Blogs from Epernay, Champagne-Ardenne, France, Europe - page 3

Arriving in Épernay i headed toward the Église Notre-Dame, just across the park from the station. Unfortunately it was closed, but it had really cool doors! It was time to head to the Avenue de Champagne and see all the champagne houses. I also had to find the Moët et Chandon caves, for my tour later in the afternoon. It’s a great street to see all the different champagne houses (and their cool doors), most of which I had never heard of!... read more

Reims, Epernay in Champagne Region France We said goodbye to Paris at around 11.00am, saying goodbye to the owners of our apartment by taxi. We went to the Invalides train station to catch the RER Train to Versailles to pick up our motor home. At the station, Tom and Kerrie walked to the Camping Park where we had left our camping car. Gemma & I stayed at the train station, with the suitcases. Gemma was soooo excited to see the motor home and she kept on asking why “Papa and Mummy were taking so long”.. At last we saw the motor home come around the corner. It is such a delight to see a little person’s absolute excitement over something. We loaded up the suitcases, then headed for Reims, the centre of the Champagne Region. We ... read more

Writing a bit after the fact now. You know how it is. Once back at home, work and life take over and it gets hard to finish the blogs. We were together with our daughter Elise and arrived in Epernay by train from Paris. Champagne was the primary target consumable. We started with a tasting selection at one of the little bars in Epernay: small and Grand houses. Wonderful and diverse. Next two days we hired a car and drove around the district. Limited crowds is the joy of winter travel. Small wineries and the pride of the vingeron! Crispy baguettes and camembert. Stayed in a B&B in Epernay which provided wonderful breakfasts and local guidance.... read more

It always amazes me when you travel to another country and have mutual friends with someone on your trip. Our last entry for this trip is about the many champagne houses in Epernay and Oger. A 9:20 meeting time on a sunday morning means there were bound to be a few sore heads in the group, luckily Nikki and I were not one of those people. We hopped on our coach and made our way to our first champagne house, The Moet et Chandon house, one of the biggest champagne houses. It has over 28km of champagne cellars beneath its grounds and sits proudly at the start of Avenue de Champagne, a street lined with the biggest champagne houses. After sitting through Moet’s most recent promotional video (yawn) we started our tour, the cellars are much ... read more

From the Jean-Paul apartment in Paris to the Jean-Paul Moet hotel in Epernay and from one extreme to the other with regards to luxury and spaciousness and modern decor. It felt like pure luxury having a huge bubble bath and getting the city grime off. My feet never got completely clean all week in Paris. Our many kms were all done in jandals, and the dust and dirt was pretty ground in. We did the Moet & Chandon tour which was awesome. The tour was only a smallish group, all in English and extremely informative. The caves and wines being stored there although old and authentic almost seemed staged, it was all so perfect. Their house alone had 28km of caves underground, and Epernay was full of other champagne houses with their caves. It’s a wonder ... read more