Gruyeres

After driving 6 hours from France into Switzerland, we stayed at a hotel in the suburbs of Lausanne for a few nights and explored the surrounding area. Our 1st day in Switzerland we headed into the hills about 45 minutes away into the town of Gruyeres known for it's Gruyere cheese, but we didn't come here for the cheese.

We stopped first in the town of Bulle as our guidebook said there was a produce market the day we were there, so we thought we could pick up some picnic stuff and explore the market. We wandered through the town and found out there was no market that day, so we stopped in the grocery store instead and bought a few things. Sophie found this fun little park with a maze and fountains.

Back in the car we then drove to the town of Gruyere. It's not very big, one street with a castle at the top but there were fun fountains to play in again and a few trinket shops to explore.

Gruyere Castle

We got an ice cream then headed 5 minutes down the hill to the Cailler Chocolate Factory. We did the little tour telling us where the coco beans came from, then they let us see the production area where the chocolates were made and wrapped. The tour ended in a chocolate tasting room with 20 + different kinds of chocolate to taste. The only catch was you couldn't take any of them with you. If you wanted to taste them all you had to stay in the room. It sounds great, all the free chocolate you could want but after about 3-4 pieces you realize you get really thirsty and the chocolate was really rich so there was no way we could try them all. After 3 pieces I found myself taking one little bite of the samples and if I didn't like it threw the rest away until trying another piece. After the tour they send you out to the large showroom selling all sorts of chocolate bars, coco powder and all things made of chocolate. They also had a cafe selling hot chocolate, chocolate pastries, etc. We just wanted some water after sampling all that chocolate. I picked up a few bars to take home too.

Sophie entertained herself with some coloring while we waited for our Chocolate tour to start

Sophie and I standing next to the shipment of coco beans, I know this sounds dumb but they smelled just like chocolate, it was just weird holding a bean that smelled like chocolate. I'd never seen a coco bean before.

It was late afternoon so we then we headed out a small mountain town called Moleson just 15 minutes away, it was a ski resort basically but they had a fun summer luge ride. Chris & Sophie went down it 3 times and had a blast. The luge closed at 6pm so we were one of the last ones out.

Sophie & Chris going down the luge

Here is a fun video of their ride.

Being dinner time we decided to go back to Gruyere since they had a variety of restaurants and ate at a little place that had amazing views of the countryside.

The views from Gruyere

Sophie enjoying her dinner of noodles and pizza

Some more fountain playing time after dinner

After dinner we wandered around town a little more and found a park tucked behind a residential area. We played here until it got dark then headed back to our hotel.