Epernay to Chateau Thierry

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Epernay to Chateau Thierry 25th May 2007 (Friday 22º Fog, 25º Sunshine and 20º Rain).

Some days are diamonds and we have been lucky enough to have had many of these.

Some days are stone. Today will be our first of the trip.

We lunge out of bed full of “La joie de vie” and after a hearty IBIS breakfast of Bacon, Eggs and OJ (no croissants thank God) we hit the road in search of a Chambre D’Hotes and the Champagne Trail.

You are probably sick of me banging on about the French and their Public Holidays, well guess what. Yup - this week-end is a long week-end with a PH on the Monday. This means of course that anywhere remotely near to Paris (as is Epernay) is booked solid for the next two or three days. So after many visits to various Chambre D’Hotes we find they are all booked out as accommodation in Epernay and surrounds is choked to the rafters with escaping Parisians. We have travelled 70 kilometres and have ended up back where we started with nothing to show for it!

Interestingly the Public Holiday is one of ‘conscience’ in that people are expected to work and donate their earnings for the day to the Elderly of France. The fact that Epernay is full for the week-end suggests that the French don’t care too much for their elders.

You may recall once before that I got the shits after driving around looking for accommodation and drove out of town without a backward glance. Well I did it again. Au revoir Epernay.

We head towards Chateau de Thierry about 50 kilometres South West of Epernay. On the way we see rows of vines that are staked with a peg marked Veuve Cliquot and Moet & Chandon - so there is no denying that we are in the thick of the good stuff.

We stop at a winery and are delighted to be given an extensive Champagne degustation and winemaking history lesson from a very helpful Cellar Master called Cyril. After the fourth glass I forgot the name of the winery. After the fifth I forgot that I had the shits with Epernay.

We roll (literally) into Châteaux De Thierry and again the heavens open and drive us into the nearest Hotel. Yes it is an IBIS.

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Photos

Around Epernay
One of the many picturesque Villages near Epernay

Fisherman - Epernay
He could not speak English but he and I had a great yarn about Fishing and the one that got away. Obvioulsy a universal problem.

Comments

[AV]

IBIS
Interested to see that IBIS was a frequent choice for you, as it was for us in Spain a few years back. On the one hand affordable, on another hand predictable (identical?), but mostly because the corporate policy is to locate the hotels at the entrance to town, like the end of the motorway or whatever. Makes for not being in the middle of the action, but towards the end of a long drive from somewhere else, finding a reliable place to stay without the hassles of negotiating complex streets in the middle of town is worth the lack of character inherent in IBIS.