Mister Bed Tinqueux

... 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 ...

... perfect lair for a comic-book villain, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t what the builders were going for. One thing that’s kind of surprising about these churches is the fact that they don’t really have grand plazas or entrance courts like you would expect. The approach to Laon was basically winding street – another narrow winding street – another street ...

... Quick Burger is I think their equivalent of Burger King (since its not as yummy as McDonald's) and is pretty decent and very cheap.

We made our train in plenty of time and after our transfer in Epernay I fell asleep rather quickly until arriving back in Paris.

All in all we consider that our first trip out of Paris, without a tour guide, was extremely successful. We enjoyed every minute of it and are anticipating our next excursion... maybe to Bordeaux?!

... considered the champagne capital of France and lies in Champagne-Ardenne region (the official name) in northeastern France some 129km northeast of Paris. The architecture of the city is very Gothic in some parts and modern in others. Unfortunately the city is full of road works as they are currently building the new light train in the city. It is only due to be finished in April 2010, so if you are planning a visit I would make sure it ...

... 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.

-We drove through Reims on the way back to Maastricht and stopped at the Pommery estate for a tour of its cellars. It felt like we were spelunking in the underground cellars, which are more similar to mining caves, housing over 20 million bottles of champagne. It was even complete with riddling racks, though they don't use that technique anymore. After the tour, we had a tasting, which ended in purchasing four bottles that complete with the Pommery logo straws... weird french people.

... and process, how much patience one must have before tasting the final product!

I have to admit that I was a little impressed by Moet...but primarily due to all the glam of the family fortune. I'm sure the family heavily pressured its sons to continue the tradition...

So here's the rest of my pictures, varying from the tour, to a stroll in the park!

... I am dreading explaining the Electoral College. The students that I know say hi to me in hall now which is nice. On a side note about French high school, the students start at about 8 and go until about 5:30. They get a long lunch break and other short breaks throughout the day. The halls are narrow and sometimes it is hard to squeeze through all the students. They must wait outside the door of their class until ...

... quand même... Cette dernière semaine, j'ai dû chercher un appartement pour la session d'automne que je passerai à étudier à Reims. Finalement, j'ai trouvé un endroit entièrement meublé très sympa (ah oui, j'utilise des expressions française comme sympa et nickel maintenant). Aussi, je rentre de plus en plus dans une nouvelle routine avec mes nouvelles colocataires, Carrie et Li (toutes deux très sympas aussi). Il faut dire que Reims n'offre ...