After the encounter with the taxi on Monday morning, we decided to get the Metro to get to the departure point for our Champagne Region Tour - it all went fine, including a line change, until we came up the wrong exit and took off down a street which we suddenly realised was not the Rue Des Pyramides at all! We asked a few passers by for directions but drew a blank until one bloke gave us a vague direction and then Google Maps got us to the Tour Office right on time!
Our group was only 18 people, of which half were Portuguese, and we had the use of a huge coach, so there was plenty of room to spread out.
The guide was a Frenchman with a very strong accent and that combined with the fact that he had to repeat everything in Portuguese, made for a rather stilted commentary!
The journey to Reims was about 130kms - around 90 minutes - and after a short introduction and a few details of the day our guide promptly fell asleep and left us to enjoy the trip!
Despite the lack of information the views along the A4 freeway were superb! Rolling hills and beautiful farming land, as well as large forested areas! Some of the nicest looking countryside I have ever seen!
On arriving in Reims, a city of over 200,000 people, we went straight to the G H Mumm cellars for a tour. Luckily we had our own English speaking guide who was very knowledgeable and gave us a great insight into how the champagne is made! We walked through some of the 25kms of tunnels which hold over 25,000,000 bottles of French Champagne! Wow! Then we had a tasting of ONE glass of bubbly before being lead into the shop and left to purchase some of the products and accessories! One glass! Bloody long way to drive for one glass!
But anyway, it was back on the coach and around to the huge Cathedral in Reims that had been bombed heavily by the Germans in WW2. We had 2 hours free time, so we had a quick look inside the dim and dark interior of the Cathedral, before finding a cafe to escape the rain and the chilling wind (it was 9 degrees) and having some lunch and a carafe of delicious white wine made in the region! Naturally champagne was way too expensive to drink!!!!
After lunch we drove over to another town, Epernay, which is one of the prettiest little places you could wish to see! On the freeway to Reims we had seen no vines growing at all, but once we crested a ridge and made our way into the long valley that contains the 34,000 hectares of vineyards that is called the Champagne Region, the views of all the little villages surrounded by all the vines was mind blowing! Unfortunately, this tour had no provision for photo stops and so we snapped away through the coach windows, usually getting power poles, trees and mostly a very blurry picture! Very disappointing, but the views will stay with us for ages!
We drove up the "Avenue of Champagne" in Epernay, seeing all the famous names - Tattinger, Moët, Pol Roger etc on the the ancient buildings that are their headquarters. The Tour usually stops at Moët, but the building is undergoing massive restoration and so our second and final stop was Mercier.
The tour there, once again through the kilometres of tunnels, was a little unusual, with us hopping on a little infra-red beam guided, electric train with an audio headset! It was very well done and finished in the tasting room with once again a ONE glass tasting! Sheesh!
Then it was back on the coach and a drive along the La Marne River at the foot of the valley, through all the vineyards and villages, getting back onto the freeway and back to Paris.
The tour was a great insight into this famous region and we were all well satisfied with the day, despite the lack of tastings!
We caught the Metro back to the very convenient stop on St Germain Boulevard, about 150 metres from our hotel, and decided to have a couple of happy hour Hoegaardens and a snack before heading to our rooms!
Tomorrow is our last day here in Paris, so we will catch up on a few sights and then do some laundry and re packing of the cases before we fly out to Milan on Friday morning!