Day 20 - Paris, France

---

Activities

Champagne Tour
Shopping

Highlight(s)

• Tastings at Mumm and Moet & Chandon
  
• Sampling the grapes from the vine
  
• Purchasing new Handbag
  
• Michel's Gelati count - 18 (pastries still trumping need for gelati)
  
• Joceline's Italian / French Coffee count - 30
  
• Joint Pastry / Crepe count - 11
  

Odd Spot(s)

• It takes a minimum 5 years to make a bottle of Champagne and about 23 minutes to drink one.
  
• Be careful not to eat the unripe grapes from the vine - because you'll have a sore stomach later in the day.
  
• Mumm is the official champagne of the Formula One Grand Prix's.
  

Weather

A cool 20 degrees with some spots of sun during the day.

---

Photos

Reim Pattiserie
Look who snuck away from the tour group to get a fix of pastries on the way to Champagne...

Let The Games Begin
Tour and tastings at Mumm in Champagne

Vines Galore
Happy snap with the Pinot Noir grape vines. Champagne is made from combinations of the special chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes grown only in the Champagne region.

Pinot Noir
We enjoyed some taste tests of the Pinot Noir grapes straight from the vine.

Vine Inspection
Doing some vine inspections before harvest. All champagne grapes are harvested manually over a three week period from mid to late September.

Spooky
Our tour at Moet & Chandon took us 22 metres underground. The air was cold, the walls were wet and the darkness made it spooky.

Fermenting
Champagne is fermented in bottles rather than barrels and the bottles are manually stacked ontop of each other for the first stage of fermentation.

Dom Perignon
Thanks to the man who worked so hard to improve and progress the taste and style of champagne.

Comments

[FK]

FK Monthly Meeting
Good comments and a fine kick off to our monthly meeting!