Giger in Gruyères

Today I spontaneously hopped into my car and drove to Gruyères, which is only about forty minutes from Lausanne. The reason why I did this was not a sudden hankering for the excellent Gruyère cheese, or the fondue made thereof, but rather to visit the HR Giger museum, him of Alien-fame.



The museum is rather excellent, well worth a visit. Unforunately you are not allowed to take any photos, so you'll have to visit yourself. See the entrance to the right, though:

 
Most funny was the "Adult" section, nearly at the entrance. Not in and of itself, but rather the fact that it exists. Most of Giger's works are at least sexually suggestive (not  to mention weird, weird, weird), so it seems like they tried to keep it family-friendly at first. But at some point they must have realised the futility, because as you penentrate (ha!) deeper into the museum, the exhibited works are far "worse" than the stuff in the adult section. I think the curator just gave up...

But Gruyère has other attractions as well: The old town is rather lovely

and there is an amazing Savoyen-style castle:

 And then there is the Giger-Bar:

 where you can slurp your intestine-cocktail of choice, Alien-style!


All in all it was a very nice trip - I think the  countryside might be awesome as well, only the weather conspired against me and shrouded everything in fog & snow.