, to see Gruyères! There’s plenty to see and do, even enough to fill a half day or a day if you’re not on the clock.
HR Giger Museum
If you haven’t heard of HR Giger, you’ve probably seen some of his creations. He’s the artist who made the aliens in the Alien franchise. As a culture lover and museologist you can see why I was so interested: it seems so odd that this museum is here in the cutest of medieval villages. The story starts in 1990 when Giger, a Swiss artist, held an exhibition at Gruyères castle. He fell in love with the region, and acquired the Château St. Germain just below the castle in 1997. He opened it as a museum in 1998.
As you can imagine, the mind which dreamt up those aliens was an unusual one. His style can be called ‘biomechanical’, and is preoccupied with the relationship between human bodies and machines. The museum is much more extensive than you would think at first glance. There are multiple floors and rooms, including one room which is R18. You know how the film Alien is about the male fear of penetration? Well Giger was the man for the job, that’s all I’ll say.
If you’re into the work of HR Giger, you’ll be in your happy place here. If you’re less familiar, you will get to know his style fairly comprehensively. There are drawings, sculptures and other works across a range of media. Also on display are a few works by other artists from Giger’s personal collection. There’s enough space to hold temporary exhibitions by artists who somehow connect to Giger’s work, as well.
Worth a look? That depends. I would only fully recommend it for those with an interest in Giger’s work. Or who are very curious, like me. For those who are less certain, a great alternative is the museum café/bar. It gives a flavour of Giger’s style but is a lot less confronting.
And Finally, Back Home Via A Narrow Gauge Railway
With due apologies to all of you, as photos taken through a window/from a moving vehicle are never that great. But it gives you a sense, anyway.
Part of our organised daytrip to Gruyères was a train trip down to Montreux. Our bus took us to Montbovon (about 15KM from Gruyères), where we joined the Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway. In a little under an hour, we wound our way down through meadows and then vineyards, stopping at several small stations. For me, it brought to mind the tourism of a century ago.
And I wasn’t far off. The railway opened in 1901 (this branch in 1904), and is one of the oldest electric railways in Switzerland. Visitors today can enjoy panoramic and even classic Pullman coaches. It’s one for the train enthusiasts, but also a very relaxing way to end a daytrip to Gruyères. Wending your way down, you see how relatively isolated some rural areas in the country still are. Grand hotels as you approach Montreux remind you why this is the ‘Swiss Riviera’. You never get quite as close to things on the road as you do on a train, and for this reason it’s one of my preferred modes of transport.
Montreux was not our final destination, we still had to get back to Geneva by bus. But as the last activity of the day, it was a nice place to finish. I could work on digesting all that chocolate and cheese, while contemplating continuity and change in tourism in Switzerland over the years. While some things are new (bus tours, HR Giger Museum), the basics of what drew us to spend our free day in Gruyères are what have brought tourists here for a long time, and will continue to entice them in years to come. A day well spent, and feeling satisfied, we wended our way back to our hotel.
Worth a look? Yes this is a great train trip, especially in good weather. Find out more here.
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