Hostellerie La Briqueterie Épernay

We worked our way all the way up to Reims, the heart of the Champagne region. While Reims does have a pretty cool cathedral and I'm sure there is some historic stuff, we came for the champagne. We followed the Rue de Champagne down through all the little towns and Epernay. Then as was our luck, the Salon de Vins festival was taking place, so over 250 vintners from all over France were there to let us taste (and buy) their best. Some ...

... to the bottle leading to the wine’s second fermentation, and the bottles are left to age in the myriad of caves beneath the cities of Reims and Epernay. Over time, the bottles are twisted and rotated upward so the yeasty sediment enters the mouth of the bottle. When it reaches the tip, the bottle is flash-frozen, the sediment is removed, the bottle is topped off, and then it is finally corked.

After we learned all this, we drank.

Almost ...

... a breeze which allowed us to fully enjoy the city and its champagne!

We purchased a few post cards before leaving the tourists center and decided on a place for lunch. I was and am usually designated as the map person. I carry, read, and just generally know (or think I know) the best route to travel in. We had some time to kill before we had to board the bus for the outskirts of the city so we walked more of the pedestrian streets in the heart of the city ...

... list I was all ready to go, wondering where they would be taking me. I was like a little child at Christmas when I was told we were off to France to the Champagne region. What a great way to carry on celebrating my birthday --- with lots of sparkles in my glass :)

We effortlessly crossed the channel in our car through the Channel Tunnel Within 35 mins of having driven our car onto the train we were in France. To be fair the ...

... her credit cards in it.

We pulled off the highway and threw our belongings out of the car, searching everywhere for the wallet. But it was nowhere to be found. Mom thought it may have been stolen last night at the Eiffel Tower as at one point she looked down and saw her bag was open and wondered if she had left it that way.

We decided at this point there was little we could do but ...

... We walked the opposite way on the Avenue de Champagne (away from town) to visit Mercier, which had been recommended by Mr Rimaire. We arrived in time to join an English-speaking tour, starting with the standard video presentation. This one was a little more interesting than usual, because it focussed more on the history of Mercier itself rather than champagne production. It talked about the huge vat in the foyer of the tasting area, which had been constructed by Mr ...

... town to avoid lots of roadworks. We arrived at Sixt at about 5:30 to pick up our hire car, only to be greeted by the lady with "I have a problem" (in French). It turned out that they had given our car to someone else, since they thought we were arriving AT 2pm whereas we had said we would arrive AFTER 2pm. She had a car for us the next day, just not for today when we needed it to drive to our accommodatiojn in Epernay. Fortunately the lady ...

... then taken on a tour of the caves. The reason this region is so unique for champagne production is that the soil is very chalky and well drained, and as a result, under the town of Epernay are over 100km of caves used for storing champagne. The caves are very moist with plenty of mould growing all over the walls and ceilings, and remain a constant temperature of 10 degrees all year round. It is quite incredible walking through the caves ...

... WWOOFers already there, Maria (from Germany) and Robin (from Canada). The rest of the work days went roughly like this: get up around 7am, out to the table for breakfast around 8am, work from about 10am to 1pm and come in for lunch and a siesta until around 6pm then work some more until 7:30/8ish, dinner and bed. Mattieu has two farms- one at the house where we were weeding and preparing the soil for planting, and the other a short drive away where we were cutting ...

... for the rest day, we were feeling a bit sore. Checked out the Notre Dame and the Mumm champagne house and generally rested a bit. Another pepper steak for dinner, seriously, it was that good. Day 5 - Reims to Cuisles, 38km: The longest day of cycling and certainly the best. We had really good weather and the ride started out being quite flat. At about the third last town we went through, our cycling notes described a 2km 'gentle' climb out of the town - it was anything ...