Gruyères & Grandvillard - 26 April 2024

26.04 - Gruyères and Grandvillard

And again, peaceful overnight. We were up and at it a bit earlier today, as I’d read we needed to be at La Maison du Gruyère by 10.10am for the interesting parts of the tour…

When we were leaving, we spotted a bird, Tintin took photos, which we’ve just put through the Merlin app - apparently we’ve seen a rare ‘Northern Bald Ibis’ - it was tagged too. Not the prettiest face 😉

The drive was only about 30 minutes. The carpark was free for an hour - we checked inside as the machine didn’t issue a ticket - the lady mutttered something about not wanting all the paper - not sure they really care who parks there, or for how long. It was CHF 13 for us both, and you get an audio guide. 

Le Gruyère AOP is a cheese with a long tradition and its making has been handed down over many generations of cheesemakers both in the alpine and village cheese dairies.

In the 18th century, the Golden Age of Gruyère, the cheeses were taken to Vevey on the backs of mules, and then transferred to flat boats which conveyed them to Geneva. At the Lyons custom house, the wheels of cheese were stamped with the cheese marks, the emblems of the cheese merchants. The rich families were known as the cheese Barons. 

Hercy - facts for you. A cow eats 100 kg of grass and drinks 85 litres of water per day, producing an average of 25 litres of milk daily. 

400 litres of milk = one 35 kg round of Gruyère AOP cheese - (12 litres of milk = 1 kg). 

A copper vat containing 4,800 litres of milk is used to produce 12 wheels of Gruyère AOP. 4 vats enable 48 wheels to be produced daily. 

There are 30 milk producers who deliver more than 6 million litres of milk per year. There can be up to 75 different scents in the milk, depending on what the cows have been eating. 

The cheeses go into a salt bath at a temperature of between 12 - 20°. Each morning the Gruyère AOP which have been made the day before are removed from their moulds and carefully trimmed. They are then soaked in a salted bath, whilst still flexible and soft. For at least 20 hours, they will partly exude their water content and by osmosis will absorb half their final salt content. The cheeses are then stored in maturing cellars on rough unplaned spruce shelves at a temperature of between 12 - 18° with a relative humidity of about 92%. 

At the beginning of the maturing process, from 8 to 12 days, the wheels are rubbed with salted water which induces the formation of the rind. They are turned over every day. After approximately 3 months, the wheels are taken to a maturing house where they continue to be processed, and mature for 5 to 12 months. 

When 5 months old, the wheels will be checked and a tax applied. 

When we first went into the viewing area - all the windows were steamed up, but did clear. The men were hard at work!

Next on the tour seemed to be a random room with rows and rows of cow bells. Some were huge - poor cows. 

We had a brief look at the shop - some lovely stuff, not just tourist tat - however, I’m not paying CHF 22 for a tea towel! I’d already seen how expensive Gruyère was in supermarkets - seemed more expensive at source! We were both given some 6, 9 and 12 month cheese to try - which we had later for lunch. 

From there I drove the 3 minutes or so to the medieval town of Gruyères. Paid our CHF 1 to park for an hour and walked up the steep slope. It was more than I was expecting! Every year over a million people visit there!

The weird pictures are of stuff outside the museum set up by the creator of Alien. 

The château looked lovely, with beautiful scenery in the distance. 

We briefly sat down at a restaurant, as I’d like to try a proper cheese fondue before we leave - but lots of people arrived, and we only had about 30 minutes - and didn’t want to rush it if service was slow. 

Had our cheese and crackers for lunch. It’s nice to taste the different ages all together. For me it’s the middle aged one that tastes the best!

Decided we’d drive the 30 minutes to Grandvillard, as in 2018 it was described as the second prettiest village in Switzerland and the prettiest village in French speaking Switzerland! 

For the first time in ages, Co-pilot was having a laugh and took us the wrong way - it’s always near the final destination!

Anyway, we parked up and then had a chat with Sarah & Herc who were in Singapore airport, waiting for their 12.30 flight to Athens. 

Went for a walk to the waterfall - about a minute away! Then wandered into the village. Certainly some really old buildings and some new ones going. Went into the boulangerie, thought about buying cakes - but flies buzzing around put us off. Don’t think I’ve ever seen such a huge bar of chocolate! - 750g! 

Outside waiting patiently was this dog, no lead and very friendly - a lady was trying to explain about his different colour eyes in French - we got the gist!

Wanted a cat fix today - but wasn’t to be - this one sauntered along nonchalantly without a backward glance!

Tintin gets everywhere!

From there we walked upwards - so many cut down trees. The cows were a bit skittish and jumping around and running in the fields. 

We didn’t see them, but our Merlin bird app said amongst others we heard blackcaps, coal tits, great spotted woodpecker, common firecrest, Eurasian nuthatch - along with lots of chiffchaffs, chaffinches, blackbirds and robins. 

Tintin is in his happy place again - rolling green hills, trees, snow on the mountain tops and cow bells tinkling. And now - well it’s rum o’clock!

It has been much milder today, probably about 13/14° - much better 😊

So, the coolant level is down to minimum, and we’ll buy another litre when we top up with diesel tomorrow - but well done Tintin - it’s not leaking.