The other day we went to visit Gruyères - a small hilltop village famous for its 'Crème de Gruyères'. I hasten to add that this is not some awful processed cheese out of a tube, or wrapped in little bits of tinfoil in a box, but a wonderful, thick, fattening and divine double cream as you can see from the spoon standing up in the tub.
It has become one of my local tourist trips for the non-skiing visitors, being about an hour and a half from Verbier, north of Montreux and off the motorway leading to Berne. After leaving the car in the car park at the bottom of the hill, there is a little uphill climb of about five minutes to the village. It is in fact more of a hamlet than a village - one immediately arrives on the main square/middle of village, which is pretty and cobbled. A few souvenir shops, a couple of restaurants, a couple of shops selling cream and meringues, and that is about it. At the top of the village is the Chateau de Gruyères, which is most imposing and which I eventually managed to visit for the first time the other day. Dogs are allowed virtually everywhere in Switzerland, but not in castles, so my little black friend had stayed at home with a pigs' ear to chew (yes, they are disgusting but Gus loves them!).
We had a quick look in the church which is under the chateau, but of no particular interest, apart from the fact that it was SOOO clean and well-organised (they probably have under floor heating) and had a most antiseptic feel to it. The graveyard was more interesting. Amongst the rather ugly modern gravestones, were a few of the old style typical crosses with a little 'roof' protecting the sculpture (usually a Christ). These roofs are made out of thin 'tiles' of wood and are beautifully put together. I have added a couple of photos of roofs made in this manner, although the houses no longer have them - if they ever did?
From the church we went up to the chateau and set off to explore. The chateau has been heavily restored inside, although the interior courtyard doesn't give that impression. The chateau was obviously a fortress originally and was probably restored during the 16th century.
It was then partially modified in the early 19th century, to make it more habitable. There isn't much rhyme nor reason to it - one goes from a Renaissance room to a Louis XIV décor, but despite its imposing exterior, the rooms inside are 'small' and it has a homely atmosphere to it. Not much furniture and it was a shame that the fires weren't lit, which gives chateaux a very different atmosphere (such as Chambord, where there is no furniture, but with the fires burning in the winter, the visit is lovely).
The last owner was the Bovy family, who I imagine are a well-known family of Swiss painters but I didn't find out anything about them, and in the chateau there are quite a few fairly good portraits painted by a Bovy and one of the rooms has panels decorated by Camille Corot - totally unprotected from fingers and light, but still...!
We had lunch sitting outside at the Hotel de la Poste, where the food is good but simple (especially when one sees the number of tourists in the summer - the quality is consistant). I had an enormous plate of roast beef (bien saignant) served with a homemade tartare sauce made with 'crème de Gruyères' which was to die for, accompanied by loads of freshly cooked vegetables and a rösti, followed by a lovely fresh fruit salad and an espresso - 30CHF. Not expensive for such a touristy place, I think.
The photos I have added in rather a willy-nilly fashion - blogspot is Not Mac friendly and although I have now put the horrid Windows on my Mac, I hate it so much that I haven't plucked up the courage to use it for blogging. Sorry, the tub of cream will appear later! And the other photos, as blogspot is playing up and it's impossible to download photos!
12 comments:
Thank you very much for that, Louise. It brings back happy memories of driving through Gruyeres and Bulle on the way back from ski-ing trips to Col des Mosses.
Great pictures, too, and I especially like the view of a snow-clad Les Diablerets behind green fields. Or it might be the Wildstruebel.
Well, I'm still waiting for the tub of cream, Louise...
I had never heard of it, actually but I'm going to look out for it now. I'm sure they must sell it here in France.
Sorry, Gigi - I'm just being totally slobby. I only have one photo to download from the camera, and am working up the courage to turn it on, hook up the cable to the Mac and then add it to the blog - all of five minutes work - will I manage it?
Five minutes later - here is your photo, Gigi - very bad I'm afraid, hope you can vaguely make out the spoon handle!
It was worth the wait, Louise...that really is the crème de la crème.
Thanks!
Quite honestly, Louise, this blog is becoming too Swiss. It's clean and sparkly with dull boring food. The mountains look like somebody sweeps them every morning, the sky has got that clean harpic look about it.The whole thing is clean machineish.
No we need something a bit more French or Italian, dark, sinister, brooding, artistic or maybe chaotic.
I like your mountains and Harpic sky (good description), Louise. But as Henry Adams, the 19th century writer and historian put it, "Chaos breeds life while order breeds habit." Words to live by, perhaps even in Switzerland.
Sorry - but there ain't much I can do personally for the Harpic skies and the well-nurtured mountains! This is Switzerland and we all know that it is clean, tidy and organised!
I do my best to bring a little chaos into their organised lives on my little plot of land, but apart from the postman fighting his way through skis to get to the letterbox, I don't think that one-handed I will turn the country into a Confederation of total anarchy!
After 25 years in France, my Swiss interlude is a very pleasant change ... not being exactly the most organised person in the world it is refreshing to find that everything works immediately, appointments are on time, the streets are clean, the people friendly and polite, and businesses seem to know their job. Telephone an administration in Switzerland with a query and if they don't know the answer immediately (rare) they take your number, tell you they will ring back in fifteen minutes, and they do!
The other night I realised at 7p.m. my boiler wasn't working - I rang the guy who said he would be at the house within half an hour (the time to get here) and he was - he spent an hour fixing the boiler, cleared up afterwards and when I said it could have waited until the morning, he said we would have found it rather cold when we awoke! This chap starts his working day at 7 a.m. and 12 hours later he was still polite and efficient...try getting that service in France. You either get an answerphone or a stroppy wife telling you she doesn't know where her husband is, and even if she did, no way will he come out at 7.30 pm.
No, I can't see me living here for ever and ever, but perhaps some of the Swiss efficiency and tidiness might rub off on me while I live here, and that wouldn't be a bad thing, either!
That kind of service is worth its weight in gold. Or maybe cheese. There are some things that are best when they're not chaotic. Peter Ustinov once described Toronto as "New York run by the Swiss." It was meant fondly.
I don't think my boiler repair man would accept payment in cheese, unfortunately!
That's an excellent description of your city, Bill. I love Toronto.
Somebody described Windsor (the Canadian one) to me as 'really no different from Detroit, but without the daily risk of multiple bullet wounds'. And those two cities are just across the river from each other, as I recall.
They are indeed, Roads. Windsor's not the most attractive of cities but you do truly take your life in your hands when you cross the Detroit River.
After eight years in a country that was ruled by the gun, it was a huge relief to come to a country that values consensus over confrontation.
I must admit that, as a journalist in Philadelphia -- at the time a more dangerous city than I believe it is now -- I owned a pistol myself. That was after I covered a murder trial in which the defendant was asked why he'd killed all four members of family and replied: "They were home when I broke in." I hadn't realized what a psychological weight it was upon my shoulders until the day we left and I was able to hand it to my brother-in-law, who collects the damned things.
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