Grand Du Nord Reims

... 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 ...

... was pretty cool. Going on two different champagne tours gave us a good perspective of the local/non-commercial and the big time export one. We really enjoyed the Martel/local where we were able to sample three different champagnes. The caves however, in the more commercial one were under the archbishop’s quarters. They were dug out by the Romans and we were at 10 degrees C. Our last night there we had a wonderful French dinner. We all tried the escargot ...

... quick peeks of it over the rooftops as you approach, and there are great visas once you’re at the top. One thing we noticed was how skeletal it looked; the amount of arches and thin columns gave its towers a spindly appearance, or as spindly an appearance you can have when you’re talking about something made of tons of stone. According to my friend, it looked like it would be ...

... Canadian Bar. The Moose we were told plays Gator games often and in anticipation for the upcoming game on Saturday, Angela and I wanted to make sure. We went in for one beer but after talking with the (English speaking) bartenders and meeting a few people we had a couple more rounds. We got home around 3am which would explain my headache the next morning, however please don't mistake this as a complaint because Angela and I did not pay a cent for the drinks ...

... back and had further entertainment when rushing into one of the service stations to find police with guns. We were told in French by a policeman that the service station was closed. I of course had no idea what he was telling me and must have wrinkled my eyes in confusion as it was quickly translated into English. It was only then did I spot the four people sitting on the floor handcuffed - I guess that was the reason why it was closed ...

This morning after breakfast we finished packing our bags and ordered a taxi. Our driver spoke not a word of English so in very poor French I told her we were going to pick up our rental car and showed her the address.

More than half an hour later was quite clear that we were lost. I translated the directions from the rental company to our driver and she did eventually get us there, after ...

... Martel tour also started with a video and was much shorter due to it's tiny size. It was more centered on the history of how champagne was made previous to modern automated processes. They had what amounted to a library of ancient machinery that all looked suspiciously like medieval torture devices. In the end we were able to taste three different glasses of champagne and for the cost Martel was the most generous in their pours. The small tasting room ...

... to the work that has been going on right outside our appartment since the second week we have been here.  For example, one day I came home and there was a large hole leading up to our gate door.  I walked up to the hole, and there were two men inside.  I waived at one of the workmen, asked him if he wouldn't mind opening the gate, and handed him my keys.  He then proceeded to lift himself ...

... classe, il y a assez peu de gens pour que nous ayons une cabine fermé à six sièges pendant tout le trajet ! On en profite pour relaxer un brin... Nous arrivons à Reims (prononcer "rince") vers les 11 heures 20 ; Reims est la ville qui a vu vingt-cinq rois de France être sacrés dans sa cathédrale entre 496 et 1825, soit sur plus de treize siècles. Et cette fameuse cathédrale, parmi les plus belles de France, voire du monde, nous allons ...

Today Richard spent the day at RMS. For the rest of us our day started as normal with Emma wanting pikelets shortly after breakfast. After a feed of pikelets James did some school work - maths, printing, reading. Next we walked to the supermarket for my first time without Richard. Emma fell over half way there taking skin off her knee and hand so wanted carried from then on and round the supermarket. With Emma's knee bleeding our first stop in the supermarket was the medical ...