Switzerland Trip Day 11: Travel to Annemasse

Monday, 22 June 2026

Today was travelling day! We were going to be taking three different trains to eventually reach Annemasse in France (just over the border). I had organised an airbnb there which could fit Harri and Leo too. It also had a hot tub, but then we realised Harri forgot the swimmers which he had told Leo he was going to bring 😂 But anyways none of us were feeling like making ourselves any hotter 😂☀️

We had our lovely breakfast at our accommodation in the garden.

This was the view from our seat or the beautiful pink roses, lavender and the castle in the background 🥰

We got a block of gruyere cheese for our two breakfasts and were able to take the leftover with us for our travels 🙏 We realised that we are actually quite used to gruyere cheese as we buy it from Costco, so it wasn’t necessarily anything special to us. But it is a very good cheese all the same! And this cheese knife, we decided, was something that we definitely needed!!

The boys found a Noddy book in French that they were looking at in the landing outside our room. 

Waiting at the train station in Gruyere. This was a big feat!! If you have seen the last posts you would have seen how steep and gravelly the slope was up and down from the accommodation!! You can actually see it in this picture on the top left near the trees. We took it in two loads with all the luggage. We all went down with the kids and I brought a large and small suitcase. Graeme then had to go back up and get the other large and small suitcase. This photo was taken while waiting for him. We were really cutting it fine!! Harri and Leo were meeting us in Bulle, where their hotel was, and then getting a train a few minutes later for our second part of the journey. So we really wanted to get this train!! 

Graeme came down just as the train gates came down stopping easy access to the platform, so Graeme had to go down through the tunnel under the train line to get to the platform. I ended up standing in the door of the train giving him extra time 😅 Graeme was sweating buckets, but he made it!! The train conductor was not happy, but I did what I had to do 🙏 And the train was only delayed one minute …

Here we are on the second train.

The train app had said that there was supposed to be a play area in the train, but it lied 🤥 So we decided to try a different train, but that was much smaller and didn’t have a play area either. 

We made it to Annemasse around 2pm, which was great time!! However we hadn’t realised how long the walk was to our airbnb, and in direct sunlight most of the time 😅 

We got to our lovely airbnb and then decided to go to do some grocery shopping. Graeme and I both had a quick shower before leaving though 😅 

Here we are at the checkout. We decided to make raclette that night, so we spent a while shopping for the perfect cheeses 🧀 So that meant we had a later dinner … but it was a lovely dinner nonetheless 🥰

While waiting the kids watched some of Frozen 2. 

Harri and Leo enjoying the raclette :) 

And here the kids are bouncing around at 9:30 😣

We actually all slept in the same room. The kids

on a single bed, and Daniel on our bed with the fan directly on him. He did not like the cot!! 

Tomorrow we are going into Annecy 🥰

 

Switzerland Trip Day 10: Gruyere

Sunday, 21 June 2026

What a day we had today!! We went to the cheese factory, chocolate factory and then Gruyere castle 🏰 

The day started off with a lovely breakfast on the patio at the place we were staying at. She brought out three home-made jams: strawberry, apricot and quince. And then some home-made looking bread, cheese, butter and yogurt. Gruyere cheese of course 👌 She also brought us some lovely orange juice and coffee for Graeme and tea for me. We asked for milk and she brought out milk that had just been milked the day before! While it was a very different breakfast to our normal, it was all such high quality and very nice 🥰

We then set out to meet Harri and Leo at the cheese factory, where we would begin our day. We had got day passes, which allowed us access to the cheese and chocolate factory, castle and transport for a day (transport for two days we later found out). 

We had to go up and down this steep gravel hill from the trainstation to our accommodation 😅 It was a real struggle with our suitcases 🧳 

We started the day off at the Gruyere cheese factory, where we all got samples for 6, 9 and 12 months mature cheese. Even Daniel! We got to see the process of the cheese being made which was very exciting! 

Here Samuel was ringing a cow bell.

Afterwards we decided to go straight to the chocolate factory to make sure we could get a slot for that day. So we headed to the bus.

We then had to take a train. There were some beautiful houses!

 

The playground at Cailler.

Leo looking after Daniel while we all went to the toilet before starting the tour. 

We managed to go just before a large group came which was great! The tour starts with a production of cocoa being founded by the Aztecs, to a super expensive drinking chocolate for the wealthy across Europe and then progresses to chocolate as we know it by the Swiss.

We then got to a room where we got to try a cocoa bean, super bitter, and roasted almonds and hazelnuts. They told us how the chocolates were made using these ingredients after that. We got to see a chocolate branch being made (down below). And then we were able to sample three. I got three for Daniel of course 😅

Chocolate wall.

We then got to a corridor with a sample of a milk chocolate where we were told to use all our senses to appreciate the chocolate 🥰

Here we are able to sample lots of different types of chocolates 🍫 Although three were coffee ones which was disappointing. My favourite was the chocomel ❤️

I thought Joshua would have loved this car! But it was too hot really to be out in the sun ☀️ , so we decided to go to the train back to Gruyere so we could go to the castle 🏰. While we were waiting Graeme, the kids and I went to cool ourselves down in a little fountain. It was sooo refreshing 🥰

Harri, Leo and Samuel waiting for the train. 

We then took the bus - the boys tried to make themselves more comfortable 😂

We then spent some time in the old town of Gruyere looking in shops and getting some drinks to cool ourselves down. Afterwards we went to the castle.

Daniel fit perfectly in the little drinks dispenser used for soldiers 😂

The dining room. I hadn’t realised it at the time, but Harri later told me that the images in this room told a story of the history of Gruyere.

The courtyard.

The galleries. 

Walking along a wall.

The castle gardens.

Panorama shot that Samuel photo bombed 😅

It was dinner time so we went to a different restaurant for fondue (the first place was better because it tasted more white wine based) and spaghetti for the kids (pasghetti as Samuel says).

On the way home. 

Tonight was much easier with the kids and I stayed up a little later than even Graeme, who fell down exhausted on the bed at just after 9, to finish the last two blog posts 👌

Tomorrow we leave to Annemasse 🙏