Gruyeres and Broc

This past Saturday four of us wanted to get out of the city and see the countryside before it got too cold, so we headed into the foothills of the Swiss Alps to the town of Gruyeres. I had never heard of this town before, so I looked it up in my Switzerland travel book and it said it’s a village so dreamy that event Sleeping Beauty wouldn’t wake up. I would have to agree.

We took the train from Geneva and first headed to the neighboring village of Broc, which houses a chocolate factory that one of the girls I was with wanted to see. All that’s in this town is the factory and about fifty houses. I read that the factory tour is self-guided, but all it really consists of is walking through a few dark halls with giant pictures of chocolate on the walls and a few rooms with videos of chocolate production and chocolate bunny molds. But, the trek to Broc was worth it for one reason—the tasting room! The only factory tour I have ever been on before this one is the AB Brewery tour, whose tasting room is strictly monitored and each visitor is allowed only two beers each. Such is not the case at the chocolate factory. All of a sudden you are just in this room that contains platter upon platter upon platter of chocolate and there are no employees or security cameras in sight!! I think ate about 10 pieces of chocolate then decided I couldn’t really eat any more. We all wished we had plastic bags to bring some with us, and as we were about to leave the room, I remembered that earlier that morning I couldn’t find my sunglasses bag so I just wrapped them in a plastic bag and threw them in my purse. I decided a few scratches on my $12 sunglasses were definitely worth more free chocolate, so we loaded up the bag with about ½ lb. of chocolate. Apparently I inspired the other girls to be crafty as well, so one girl loaded her hand with chocolate, put it under her scarf, and ran to the bathroom to put it all in a paper towel to put in her purse. Altogether, we probably got enough chocolate to feed the entire village. The other two used Kleenex they found in their purses. I have been enjoying my booty all week long.

After the chocolate factory, we got back on the train and went to Gruyeres. Gruyeres is famous for its cheese (have you ever heard of Gruyeres cheese?) and we first went to the cheese factory there. This tour we had to pay for (discounted student rate of 6CHF) and I actually learned something. It was also self-guided, but we had a little audio stick thing that told us what we were seeing and explained the process from cow to factory to store. We got free sample here as well, but only three per person.

After the short tour, we finally made it to the actual town of Gruyeres. It is an old medieval town that sits atop a big hill and is surrounded by a big stone wall. The village has only 170 residents, but gets over 1 million visitors per year. You enter through a big opening in the city wall and immediately feel like you are on a movie set. It is one main, cobble-stoned street with old building on either side, a fountain in the center, and a castle at the far end. No cars are allowed. We spent about an hour walking through the village and castle grounds and then had lunch at one of the restaurants. I had a great seat right on the street and got some great people watching in. There were people dressed in traditional clothing (there was some sort of cow parade in the region that day), and two brides walking around who must have been getting married in the town church that afternoon. Brides here have the traditional white dress but each had an accent color—a sash, shoes and some detailing on the dress in that color. One bride chose blue, one red. I didn’t see any girls in matching dresses so I’m assuming bridesmaids either aren’t common here or they can wear whatever they want. One other interesting thing we witnessed—the couple sitting at the table next to us had some coffee and some sort of cookie-things for dessert then left. The group who got the table next sat down before the table had been cleared, and then they started eating the leftover cookie-things that were sitting on the table. The two groups didn’t speak to each other so I’m assuming they were strangers. Weird.

Pictures: The infamous tasting room at the Broc chocolate factory; the four of us at the cheese factory; outside the village walls; main street of Gruyeres.