Champagne Country Tour

After an amazing time in Versailles, we got back to Paris and boarded the TGV for Reims, the capitol of Champagne. The TGV, of course, is France's high speed train and it did not disappoint. Hubby was a little miffed on the train from Frankfurt to Paris because it wasn't going super fast, but this one was hitting a top speed of 320 kph (198+ mph).

Needless to say, we made it to Reims in a cool 46 minutes, right on time. We went to our spiffy hotel for the evening to prepare for our guided tour the next day.

We woke up Saturday and made our way to the tourist office next to the train station where we met up with our guide and the rest of our group. There were 6 of us total in a minivan - me, hubby, a couple from Surrey, England, and a French Canadian woman who couldn't have been sweeter :-). A great bunch for sure.

The group started off toward Épernay, a city slightly south of Reims that has most of the big Champagne houses and cellars. While en route we stopped for some views and history:

We drove past Bollinger, 007's Champagne of choice :-)

More views (and you can see a little flooding, too):

Soon we were pulling into the Moet & Chandon parking lot for our Champagne cellar tour. Parts were pretty moist...

Tons of bottles....

Oh yeah - Napoleon stole this from the Germans while it was on its way to the country to give to a friend. It's the thought that counts, right?

At the end we got to have a glass, yay!

We were swayed and bought a bottle. While we were checking out we found out that the person assisting us had actually been born in Mainz. Small world! He seemed excited.

On to lunch: Our group had actually been split into two vans so we met up with the others to have this absolutely delicious lunch with, I think, 6-8 different kinds of Champagne. We also got to try their regional liquor (and bought a bottle, yum!)

Our lunch spot in the cutest little French town:

This food was amazing - and the huge macaron at the end was raspberry and peanut butter! Swoon.

More views on the way to the smaller Champagne house:

And we stopped by Dom Perignon's final resting place! Aaahhh!

Here's the cellar in the smaller Champagne house, after we toured the bottling facility.

All in all, quite the bubbly day. I'd definitely recommend our tour group, France Bubble Tours.

Next post: I'll share our adventures staying in Reims and (sadly) leaving France.