Broc — the Cailler chocolate factory near Gruyères

Broc is a small village in the canton of Fribourg, in French-speaking Switzerland, a few kilometres from Gruyères. On its own it would hardly be worth a detour. People come for the Cailler chocolate factory, which has been making chocolate here since 1898 and opened a visitor centre, Maison Cailler, in 2010. It is one of the most visited attractions in French-speaking Switzerland.

Most visitors combine Broc with Gruyères on the same day: the castle and the medieval village on the hill, the cheese dairy in the valley, and chocolate here. See cheese dairies for the Gruyère side of the trip.

Maison Cailler

Cailler is the oldest Swiss chocolate brand still in production: François-Louis Cailler started making chocolate near Vevey in 1819. The brand has belonged to Nestlé since 1929.

Swiss milk chocolate was invented in the same family. In 1875 Daniel Peter, Cailler’s son-in-law, found a way to combine cocoa with the condensed milk made by his neighbour in Vevey, Henri Nestlé. Until then chocolate had been eaten dark.

The visit

The tour is self-guided with an audio guide, and takes about an hour. It covers the history of cocoa from the Aztecs to the Gruyère region and the story of the brand, and then passes a small production line where some of the chocolates are made in front of you. It ends with a tasting of the current range, which is generous.

Book a time slot online in summer and during school holidays. On busy days the wait without a booking can run to hours.
Bring water. A lot of chocolate in a short time is hard going without it.
It works well with children; there is also a chocolate workshop where they can make their own (book in advance).
Opening hours and prices change by season; check the official site, cailler.ch.

What else to see in Broc

Château d’En-Bas, a large square house on the right bank of the Sarine, once the seat of the lords of Broc and Montsalvens. It dates from the Middle Ages and has been rebuilt several times since.
An old stone bridge over the Sarine, built in 1580, next to the château, and a 17th-century tower from a vanished convent church.
The village church of Saint-Blaise, rebuilt after a fire in 1877.
South of the village, at the foot of the Dent de Broc, the chapel of Notre-Dame des Marches (1705), long a place of pilgrimage.
The ruins of Montsalvens castle, from the 12th century, on a wooded hill north of the Jaun valley. It was abandoned in the 17th century, and the walls still stand.

Getting there

Broc is at the end of the line from Bulle: the regional train runs from Bulle to Broc-Fabrique, a short ride, and the station is a couple of minutes’ walk from the factory. Bulle is the hub for the whole Gruyère region. Coming from Gruyères, change in Bulle.

From Zurich or Bern, take the train to Fribourg and change for Bulle, then again for Broc; from Zurich the whole trip takes about three hours. From Montreux the route through the hills is the GoldenPass line; in some summers a themed Chocolate Train has run from Montreux to Gruyères and Broc. See panoramic trains, and check whether it is running before you plan around it.

For tickets and regional passes, see tickets and passes.

Around Broc

Gruyères — the castle, the walled village and the cheese, a few minutes away.
Fribourg — the bilingual cantonal capital with its Gothic cathedral.
Montreux and Vevey on Lake Geneva, where the Cailler and Nestlé story began.