Blogs from Champagne-Ardenne, France, Europe - page 5

Après un petit orage cette nuit, nous nous voyons bien contents de quitter ce camping en connaissance de cause… pour plus loin… Il nous faudra être vigilants pour chaque étape de notre voyage… Des orages énormes éclatent en direction des endroits où nous comptons nous rendre… mais heureusement ce n’est pas pour demain et d’ici là les choses peuvent encore bien changer… Nous nous promettons donc de bien regarder si possible sur le net, si possible à la télévision… la météo du jour suivant, là où nous devons nous rendre. Je dis la télévision si possible car nos deux premiers campings se trouvent bien peuplés d’arbres… alors l’antenne satellite de Pollux ne capte rien… comme internet gratuit nous nous contentons de regarder Auvio… et d’avoir les nouvelles de chez nous… puis nous prenons la météo de ... read more

This is one of the days we had been waiting for and it didn't disappoint. In the morning we walked up to the Information Center in Epernay and turned up just as the Tourist Train was about to leave, so we hopped on the tour. The tour took us up the Avenue de Champagne, where every building was a stunning who's who of the Champagne world and many have tours & tasting. After having lunch at the apartment, we headed for the train to Reims and then headed to the home of Mumm. On Arrival at Mumm we waited for the rest of the tour to arrive (of course we were 30 minutes early was not going to be late to this one). After a 10 minute video on Mumm we descended 10 meters to the ... read more

Got off to a good start as we had a long drive, 250 miles-ish. Stopped at reception first to book in for last night on the way back as Gandspette is popular and can get full. Always handy knowing there is a full bread service at 8am outside reception which meant we started the day with a lovely fresh baguette for breakfast. Quite a lot of the drive was on dual carriageways, no toll roads but some motorway standard as many French roads are. We headed first of all towards Lille but bypassed the city itself and also all the other towns of any size in this very industrial area of France which follows the Belgium border. The route followed almost a 45 SE degree direction and when not on the main roads took us through ... read more

It is with mixed emotions that we wake today. The excitement of driving to Paris and our final destination before we fly home. The sadness of dropping our car off at Orly Airport means our adventure is nearly at an end. We pack the car for the last time and prepare for one final look at Troyes. While checking out, the receptionist asks if we had seen the fire the other night. No we hadn’t, but smelt smoke in the morning. She told us a house and the Cathedral had been hit by lightning and had caught fire. We were quite shocked because we had been there that morning. The young woman at reception said it was sad because the Cathedral had undergone some restoration recently. We had to go and see for ourselves. We parked ... read more

Last night we had a few adventures before bedtime. We hope it is not a sign of what could happen during the rest of our stay. We decided to have a light meal in the city. For the first time on this trip we decided on a McDonald’s meal. Horrors you might say. By the end of the evening we wished we had chosen somewhere different. It started with a visit to a car park. The machine wouldn’t give us a ticket. We then realized it was free on Sunday nights. We purchased our meal and enjoyed the peaceful upstairs surroundings. The drinks were too much for us. Unbeknown to one team member the couch seat he was sitting on wasn’t as long as he thought. A delicate slide to the right with cup in hand ... read more