Today is the last day of our trip, so it is appropriate that it is "Cheese and Chocolate Day."
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| Switzerland is so green and beautiful that it is difficult to take a bad picture. This is the view from our hotel in Bulle. |
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| This is Pringy-Gruyère. (Pringy and Gruyère are 2 neighboring little towns where a cheese factory is located.)
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| The cheese production area has a glass walkway around it on the second floor (the base of which can be seen in the upper part of this picture) so that the entire process can be viewed. There are 4 vats (3 visible above) and each one makes 16 round blocks of cheese (35 lbs. each) and takes 16 hours to press. There are 16 blocks being pressed on the top row (most of them visible at the left of the picture above) and 16 more on the bottom row (partially visible above). There are also two more rows of 16 on the backside (as shown below), so the facility produces 64 blocks of cheese per day. |
This is how the molds are filled.
This is how they turn them to start the next row.
This is the robotic mechanism that stacks and the cheese and turns each block over every couple of days for 3 to 10 months until it is cured.
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| This is the Nestlé-Cailler chocolate factory in Broc (less than 15 minutes from Pringy-Gruyère). |
This is how they cover the toffee with chocolate.
This is the robotic arm that packs the toffee into boxes.
This is the "tasting room." Every product of the Cailler brand is displayed here and you can eat as much as you want.
