Gruyeres

Yesterday, we got out of town and went to Gruyeres for a day trip and to celebrate the start of fondue season. We took an incredibly picturesque train ride over to Gruyeres and went on a tour of the cheese-making facilities. The cows graze in the lower pastures in the winter and pastures higher up on the mountains in the summer. We got to see a lot of the cows, who were madly grazing. They are moved, in part, to ensure that they eat a wide variety of grasses and flowers, since those flavors are reflected in the cheese. The Gruyeres milk and cream is absolutely amazing -- its very high in fat and the taste is better than any other milk or cream I have had. After that tour, we walked up to the town itself and had a small lunch of chocolate fondue with fruit. After lunch we wandered around the town a bit and went to the Castle and city walls.

I really enjoyed the visit to the castle. It was constructed around 1000 and based on the Savoie model of incredibly thick walls and a central, interior courtyard that all the rooms faced into. The last major renovations for the castle were completed in the 1400s. We got to see a rotisserie spit and the tour guide told us that they were unsure exactly how old the mechanism was, but that the museum archives included the bill for its repair from the 15th century. We got to walk through some of the fireplaces, since they were about 6 feet deep, 8 ft high, and 10-12 ft wide. We got to see the Burgundy cloaks taken as spoils of war, hear about battles with the armies of Bern and Burgundy, see suits of armor, and look at graffiti from where the counts made treaties or recorded other events by either writing or etching them on the interior walls.

After a look at the very old, it was time for an experience with the modern, so we went to the H.R. Giger museum and bar. I did not know much about Giger before the trip, except that he designed the alien from "Alien," and regret that the museum did not give more information about him, instead just showing his work with little context. While I appreciate the intricacy of his work and the need for art that is disturbing and thought-provoking, I did not really enjoy the museum. I thought the furniture was fantastic, but the art (particularly the adult only room). I did like some of Giger's collection of art and really liked the furniture he designed. While I was not a fan of the museum, I really liked the Giger Bar. It was certainly still dark and eerie, but the design was detail oriented and impeccable. They also had great beer (for Matt) and hot chocolate with meringues (for me). We proceeded to walk around some more through the town and around some of the walking trails and saw the decorated cows for a festival and heard men playing alpine horns, which was surprisingly beautiful.

For dinner, we went to Le Chalet for fondue. There are a few superstitions about fondue. First, you never ever ever drink cold water with fondue because it will cause a stomachache. This belief may actually be true, or it may just be an excuse to drink Swiss white wine. Either way, you drink either hot tea or wine with the fondue and many people have a Coke afterward. Second, there is a season for fondue. While it is possible in some places to get fondue out of season, it is rare that people order it or restaurants offer it. Thankfully, since it has not gotten cool (especially high up in Gruyere) then fondue was appropriate. The meal starts out with a plate of cured, dried meat for everyone at the table (this sounds bad, but it was very similar to Prosciutto or Coppa ham) along with bread, butter, and a bowl of picked onions and cornichons. The next course is the fondue -- Gruyere cheese with either wine or kirsch and made much better with a good deal of pepper. Along with the fondue is more bread and boiled fingerling potatoes. At the end of the course, the last bit of cheese bakes into something like a toile and is scraped from the pan and eaten alone. For dessert, I had raspberries with cream, which was even more decadent and wonderful than the fondue. We headed back, stuffed and happy (though anticipating very strange dreams from the Giger museum).

There are photos up at our Flickr account.

Here are links to some of the places we visited:

Chateau Gruyeres
Giger Museum
Giger Bar
La Maison du Gruyeres (the cheesemaking demonstration)
Le Chalet restaurant