Campanile - Reims Murigny

... were walking out with carts full of Cases of wine, not to mention all the cheese, fois gras, ham, mushrooms, and other french goodies that were up for grabs. We spent a piddly 5 hours drinking wine, and now have a much better "education" of French wine. But after a couple hours, food was definitely in order. Istead of opting for the 9 euro fois gras sandwich, we got the pate en croute, which we soon found out is not supposed to be eaten ...

... beautiful as the wine, Reims boasts one of the most amazing Gothic cathedrals ever constructed. Like so many cathedrals and basilicas throughout Europe, the stories of Catholic spirituality are told through the architecture, paintings, and sculptures because during the Middle Ages, people couldn’t read. This is how they learned the stories. For me, time and time again throughout all the religious buildings I have visited, I couldn’t care less what the ...

The next destination on our itinerary was the Notre-Dame of Laon Cathedral. My pamphlet tells me this is "one of the earliest Gothic edifices constructed in France," so there you go. It's a lot different than the famous Notre Dame in Paris, being a lot less ordered and therefore more “exuberant.” It’s on a site that’s a lot higher than the rest of town, so you get lots ...

... pavers and building blocks for the city but after mining was completed Mr. Pommery and a colleague bought the land when it was discovered that the 98' deep caves were ideal for aging wine. It can get as cold a 3 degrees in the winter and no warmer than 18 in the summer. While we were visiting it was reportedly around 10 degrees. The tour guide spoke with an accent and rather quickly so most of my information came from Caroline since she apparently is a much ...

... generally does not come cooked. So a little disappointing especially as the middle was a bit cold - yuk.<br><br>It was then off to explore the city and of course see how champagne is made. I did find it bizarre that a lot of the bigger Champagne house were in the main city as I had expected it to be like most of the wine farms surrounded by vineyards, but here we were in a city walking around unknowingly at first above some of the most ...

... on. It was already getting quite late in the day considering we still had more than five hours of driving ahead of us. We stopped only for food and in Rheims to check out the cathedral. We had planned to make a few trips along the route but we had also planned on being out of Paris a lot earlier in the day, and I have to work tomorrow, so we didn't get to have much fun driving through France.

... go take a sweater. We were told that they have about nine million bottles held in the caves - some finished and aging, the rest going through the initial fermentation process that requires a lot of handling. Another 25 million are stored at a more modernized site that is fully automated. At the end we got a single tasting and milled about a bit before heading to check out another champagnery nearby, Pommery. <br><br>As we were leaving we met a couple ...

IMH: After a little investigation we found that we could save a fortune if we planned our own wine tour to the Champagne region, all it needed was a little planning. We found that there were multiple trains leaving per day, but that pre-booking of tastings at the Champagne houses was essential. The pre-booked tasting typically includes a one hour tour of their ...

... and the ealth of its sculptural decoration It was built on the site of the 5th century church in which Clvois was baptized in 496. The date is around 1211, ultimate finishing touches completed in 14th century. Next door was the Palais du Tau, which was a small palace and was the seat of the archbishop ofReims. Today it is a museum that houses coronation regalia, tapestries and sculpture associated ...

... and grab a sandwhich and sit in one of the sqaures. Half way through lunch I was interrupted by a huge crash and as I glanced over my shoulder I saw a young guy dragging himself out of his car. Some how he had managed to round the corner and drive at some speed straight into a lamp-post. The car was a rightoff and a crowd soon gathered gestering where they thought he had come from and what ...