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Published: September 7th 2009
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We woke up early today as we wanted to make the first tour at Moet and Chandon and we didn't have a reservation. The shower was small and I laughed at Michael standing in it as he was shoulder to shoulder and could barely move as he tried to shower. He even hit his head on the sloped ceiling as the bathroom had sloped ceilings. We had arranged for breakfast at 8:30 and the German couple joined us in the dining room at the same time. We had fresh coffee with warm milk, huge croissants, bagettes and home-made jams: rhubarb and banana, fraise and frambois. They were delicious! Although Moet and Chandon was just a short walk from the B & B because it was raining we decided to take the car. Unfortunately on the way backing up out of the tight driveway, Michael bumped the door, just a bit. We made it in time for the 9:30 tour and we were so impressed with the caves and the volume of bottles of wine stored there. I didn't realize that Dom Perignon was made by Moet and Chandon so we got to see some stored bottles of Dom as well. After
the tour we had a tasting of Moet's Brut Imperial.
From here we easily navigated our way to Reims. We had an appointment at 3:30 at Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. We wanted to scope out Reims so we would be on time for our appointment. Boy, was that a good idea. We got to Reims and went towards the centre where yes, you got it, we got lost! We were trying to find the office de tourisme and we followed the signs and still got lost! We ended up at the Notre-Dame Cathedral, a Unesco World Heritage site dating back to the 13th century and found the information center. We admired the cathedral and got directions to Vueve as well as a map of the Route Touristique du Champagne for our way back to Epernay. We headed towards Veuve Clicquot to see if we could arrange for an earlier tour to allow time for us to visit some champagne houses on our way back. We got a little lost but found Veuve pretty easily. They were very nice there and said we could come for a 1:30 tour and sent us towards the Saint-Remi Basillica for lunch. We found our way
to Le Saint Remi, found a parking spot and had a wonderful lunch. I had the plat du jour, salade fraiche, which had greens, apples, canteloupe, tomatoes, egg and ham. Michael had chicken with mushrooms and pasta (it was a pizza restaurant!). We each only had a glass of Rose because we had already had one glass of Moet and were looking forward to at least one glass of Veuve Cliquot. I learned a lot on the tour at Vueve Cliquot Ponsardin (it was Michael's favorite tour) that Madame Cliquot's maiden name was Ponsardin and that it was traditional for a champagne house to use the maiden name of the wife as the house name. Madame Cliquot's husband passed away early in their marriage. Vueve means widow, hence Vueve Cliquot. This house is no longer in the Cliquot family and is owned by a large company which owns other champagne houses and high end retail stores. The caves are made of chalk and keep the same consistent temperature all year long, 10-12 degrees celsius. There is a beautiful carving in the walls just before you exit the caves. They also name sections of the caves for employees who have worked
for them for at least 20 years. Following the tour we tried two additional flights of Veuve, the Grand Dame and Vintage Rose 2002. The Grand Dame was wonderful but I didn't like the Rose.
We left Reims and as we were getting on the highway to go back to Epernay....BUMP. Oh, yes, were were hit from behind! Not hard and it was a good thing that the car was not in gear as we drifted just a bit forward. We pulled over to the side, and so did the woman who hit us, and so did the woman who hit her. We didn't have any damage (althought I felt it in my neck as the day went on) so we did a quick inspection and went on our way. We found the Touristique du Champagne route and wandered through beautiful picturesque countryside through the Cru, villages, seeing Chateau after Chateau, Cave after Cave. It was late in the day (they close at 4:30) and none of the Chateaus were open for 'degustation" so we took a leisurely drive back to Epernay, despite the continued rain.
We decided that since we were going to leave Epernay early in the morning
to head back to Paris that we would drop off the car the night before. We found a gas station altough none of the pumps would take our credit card and we kept moving from pump to pump until eventually we just started pumping gas and went inside (dashing rain drops) to pay. We found a parking spot near the Eurocar store, parked and returned the keys through the mailbox as there was a sign on the window that looked like she would be back a little later. It was raining so we walked quickly back to L'Interface. Soon the rain stopped, and since it was Friday the stores were still open so we retraced our steps from the day before, this time shopping in the stores. We found a cute Le Chef apron for Matt and some Paniere a Pain (bread baskets that are made from cloth). We walked around looking at the chocolats and boutiques and patisseries and tried to find a restaurant that looked good. Although we walked quite a bit from L'Interface, we ended back at the corner restaurant, Le Sardaigne, another Italian/pizza restaurant but it was so busy and filled with locals we really enjoyed
ourselves. Of course we had champagne, M. Hostomme Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Brut NV (we really had this one the night before at La Cave a Champagne) and we had a Vollereaux Brut tonight. We shared a napolitaine pizza as an entree and we each had a risotto (mine with gorganzola and Michael's with mushrooms and ham) as our plat. For dessert Michael had mousse chocolat and I had glace chocolat. It was an early night, no tv, no radio in our room. After a day full of champagne our heads hit the pillows are we were out!
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