Blogs from Champagne-Ardenne, France, Europe - page 8

Champagne tastes on a Lemonade Budget Some Aussies we met reckoned that Epinay is the place to be seen in the Champagne region. It’s not cheap though. Central France has so many towns and villages that are overflowing with character. The first thing I look at as we drive through a village is the width of the streets. We are blessed with a GPS that has a register of all the pot holes, speed bumps, and undersized roundabouts in all of Europe. James the GPS loves to take a short cut – which will invariably be down a street that has a height limit of less than 3M ( we need 3.2M) or a width limit of under 2.5M ( we need at least 2.6M). When I don’t take the suggested route, James gets sh11tey. To ... read more

Our orbit on leaving Germany, took us through Luxembourg and back into France – specifically to Reims. I say to Reims, but actually just outside Reims. I say just outside Reims when I mean about 30 km away. Reims itself provides it’s own special problem. It is one of these confusing names that sounds nothing like the way it looks. To pronounce it, pinch the bridge of your nose, pull your fingers down blocking your nostrils and say “rence” very quickly. Your correspondent found this process far too complicated, so merely referred to it as “ the large city with the big cathedral about 30km away” – everyone knew where I meant. The latest campsite welcomed us warmly with villagers burning tyres in the road to prevent us getting there, but we made it through unscathed. ... read more

Monday 1stJune 2015. Dunkerque to Guise 210 miles An uneventful first day!! We have to be in Genoa in Italy on Thursday evening to catch the ferry to Sardinia, so we don’t have a lot of time for sight-seeing on our way down through France. We left Chris’ sisters house in London in the morning arriving at Dover in plenty of time for our ferry to Dunkerque at 12.00 noon. We arrived, in the sunshine in France about 2.30pm…..in French time 3.30pm and drove via Lille and Valenciennes, stopping off at a fortified village Le Quesnoy ( Huge ramparts but didn’t look that interesting!!) to do some food shopping! Lots of red brick houses, singularly unattractive, but lots of war memorials and war cemeteries that were quite poignant. Carried on to Guise, arriving about 6.30pm. Had ... read more

Our next for two nights was at Frecourt 550 kilometres away fro Avignon. We travelled on country roads for so 250 kilometres but that took to long. We had to continue on toll roads which cost us Euro 20, which is $28. More regrettable was the change of scenery. Country roads in France are picture postcards, beautiful. We were at a Bed & Breakfast that was in a village that ahs 86 inhabitants. Noot far away from a place to eat or even near a bigger ancient city called Langress. The walls of the city are completely intact that span the city fro 3.5 kilometres, with towers and belfries etc. dates from Gallo-Roman times. The rock has been fortified since the third century A.D. The last Military development was in the 19th century. The cathedral inside ... read more

I booked this tour before I even left Australia. I had to drink real French champagne in the champagne region in France. I never knew how to pronounce “Moët”. Most Australians say something like “Mo-ee”. I learnt the T is actually pronounced kind of like “Mo-et”. Aussies take note! I chose which bottles I would get to test (I chose the most expensive one – I’d come half way around the world for this!), I got my tickets and waited for the tour to start. We then had our chance to taste test 2 champagnes. They turned out to be full glasses. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal since breakfast, so I was rather drunk by the time I left!... read more