Gruyère cheese factory

On my way home from Montreux I decided to have a bit of a food-tour. I took a very scenic train ride to Gruyere, a lovely old medieval town surrounded by lush hills in the canton of Fribourg. There I went around a cheese factory which makes the famous Swiss cheese of the same name. It was interesting to see how long it takes to make the cheese and get it to the right maturity. They're organised in the cellar by how mature they are, left to right, which can be observed by the waxy crust forming on the edge.

After some yummy meringues with raspberries and Gruyere double cream I moved on to the next village, Broc, where the chocolate factory for Cailler chocolate is. It was fantastic. After an entertaining walk through the origin of chocolate, you could sample coffee beans, hazelnuts and cocoa butter in a market-style exhibit; watch their famous branch bars being made on the assembly line and finally try several different kinds of chocolate - just before the massive gift shop of course! A friend I made on the CERN tour advised doing these two tours on an empty stomach and I'm very glad I did. 

It was a nice end to my week around south-west Switzerland. Afterwards I headed back to Basel ready to go back to my final 9 weeks of placement. Single figures already!