Two times a day the local farmers deliver their fresh milk to La Maison du Gruyère Cheese Dairy so that the master producers of world-famous Gruyère cheese can keep their cellars filled with up to 7000 wheels of maturing cheese. The smell of cheese is so pungent upon entering this fine fromagerie that two of the eight teenage girls in our group could not stand to go inside, but the others (and I!) were delighted. Open to the public for demonstrations, tasting, dining, shopping and photographing, La Maison du Gruyère is a popular tourist destination for visitors to the medieval town of Gruyères, Switzerland. Arriving at the train station you can't miss it - it's immediately across the street, below the old walled city. |
| Thousands of wheels of Gruyère cheese. |
Daily cheesemaking demonstrations take place from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and again from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. and although this activity was high on our list of priorities in Switzerland, we unfortunately arrived too late in the afternoon for a tour after missing our train from the nearby chocolate factory in Broc. We did spend some time browsing in the lobby where there are old cheesemaking artifacts and various interesting production facts displayed.
La Maison du Gruyère also has a restaurant with a menu of fondue (of course!), soup, ham, and meringues.
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| Cute little restaurant at La Maison du Gruyère. |
The gift shop is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the summer, and from 9:00 to 6:00 p.m. from October through May.
Tours of La Maison du Gruyère Cheese Dairy are 7 Swiss francs for adults, 12 francs for a family of four with kids under 12, and 6 francs for students.
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| Notice one girl holding her nose from the "strong" odor. |
Related posts:
Chocolate Making in Broc, Switzerland
Wooden Shoe Making in Gouda, the Netherlands
Violin Making in Mittenwald, Germany
Glass Making in Murano, Italy
Porcelain Making in Delft, the Netherlands, and in Oberschliessheim, Germany
Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteisn't that the perfect place to remind that Gruyere should only be used for this very special cheese and not as a generic name for any worldwide hard cheese.
And moreover... Gruyère never have holes... Emmental does ;-)
Eric (https://twitter.com/#!/GrandSapin1673)
My 8 year old would think that a cheese factory was heaven - we must try and spend some time in Switzerland!!
ReplyDelete