Hello from Reims and Epernay

Monday, May 27, 2019
Reims, Grand Est, France
Reims is a city in northeastern France's Grand Est region. It's the unofficial capital of the Champagne wine-growing region, and many of the champagne houses headquartered there offer tastings and cellar tours.  It has a population of 180,000. We arrived by our 50 minute train ride from Paris. We are staying in the centre of town and everything is in walking distance, even cellar doors. We noticed some windows of shop front's smashed. The "yellow vest" protestors were here 2 weeks ago. They pick a town in France to protest and gather their troops. What they protest about is agreed by others in France, but the violence is not condoned by the people here. It is having a huge effect on tourism and local businesses. 
The food is exceptional and Mark reckons he had one the the nicest dinners he has ever had here in Reims.
Today we had a winery tour and we started at the Notre Dame Cathedral, which is even bigger than the one in Paris. For more than 1,000 years, French kings were crowned at its Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims. This grand cathedral is known for its stained-glass windows and Gothic carved portals. Moving on to Tattinger, where we ventured into the 80 metre below surface cellars. There is 250km of underground wine cellars here in Reims.
 Tattinger is one of  (only a few left) family owned Champayne houses. One vine makes one bottle per year. We saw the tunnels made by the romans and the entrance to a abbey direct to the underground tunnels. A great experience.
We then ventured on about 30km outside Reims to a little village called Hautvillers. A population of 300. There is a abbey called Elise  where the tomb of De Dom Perignon is. He accidentally discovered bubbles in the wine he was making wine because he sealed the bottle with wax, bubbles formed.  He made some money by selling these bottles to help fund for additions to the abbey. The rest is history.
We then travelled another 10km to Eperney. Épernay is a commune in the Marne department in northern France. Épernay is located some 130 km north-east of Paris on the main line of the Eastern railway to Strasbourg. A population of 23,000. It is the home of  Champayne. We wandered up the street "Avenue de Champayne", where you can stop and have a glass of champayne in the courtyard in some of these beautiful champayne chateau's.
The streets of Epernay  are full of champayne bars and cellars. Champayne is served here even in sandwich/bakery's. Our lunch was great, hamburgers is the most popular meal here in France. We then went on to Moët and Chandon. The biggest Cellar in town with 28 kms of underground cellar. This champayne area produces 300 millions bottles per year Moët produces 34 million. We got to see the hat of Napoleon Bonaparte, worn during his exile to the Island of Elba, 1814. This hat is at Moët and Chandon, as years ago he was a friend of the owners and would stop here on his travels in France. Our tour here was a highlight and even Mark enjoyed it.
Mark sat in the front seat of our mini bus and our guide was a nice, a attractive little french girl. Mark was having a lovely conversation with her, until he asked her if she had a boyfriend? He was shocked and stumbled for his words, when she said she didn't but had a girlfriend instead. It was very funny and it has been a talking point.
The next day we travelled 30 minutes to Epernay by train. We had a booked appointment to go to Bollinger. Bollinger is a Champagne house, a producer of sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France. They produce several labels of Champagne under the Bollinger name, including the vintage Vieilles Vignes Françaises, Grande Année and R.D. as well as the non-vintage Special Cuvée. We were lucky to have had a personal tour of the wine cellar where they have 6km of cellars that are stored at 13 degrees. Bollinger owns nearly 160 hectares of wines, producing more than 60% of its supply. The vines are predominantly Pinot noir. There are 9 vintages and more than 100 different wines in each curvee bottle of Bollinger.  
The main export is 13% to England. We tasted 5 different champaynes and they were all nice. A memorial day and a experience we will never forget. I must admit we did have a little rest on the train home and we were lucky to wake up back in Reims and we didn't go all the way back to Paris. We finished with a beautiful dinner in a underground cellar/cave with great food and wine and what a experience, loved it.
Last day we just walked and explored Reims, we sat in a Brasserie and listened to a piano accordion playing with church bells ringing in the background, it set the scene in beautiful Reims. You know you are in French champayne region when they open a Magnum to pour you a glass, awesome. We have had a wonderful time in France and enjoyed the countryside. Good food, great wines from Bordeaux, great champayne and Heineken beers. The smoking here is something we don't miss in eating areas and bars and you can't really escape it here.  All in all a wonderful time.
Other Entries

Comments

Debbie
2019-06-01

Sounds and looks amazing!!

2025-02-10

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank