A day out in Chateau D'Oex

What a beautiful morning. Sunshine sparkling off the snow capped peaks and it is so nice to see a clear blue sky rather than the often murky blue we see in London. So many great views that it was difficult to know where to point the camera first.

Our first day at Chateu D'oex ( said as 'Day') and we had already decided not to go on the excursion to cheese and chocolate factories rather we wanted to explore the town. Everywhere we looked the houses are beautifully decorated in the traditional style and nowhere did we see any neglected proprieties. Even a new build showed signs of being done in the traditional manner.

 All the window have shutters, and the large houses have balconies. Their fronts decorated with cut outs of trees and animal shapes reflecting the county life. The houses all have very large overhanging roofs and many of the walls under these were tastefully decorated with old wooden skis and sleds. I can imagine how pretty they must have looked in past times being pulled through the snow their bells jingling and well rugged up children shouting and laughing as they went.

Our walk took us quite high above the town and close to what we thought was a small dairy farm. Our noses confirmed this as we got closer, well all that manure was probably fresh feed yesterday, lol. I spotted Mr Farmer coming out of the barn and we stopped to talk to him. We were able to see inside the barn where his 32 contented cows spend a lot of the year. It was amusing to see their tails held up on pieces of twine to prevent them from being covered in the brown stuff. In our very fractured French we were able to find out that Mr Farmer's name was Phillipe and his main crop was not milk but cheese. Still made in the traditional style. We even bought a small slice from him. With the help of his daughter on the other end of the phone he invited us to go with him, a bit later in the afternoon, to see where the rounds of cheese go after he makes them.

The drive up to what we later learned was a cooperative was a bit hair raising, these guys drive on the other side of the road and how scary is that to see a large truck looming up apparently on the wrong side of the road. Phew.

At the cooperative he introduced us to a staff member who spoke very good English and she gave us an individual tour. Seems there are lots of local small dairy farmers who make traditional cheese and then bring it to the Cave du fromage where it is cured in brine and then carefully tended for up to several months or even years. Initially each round of cheese is turned and wiped over with salt water every day, later it is once week or so. Now this is done by robot but imagine having to do all this by hand to thousands of rounds of cheese that weigh 33 – 35 kilo each. Wouldn't need to go to the gym, Each summer the farmers take their small herds up to the higher pastures, each cow hung with its own bell. Up there the animals spend the day grazing, and are called in at night. Nothing skittish about these beasts unlike the huge herd at home. Unfortunately the income from the sale of cheeses is not always enough to support the family so Mr and Mrs farmer work in the village during the winter.

On the drive back into town we were impressed by the steep sided ravine, sheer faces rising skyward at least 1000metres with the road precariously etched into the side..Picture postcard perfect views around every corner.

Back in the town our next visit was to the museum. With the displays all labelled in French it was interesting to try to work out what things were for. Mostly we thought we had done a good job until coming across a blue and white tiled square shape about a metre and a half high in one of the rooms that had us scratching our heads.

There was an aha moment when the curator told is what it was for. On the other side of the wall most likely would have been the kitchen. Inside this shape a firebox heated the tiles which would then radiate heat during the night and keep the room cosy and warm.