Magical Shop in Gruyeres

A couple of years ago, when visiting Dweezeljazz and her husband, we traveled to Gruyeres, Switzerland - home of the famous cheese. Now it is also famous to me for a very special shop called Terre qui Chante. I've included the link to the shop, as the site is also lots of fun to check out (it is in French).

A couple run the boutique and are artists, who specialize in making ceramic animals, many of them musical. They have lots of ocarinas in bird and animal shapes.

The shop is just magical - something you'd imagine you'd find in a fairy tale - and the couple there are very kind and gentle. I was quite enchanted. I was given the gift of an ocarina shaped like a titmouse.

Gruyeres is a beautiful village with a medieval castle in rural surroundings. The town is flanked by the pre-Alps Mount Moleson, which you can see peeking out amoung the town's eaves here.

The little village was relatively quiet in April, with lots of scudding clouds and bright sunshine. It is squeaky clean and orderly, as most places are in Switzerland.

Here is one of the many lovely flower pots adorning someone's window ledge. I love the deep cobalt blue of the pots against the cream of the building.




We had a picnic lunch outside the castle walls that were being renovated at the time.

Then we packed up, reluctantly left Gruyeres (with a pound of cheese for my father), and traveled on to Fribourg to see the sights there.