It becomes very windy and snowy when we reach the top of the hill, but the view worth every minute of endeavour. I see houses of snow-covered roofs with exposed attic windows laid out in contour lines on levels of steep slopes on both sides of River Sarine. Illusionary streams of light flowing among houses – a stunning scene far beyond any first-time visitor’s imagination.

“Train Fondue” is a special train from Bulle to Montbovon to enjoy the enchanting scenery of the Gruyère region while traditional fondue of Gruyère cheese, the famous Gruyère dessert meringue and double cream is served abroad, complemented by very tasty Swiss apple juice.

After lunch, we visit La Maison du Gruyère in Pringy. The world-famous cheese dairy is given the region’s name Gruyère as recognition for producing the best cheese products of Switzerland.

In spring and summer, La Maison du Gruyère has a program to bring visitors to one of the shingle-roofed, authentic cheese making chalets in the pre-Alpine grasslands for cheese-making presentations. Visitors in winter time get to see the exhibition for “a journey inside a drop of milk”.

The Gruyère cheese dairy is equipped with four vats with a capacity of 4'800 litres, produce up to 48 wheels of Gruyère AOC cheese (appellation d'origine contrôlée) a day, and a cellar used to mature 7'000 wheels of cheese.

We did not get a chance to meet the two master cheese-makers Jacques and Nicolas Ecoffey in cheese-making presentation. The two cousins, at age 26 and 27 respectively, have taken over the direction of the cheese dairy since December 2004.

Musée Gruérien in Bulle, featuring history and traditions of the Gruyère region, has interesting collections of poyas, cow bells, cream spoons and great folk art paintings. One of the oil painting collections “The Cat”, a lady taking a nap on a chair with a cat looking at her, beautifully describes intimate relationship between human and animal.

Our journey “inside a drop of milk” goes on with a visit to Maison Cailler , the Swiss fine chocolate famous for using condensed milk (other manufacturers use powdered milk) produced from high-quality milk of the upper Gruyère region to give superlative milky, creamy flavour and smoothness to their milk chocolate products.

CAILLER brand chocolate is founded by François-Louis Cailler who was born in Vevey in 1706. During a stay in Italy, François-Louis Cailler discovered a yet-unknown mixture of ground cocoa beans and sugar called the “chocolate” sold in the finest grocery stores at a price affordable only to the richest.

Upon his return to Corsier-sur-Vevey in 1825, François-Louis Cailler used industrial processes to produce high-quality chocolate that anyone could afford under the name of CAILLER.

In 1875, Daniel Peter, son-in-law of François-Louis Cailler, invented milk chocolate. Varieties of chocolate such as pralines, bonbons and branches came out. Daniel Peter and Charles-Amédée Kohler (inventor of milk and nut chocolate) became partners in 1904.