Premiere Classe Reims Sud - 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 ...

... of our stay in Reims was at an art deco brasserie (many buildings in Reims were reconstructed after World War I, and a style of the times was art deco) called Boulingrin. It was suggested to us by a girl we met at the laundromat who had just graduated from Pitt University and was living in Reims teaching English. The meal turned out to be great – foie gras, escargot, steak frites, scallops St-Jacques, tartar, the best mousse au chocolat I’ve ever ...

... 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 ...

... cathedral. The colors of the glass were so vibrant and the space was so serene and peaceful, a very nice ending to our day of touring.

The girls and I walked back to the main thoroughfare were we had a very drinks while people watching and reveling in how awesome our day trip had turned out. Our train was scheduled to leave at 8:02pm and with most of the cafes not serving dinner (which is a couple hour ordeal here) until 7pm we decided on a small burger ...

... champagnes that are stored in the underground tunnels of the abbey. Our first champagne house was Taittinger where we heard all about the art of Champagne making. Made from the C******nay grape it can only be classed as Champagne if made in the specified region and according to a set process called 'methode champenoise'. Their cellars are some 30m below the ground surface and are kept naturally cool due to the chalk rock ...

... 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 ...

A nice easy drive to Reims the champagne capital of the world! The book had a free camp spot about a k from the centre of town which is quite pleasant, but a bit traffic noisy, but it will suit our purpose for one night. Number One Son and his wife and daughter have just started a holiday over here and ...

... Why would a bank be closed on Mondays??  Not even the world wide web can explain that to you... On that note, I would like to take this moment to talk a bit about what I like to refer to as "immigration inferno." The name of course referring to the temperature of any office that a non-citizen has to take care of the seemingly endless amount of paperwork and/or doctor's appointments (not excluding lung x-rays, even if you ...

... etc - in French of course. Miranda said that she was most impressed with my French and that it was no worse than her Father's and he has been here for 10 years. I was very pleased with myself... but when it came to the appointment itself, I only understood every 5th or 6th word and was completely lost (from total eurphoria to complete deflation in 1 minute flat :-( ).

... the sweets, of course. But I didn't want to spend money on it. Although it would have been a pretty present for my parents... Anyway, champagne was much more fun. The factory is situated somewhere in the mountains or at least inside one mountain because we had to go down an endless staircase and found ourselves in a cave. Tiny lamps couldn't illuminate the place at all, so there were a lot of shadows and a lot of thoughts about corps which could be hidden ...