Les Berceaux Épernay

... 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 ...

... Reims was also the site for the beginning of the end of another war. Though it wasn’t announced until the next day, the Germans unconditionally surrendered to American, British, French, and Soviet forces at a schoolhouse near the train station on May 7, 1945. We saw the map room, completely preserved, where the signing of the Armistice took place, and to this day, the small museum remains adjacent to one of Reims’ schools.

The most memorable ...

... listener.

The bets part of the tour was the champagne tasting after wards, which we new it would be before we got there. Angela, Caroline and I all chose the Vintage Pommery which is aged longer than the normal by about 5 years. It was very delicious, not bitter at all, very bubbly!!

After a short bus trip back into the heart of the city we approached the Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims. Before going in search of dinner we took a nice walk through the ...

... generally does not come cooked. So a little disappointing especially as the middle was a bit cold - yuk.

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 ...

... onto the highway was crawling, and continued to crawl for several more minutes once we were on the highway.

We did eventually hit the speed limit and at our second or third toll booth, mom realized one of her wallets was missing. Luckily she had separated her many currencies into different wallets and the one missing was the one with a little bit of Canadian money. Unluckily it also ...

... than we were used to, especially in those places elsewhere where mechanical harvesting is used. This was very much set up for manual harvesting of the champagne grapes. There were tiny bunches of grapes just starting to grow - still a long way to go before their harvest in September. From Mercier, we continued around the corner to Castellane, which had a big tower above the main buildings. We asked about an English-language tour but were told it was not possible - the ...

... which had had broken down, maybe overheated? Having travelled 99.9% of the way with no problems (other than driving on the wrong side of the road from the wrong side of the car), we arrived at the Avenue de Champage in Epernay (in which our accommodation was located) to find it closed for roadworks. We spent quite a while driving around in circles trying to find a way in, but without success. Finally, we parked not too far away from our ...

... had the bright idea that if we each get a different one then we would be able to directly compare the two. It was a great idea as when we tasted the difference it became obvious why you pay so much more for the vintages. It may sound a little wine wankerish but the vintage had so much more body it was like a punch in the mouth compared to the other one. Matt was awfully disappointed that due to the baggage restrictions we weren't able to buy ...

... a tasting in the end that leads to the gift shop (well thought out layout). We learned from the tour that Mercier was 20 years old when he started his business and was a marketing genius! The same year the Eiffel Tower was presented at the World Expo, Mercier moved a giant barrel of champagne from Epernay to Paris with 20 oxen and 12 horses (I think...). It was quite a spectacle and awarded the second place attraction after the Eiffel Tower. Later, he flew a hot ...

... we went for lunch where the La Burger was consumed for the second time (La Burger: a hamburger in a crepe, a popular choice amongst the cyclists) and then off to the Moet champagne house for the vintage tasting and tour. Probably the best of the lot. Day 7 - Epernay to Paris to London: no more cycling which seemed a bit strange. Was quite a smooth journey back to Paris to get the Eurostar back to London. Next stop: Packing up the flat and then to Dublin for the Radiohead concert.