Blogs from Reims, Champagne-Ardenne, France, Europe

About two weeks before, my Aussie friend that I had made in Dubai and who had moved to Spain last year messaged me and invited me to come to Paris, or Reims actually, to celebrate her milestone birthday. I had not left the UAE except for a couple short work trips since the end of June, so I figured, why not! I took Friday off and flew into Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, arriving at 9:30am and was able to get a direct high speed train to Champagne-Ardenne at 11:22am, with a short local train to the main Reims station. Easy! I had booked a little hotel near the station, Brit Hotel Aux Sacres, which was cute, friendly, and centrally located, with a little extra for a decent breakfast. I had no idea what to ... read more

Heute habe ich eine 4-wöchige Urlaubsreise nach Frankreich, Spanien und Portugal begonnen. Die selbe Strecke bin ich vor 30 Jahren mit einer Jugendgruppe als meinen ersten großen Urlaub ohne Eltern entlang gereist. Nachdem ich also bei meiner Mutter frühstückte, fuhr ich auf der A6 bis etwa kurz vor Mannheim. Da diese im weiteren Verlauf bei Kaiserslautern gerade gesperrt war, nahm ich die Alternativroute über die A8 und den Raum Pirmasens. An der Grenze wurde ich nicht kontrolliert und die verbleibende Strecke in Frankreich war durch das Tempolimit und den geringen Verkehr sehr gemächlich. In Reims fand das Navi mein Hotel problemlos und ich konnte auch in der Nähe parken. Nachdem ich mein Zimmer bezogen hatte, spazierte ich durch die Innenstadt, deren Attraktion natürlich die Kathedrale ist. Diese habe ich ja schon 2000 bei einer Übernachtung in ... read more

The map is very interesting. Have I purchased any of those items? See below for the answers.Again, I tend to buy very little these days, but I still buy T shirts and refrigerator magnets, wine, and some candy, like Turkish Delight, wine gummies, and chocolate. But you will see that over the years, I have purchased some things that I still have.United Kingdom Yes, I have an umbrella from Wimbledon, as well as a cap, polo shirt, tennis ball, and coffee mug. I went a little crazy. Stick to strawberries and cream! Netherlands I have brought home goud... read more

I do not really have a wine blog per se, but I do like to share wine and sparkling information with you. I feel I have other things to say and share. But, with wine, people are fanatics. There is an estimated 1700 wine blogs worldwide in 2019. One of the original wine blogs—Alder Yarrow’s Vinography—began in 2004, and by 2009 there were over 700. Today, the vast majority are penned by so-called “citizen bloggers,” versus winery or press blogs. Of these citizen blogs, 60% are in English with the rest divided among other languages including Italian, French, Catalan, Portuguese, Czech, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Hungarian, Norwegian, and Indonesian.This is just great, invented by a wine lover with too much time on his or her hands. Rosé the Robot is an innovative ... read more

We’re off on an extra little adventure. Daughter no 2 is doing an experiment in Switzerland and needs a van load of equipment driven from London to Zurich. So we are going to be roadies. Or, more accurately, the old man is going to be a roadie. I’m just along for the ride. Does that make me a groupie? Probably not with my own daughter. We start the day by catching an Uber to the college. We’ve not booked an Uber before. The old man eyes the App with the sort of suspicion you’d expect from someone encountering witchcraft. But the car arrives and we reach our destination without the driver casting a spell. The van is delivered – 35 minutes late. Daughter no 2 is very stressed. However, the equipment is packed and we are ... read more