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Published: September 30th 2010
Champagne Birthday Lunch
Nick enjoys our birthday picnic near some of the finest vineyards in ChampagneJAC- Just another church
1* - worth a look
2* - Good Times
3* - Unmissable
+ - emphasis on the rating
Arriving in the Champagne region we were surprised that every square inch of land wasn't covered with vineyards. We figured if you can only call your sparking wine 'Champagne' if it's grown in this region then everyone would be making the absolute most of it. This was of course a simplistic view... they do have every square inch of
decent wine growing land covered in vines, we just didn't realise a lot of land in the Champagne region obviously isn't decent wine country......
We awoke on the morning of Nick's 30th birthday in our hotel in Champagne country and headed for the little town of Verzenay to find our favourite champagne 'Chaudron and Fils'. We were pleased to see all the hills covered in vines on our approach to Verzenay and found the Chaudron cellar door without too much trouble and chatted to the helpful girl. She explained the main champagne was a blend of their reserve vintage and some of the recent harvests grapes (chardonnay & pinoit noir). The
The vines of Champagne
Vineyards all over the hills and valleys of Champagne's growing region champagne had re-branded to 'Chaudron' but was as tasty as we remembered it! At a screaming deal of 15.50 for 750ml bottles we bought four.
There were lovely views across vineyards, within the town of Verzenay and a cool windmill on a hill. We headed up to the windmill for views of the vines crowding around the small towns of the valley and had a birthday lunch picnic at the windmill including a nice bbq chicken- a exciting lunch since we usually have only jam and bread.
We drove one of the scenic champagne routes and saw some pretty vineyards covered hillsides and small towns. Many towns have flagged vineyards indicating whose grapes they are growing, a lot in different areas say they are Moet & Chandon; seems they buy grapes from all over to make their Champagne... the cheeky sellouts!
We headed out for a lovely Birthday dinner in Reims of Escargot and Crab filo pastries then pepper crusted steak in cognac sauce for Nick, Alicia had honey glazed lamb shank and delicious veg, nice glasses champagne at the restaurant too. After dinner we enjoyed a nice bottle of our favourite champagne and a good patisserie we'd bought
Reims Cathedral
The charming exterior of Reims cathedral is covered in a gazillion statues and figures. earlier. A good 30th birthday!
Sadly we did have one birthday-stay detriment at our hotel; the annoying staff were CONSTANTLY badgering us to book for dinner or breakfast in their hotel. Everytime we met them we kept declining and they kept saying “what room are you in?” And then shaking their heads in dismay that 'room 18' (us) kept disappointing them.... we had so many different staff hound us it was ridiculous!
We're pretty sure they didn't really fancy being a hotel and their sole purpose of running the accommodation was to railroad people into their overpriced breakfasts and dinners! We duly published a scathing review on the internet in the days to help them mend their ways!
We started the next day at Reims Cathedral (1*) which was very spacious, but JAC inside, quite pretty from outside with lots of statues on the facade. We then roamed the pretty city streets and found a very fine Patisserie where we bought three very luxurious patisseries.
Leaving pleasant Reims we made for Verdun and the World War One (WW1 )sights around. First was the trenches at Mogeville (1*+), a reconstruction of WW1 trenches that has been very well done.
Amazing Patisseries
The choicest Patisserie in France? Perhaps.... It was insightful to get hands-on and get a feel for what it may have been like for the troops in the trenches.
After lunch we made for Fort de Doumant (1*+) a defensive fort built to slow down any German offensives. The story goes that after the fort being constructed (around end of 19th century) to form a significant point of defense the French high command instructed the fort be abandoned and only left with a skeleton staff of misfits during WWI as per their strategy of the time.
This led to the Germans duly taking the fort in WW1; crazily this surprised the French and hurt their pride a lot so they fought like demons for the next year to take it back!!! Idiots.....
Inside the fort we saw where the soldiers slept and cooked and found it all very damp and miserable. Water dripped from the walls and roof and small stalactites were forming like in a cave. It was an incredibly unpleasant, undesirable place to be and you can see how it would have hurt morale to be barracked there.
The top of the fort was full of craters, mainly from where (ironically) the
In the Trenches
Alicia soaks up the feel of a reconstructed world war one trench French had attacked it in WWI to drive the Germans out and retake it.
The area we were in centered around Verdun:- a major WW1 battelfield. We next went to the huge graveyard at Ossuary de Doumant (2* equivalent) with 15,000+ graves. We walked the rows of the graves and noted how very French many of the names were: 'Francois, Marcel, Paul, Jean Paul, Jacques, etc'. The sight was quite moving with endless rows of crucifixes in all directions. The monument of the Ossuary apparently holds the remains of another 150,000 (!!) approx who died in the Verdun area of all nationalities.
It's pretty grim to try to comprehend the scale of war deaths; especially for someone of my generation where the public is in outrage when a handful of troops die in a modern war....
The next day we checked out the Verdun Memorial Museum ( Don't Bother) but we did find the forest behind the museum had grown over the former battlefield. The land was so battered from artillery shelling it was ridiculously uneven with craters EVERYWHERE, if it hadn't been for the return of the trees and grass it would look like the moon.
How to defend a passageway
Alicia pokes her head out behind the split wall built to make defending the fort passageway easier (you can't shoot down the passageway nor get past the defenders easily. Still in World War sight-seeing mode we then took a drive east to a major fort on the WWII Maginot line: Ouvrage du Hackenburg. To give quick context the French built a hugely expensive and impressive line of concrete-bunker-type forts all along the border lands between France and Germany between WWI and WWII which was coined 'the Maginot Line'. We were visiting one of these forts at Hackenburg....
We had a very quick lunch then raced onto the 14:45 Sunday English tour of Ouvrage du Hackenburg (2*+). It was a very good English tour led by a volunteer Frenchman who spoke decent English; Alicia really enjoyed it too.
The guide showed us most of the fort still in working condition with generators, gun emplacements, and the underground rail all working. Unlike Fort Duamont of WWI this fort was dry, clean and quite serviceable, even so the guide advised that until absolutely necessary they never moved the troops into the quarters (for morale). We were lucky to see have another tour inside while we were outside so we saw guns moving around from outdoors.
Nick marvelled at the inability of the guide to admit in so many words
Graves everywhere
The Ossuary at Douamont has over 15,000 graves and remains of 150,000 (!!) more dead. World War One took a heavy toll around Verdun... that (A) the French got their asses kicked in WWII and (B) that the Maginot line was a colossal waste of money and a tremendous military strategic failure. It seems that whether it's museum exhibits or tour guides the French always dodge admitting how big their failings were in WWII. I noticed this theme time and again in France; whilst German museums are quite forthright about how awful Germany was in WWII the French just can't seem to put their hands up and take their full share of the blame for their drastic failings in WWII.
It was a long drive to Colmar, so we ate a tasty patisserie to give us energy then set out. We parked up on the streets in Colmar ok near our ludicrously cheap and satisfactory hotel and found a pizza place like 'Pizza Express' for dinner.
Colmar is a pretty town; very pleasant to walk around and relax. We headed to the Unterlinden Museum (1*+) where we saw the Isenheim Altar a huge interestingly painted altar piece on numerous hinged panels, plus some decent interiors and medieval weapons and armour. We then walked the charming streets of town. There is a ridiculous
Shell of a time
Nick stands by one of the biggest shells they fired in WWI:- pretty sure it's a 420mm. These suckers hit hard. German feeling to the town with even menus and signs are leaning toward German, still no sign of a cheap beer though, but they do have big German-style beers in some places!
We had lunch in a park on the grass in the sun and had one group of walkers say 'Bon apetit' to us, this always surprises and confuses us but it's a nice gesture... basically friendly strangers telling other strangers to enjoy their meal. This sets me up nicely to segue into our thoughts on the French people during our time in France for a month....
In short the French are polite, helpful, and if they don't speak English they will find a way to co-operate with you through gesturing and scarce words. This was our predominant experience everywhere except in Paris; which being a huge city you can forgive for not being as helpful or friendly.... Time again in small towns we had every person in a shop make an effort to say hello and goodbye to us, even if they had to shout it from the back room! We suspect our approach helped endear us to the French people as we'd only ever ask if they
Maginot Line facilities
Yes it was a colossal waste of money on a failed defensive concept but the Maginot line fort facilities were pretty good; this is a kitchen. spoke English after we'd exhausted all possible French language avenues we had (very limited consider our hopeless language skills) but they seem to appreciate our efforts and rewarded us with courtesy and co-operation. After we left small-town France for Paris and other countries we found ourselves missing the pleasantries and courtesy... there's something to be said for basic social niceties!
Back to our story we decided to drive the Wine route around Colmar- Strasbourg which is notorious for it's beautiful little wine towns. First was Kaysersberg where we were stunned to see a huge Storks nest with two storks nesting in it on a large stone tower. After that the similarities between Kayserberg and the next two wine route towns Riquewihr and Ribeauville all blend into one. They were all very charming, with beautiful buildings and flower boxes everywhere and each felt very German too. Some of the towns had vineyards on the hills and in the surrounding fields. The streets were full of tourists.
On our last day with the car, we set out to a few more wine route towns on the way to Strasbourg. The first was Turckheim; nice buildings, flowers, and gardens in town that
Gun Emplacement on the Maginot Line
This gun emplacement protects some hard hitting 135mm artillery with 30cm of steel. Not much can break through that much steel and concrete... are so typical of the region. The weather was grey and threatening with a few rain drops so we went into a cafe Patisserie for Alicia and had a chocolate ringed delicious mousse and cup of tea - she was duly delighted. On the way out of town we also had great views of the vineyards surrounding the town it was very pretty and lovely.
In Hunawihr we found a little park and played on a flying fox slider, Alicia in particular loved it and despite worries the overhead cable would break under our weight we had good times.
At Bergheim another of the pretty villages we stopped for little walk around. It was a pleasant little place with some city walls too, nice enough, pretty as the other towns of the region. We love the way the vineyards enclose the towns and in some places come all the way to the side of the roads. These vine grapes look similar to other wine region grapes; clustered close together and dark in colour, but the vines are growing and posted twice as tall as those in Champagne.
In Strasbourg a problem for us only happening in the Alsace
No access Barbed wire
Alicia stands behind some anti-personnel barb wire region came to a head. Are our French language skills deserting us?
We found that people couldnt' figure out what we are saying; why can't anyone in Alsace understand us?!? Not even simple words like “Boissons” or “l'Addition!”.
We found that in Strasbourg everyone looked at us with quizzical expressions whether we spoke English (after they agreed they spoke English) or French. We couldn't believe time and again why simple phrases were drawing blank looks but it did dent our confidence in our French language skills; we'd thought we had a few basics mastered!
We managed to make an eatery in town barely understand us enough to sell us a 'flam' which is very similar to a square pizza but on an outrageously thin and crisp pizza base. We enjoyed some fairly interesting and exotic ingredients on our flams and found them a cool novelty lunch.
Language frustrations aside we visited Strasbourg Cathedral- 2* which was very spacious inside like Chartres but more going on. Gilt golden altar pieces on display, interesting montage of statues around Jesus on a cross, also a large clock that did a little mechanical show, a nice colourful facade on organ, big decent
Colmar Charm
Easy to walk around and loads of pretty buildings and spaces Colmar's charming stained glass windows, and painted gold rear dome area behind the altar.
We returned our car where they barely cast an eye over it before declaring it fine, no worries about the new scratches and scuffs (PHEW!!) and we were sent away with no more to pay. Thank goodness. We made our way to the very nearby train station where thankfully the partial strikes were not affecting our service. We took the TGV service into Paris and where there within 2.5 hours.
final France entry on Paris is next.
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L&DGrunseit
non-member comment
France NE region
Another great Blog with lots of ideas for us when we visit France again next year Haven't seen this area yet.Look forward to your last one on Paris.