Today is May 1, which is Labor Day across much of Europe. We had heard there might be protest action in Zürich but we had planned to be out of town anyway, visiting Nick’s colleague Andreas. This involved crossing the language divide from German- to French-speaking Switzerland.

We stopped along the way in Bern in the morning (still Germanic) to take a walk through the old city and along the Aare river. We even got to see bears!

Our route to Andreas’s place included several train transfers. Imagine our surprise in leaving Bern to find ourselves riding the Chocolat Express! The final destination of this train is the site of the Cailler chocolate factory in Broc-Chocolaterie. Sadly, the ride did not include free samples.

Fribourg, our next transfer point, lies right on the linguistic border but is mostly French-speaking. As in Bern, we did a walking circuit of the city, taking in the view from atop the river bluffs, and we also stopped for lunch – crêpes au dehors!

The final leg of our train journey led us to Bulle, where Andreas kindly met us at the station and drove us to his home in Le Paquier. If we had spent lots of time researching the most picturesque Swiss villages, it is doubtful we could have found an area more charming than this. From Andreas’s house, one looks out over a grassy meadow, to see Chateau Gruyère in the distance, backed by snowy peaks. Despite not previously knowing the castle existed, we simply had to add it to our itinerary – and Andreas graciously obliged.

Not only is there a castle, but a whole medieval village attached to it – now catering to tourists but still oozing old-world character.

If the name Gruyère sounds familiar to you, it’s likely due to the eponymous cheese. Yes, it’s made here, and they take their cheese seriously – so seriously, in fact, that Andreas’s town has a refrigerated cheese-vending machine in case of emergency need.

Besides taking in the spectacular scenery, we also enjoyed spending time with Andreas and his extended family. We began with a board game that was pleasantly interrupted by the ring of the doorbell. As it turns out, May 1 is not even a holiday in the canton of Fribourg, but they have a unique custom for celebrating the date. Children go door-to-door singing songs for the inhabitants in exchange for small coins or sweet treats – sort of a combination of Christmas caroling and our Halloween. We were treated to songs from two different groups of young children.

For dinner, another tradition awaited: raclette. This dish, which is popular in Switzerland and France, involves melting slabs of raclette cheese in a special table-top oven/grill (also called a raclette) in special trays (also called raclettes) and served over potatoes (not called raclettes) – confusing perhaps, but delicious!

Dinner was also interrupted by the doorbell ringing yet again. This time it was the local teens who had dressed in traditional costume and prepared several songs sung in multiple parts for the neighborhood. They too collected cash donations, presumably to support group social activities. Watching them meant missing our intended train back to Zürich, but we didn’t mind in the slightest. (And in Switzerland, there’s always another train.)