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Published: August 24th 2009
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old laneway in Semur en AuxoisWe made an early morning exit from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris once we worked out how and drove through the French countryside and spent our first night in the beautiful old town of Semur en Auxios.
Now, we expected this trip to be a tour of food but I don't think we appreciated the extent of how much this tour of gastronomique was to become... The French are well known for their cuisine and the importance of food in their culture but when you are in France, this importance becomes even more apparent with specialist food stores and artisan bakeries, butchers, cured meats, cheese, fruit and vegetable shops, etc that are around every other street corner. I'd have to say that we are so happy that we live in a place that has a thriving food culture where getting good food is easy because it made us appreciate France just that bit more.
So in true tradition and that old saying "When in Rome...", we had escargot for entree and Beef Burgundy for main and washed it all down with an aperitif and a bottle of red from the Burgundy region. Dessert consisted of anything that we
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Semur en Auxois could understand on the menu which was creme caramel and some other creamy dessert. The town itself was medieval and beautiful (but very cold). Old buildings, bridges, roads, a raging river and an old castle with prison towers dating back to the 1500's (see pictures). You name it, very picturesque and well worth the overnight visit.
Our lunch the next day consisted of self made sandwiches with couple of types of fromage (one being goat's cheese - don't tell the obstetrician), tomatoes, salami & ham in a baguette (french stick). We had our lunch, favourite European yoghurt drink and in-season strawberries for dessert (only a two course lunch - a rarity) while overlooking another medieval town called Flavigny sur Seine.
Flavigny sur Seine is where the movie 'Chocolat' (with Johnny Depp) was filmed. It's a beautiful hilltop town that has specialised in aniseed flavoured candies for over 400 years. It's hard to reconcile the movie with the town though and besides the church I wasn't really able to "see it". Still, a beautiful town amidst rolling green hills that were actually small mustard plants. I discovered this by stopping on the side of the road after many green
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Semur en Auxois miles of driving and tasting one of the leaves - mind you, I was already fairly sure what it was - what else could be growing in such vast quantites near Dijon?
It was very relaxing to be driving on these picture postcard local roads. There isn't much traffic, the roads are in good condition and usually well signposted and there was always something interesting to look at just over the next rolling green hill.
It is probably fair to mention driving habits of the French. Now France has had it's fair share of F1 driving greats but it would appear that everybody is in training to become the next French F1 driver. From what we experienced, the French are crazy drivers and do it all at top speed. On so many occasions I'd be happily sitting on the national freeway speed limit of 130 kmph and be overtaken at a much faster speed. Everyone does stick to the "keep right unless overtaking" rule which isn't so much signposted as it is in Australia (I think our literacy rate is much lower here) even though it can be a touch scary at speeds in excess 150 when obsession
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thirsty? signage outside a bar in Semur en Auxois takes over. In actual fact, now that I think about it - I don't think there is any speed limit for Mercedes, Audi and BMW drivers - they can drive at whatever speed they like! And it would appear that overtaking is a French persons born given right. Needless to say, we didn't see many speed cameras.
We officially passed through the regional border from Burgundy to Champagne and stayed overnight in the old town of Troyes. Accommodation was a little difficult to find as it was the weekend but persistence paid off. The streets in the old town were very narrow and thankfully the place we stayed had a garage even if the cars were parked nose to bumper. It didn't matter though as everything was easily accessible on foot. We had dinner in an authentic medieval restaurant (Cafe Gourmand) after having a look around. Staying true to form and local specialties, we had garlic escargots and (french) onion soup followed by andouillette (it's a LARGE sausage with all kinds of spiced offal) which is the local specialty. I got through the whole lot but it is an acquired taste. Wine warmed us for our journey back to
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bridge leading into Semur en Auxois our cosy apartment.
Unfortunately, Troyes does not have any Champagne cellars even though it is in the Champagne region (kind of ironic really as the old town is shaped like a champagne cork) but it does have lots of factory outlets and shopping. Unfortunately again, shops don't open until after lunch on Sundays so instead we had another look around (there are some beautiful old tudor style buildings and gothic church - it's a beautiful old town) and had crepe's and great coffee (had to have a second it was that good or maybe it was just that cold) for lunch before moving on. Yum! Yum!
We continued our drive through the French countryside travelling north to Epernay - one of two main towns in the Champagne region and home to Moet & Chandon. But alas, our timing was not good again. We arrived only two days before the official opening of the French tourist season and M&C was not open. Thankfully it's sister company Mercier was open so we took a tour of the Mercier caves.
You will find Mercier at the end of Avenue de Champagne and it is well worth the walk. The massive
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The restaurant where we had Beef Burgogne (Burgundy) - entree was snails Champagne maisons (houses) on each side of the street are testamount to the huge success Champagne is (which is partly due to the appellation of the district meaning that no company outside of Champagne can officially call their wine Champagne even if it's made under the "Methode Champenoise"). Ever heard of Mercier? My guess is probably not and the reason for this is that all of Mercier's Champagne is consumed in France. It is the most popular brand in France and must have been out of stock when we tried to find it in Paris because we couldn't find it anywhere! By comparison, M&C export 80% of their production. The caves are located well underground (I know where I want my nuclear bunker located) and are only separated from the caves of the other houses by large gates. I cannot explain to you the size of these artificial caves but to say that there is over 100kms of cellars and over 200 million bottles of Champagne just waiting (annual production in France is 300 million bottles - 60% of which is consumed in France according to Lonely Planet). I was certainly enthralled and impressed and maybe even a little more
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Easter is coming... so after tasting half a dozen different glasses of Champagne. For me, Mercier was a highlight of the trip.
We stayed overnight in Epernay and drove back very early to CDG airport (the worst airport we have been to). Off to Marrakesh...
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