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A Cheese Olympics, should it be invented, would feature a sturdy crew of eight competitors from Savoie: Abondance, Beaufort, Chevrotin, Emmental, Reblochon, Tome, Tomme and the heavy-duty Raclette.

Of course, there's also cascading, melted Raclette over any sort of potato, which is also unmissable.

From my perch these past few weeks in quaint yet cosmopolitan Basel, I've enjoyed the best of three countries, cultures and cuisines at once — sampling real Black Forest ham in Heidelberg, oozy raclette and deep, dark chocolate truffles in Zurich, pink praline pastries in Lyon.

Over at the Swiss ambassador’s residence, at Time magazine’s soiree, a DJ played house and disco beats, and the sharp aroma of a raclette station drifted over the patio.

Heated debates held in the country's four national languages continued into early morning hours, with lawmakers fuelling themselves with raclette, hard boiled eggs left over from Easter and wine.