Champaign Region
We are spending a long week end in Reims. It’s champagne country. I have booked 3 tours of champagne houses and promised Jeff there would be a couple of other sights to see too, It is starting to warm up so we will enjoy going down in the caves of the champagne houses. We get in on Thursday afternoon and I have booked the first 2 for the next day. Happily our hotel is close to the train station and even better it has an afternoon happy hour with several Aussies we have English speaking people to talk with. We learn of a nearby touristy area and of a restaurant that the 2 groups recommend: us and another patron promptly book it for the evening.
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| Reims Train Station Not sure if this is on exhibit or in transit |
We get to the area early and wander around in search of what sounds like a marching band. A couple of blocks in we find them. It is a group of 30ish people playing for donations and yes it is a version of a marching band - lots of saxophones, drummer and several other brass instruments. Onto our restaurant. One person had mentioned bottomless french fries and a very good sauce. We get what is called the double plate. Turns out literally we eat our salad and then our meat and french fry plate and they come by and refill our meat and ask if we need more french fries too. We are good with the fries thanks. Happily, too there is a jazz trio playing so it was quite an enjoyable evening and good start to this part of the trip.
Taittinger
Our first stop is Taittinger. I chose this one to visit because their wine caves include parts of an old Benedictine Abbey.
Let me back up here for a minute. Part of what makes this region of the country unique is that underneath the topsoil is stone that is chalk located in the crayeres quarries. The chalk is good for 2 reasons. 1. It holds the water so if there is a drought the plants' roots can get water from the chalk. 2. It is relatively easy to dig tunnels into it resulting in the caves with an ideal constant temperature and humidity level. There are an incredible amount of tunnels under the city of Reims and the nearby town of Epernay. When I say incredible, I mean multiple levels of caves going down up to 40 meters below ground and equaling 200 kms (125 miles) under Reims for all the champagne houses; 41km for Taittinger alone. And there are more tunnels under Epernay.
Okay back to Taittinger. How did parts of an abbey become part of their wine caves? Well long before it was a champagne house, it was a Benedictine Abbey (they have a mockup of the abbey in the visitor center). During the revolution, the abbey was sold and plundered and then years later sold again. Early in the 20th century the Taittinger family became owners and champagne makers. To this day it is still a family business.
We watch a movie and then head down to the caves. An interesting thing is that the lighting is all amber hued (no it is not for the sea turtles my Gulf Shores friends). The amber lighting is protecting the liquid in the bottles - less light on them is a good thing. Thus, our photos have an amber glow to them. As we walk, we learn about the process. Much to my surprise most of the process is done by hand. No machine picking of the grapes. Some use of a machine for riddling, but some bottles are still done by hand too. When I said picking the grapes is done by hand that means they hire 8,000 temporary workers for a month or so to move from field to field picking grapes and doing a "light" crushing quite close to the field. Taittinger, finds lodging and feeds all of these people! The logistics, yikes!! Taittinger is one of the larger champagne houses in the area and while they have a lot of their own fields they also work with others who abide by their ecological goals.
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| Half of a face carved when this was an Abby |
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| Children’s carving |
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| From the right Half bottle, bottle, Magnum 1.5L The Nebuchadnezzar on left is 15L or 20 standard bottles |
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| WW I solder’s poem |
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| Tasting room |
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| Our tasting menu Bottle on left is a commemorative FIFA bottle Bottle on right was our favorite |
Ruinart
From Taittinger, we headed to Maison du Ruinart. It is one of the very oldest champagne houses. We have a tour booked for the afternoon, but first we are going to their bar for a light lunch. It is a nice setting for lunch with some people outside in a shaded garden area and we are inside at a table. It is getting warmer each day, so we are enjoying a relatively cool spot. After lunch, we join our tour where we learn that there was a monk who was a compatriot of Dom Perignon the father of champagne. This monk was a member of the Ruinart family and that is how they got in the champagne business. The house is no longer family owned but rather part of the LVMH so a big luxury brand. Like Taittinger, they want to exude a sense of elegance or refinement, thus we have some unusual artwork that has been commissioned by them - see the wood on the corner of the building in the photo below. It had just been installed and was by a Japanese artist, doubt I will run out and buy any of his work. After some talk about the house, we head down to their caves.
They have some of the deepest caves in Reims. Their caves go down to 40 meters, and we will work our way down to it. They only have 8km of caves. These caves were first dug out for the stones and then later were turned into champagne caves. While lots and lots of bottles of champagne are down here so is a little artwork, then it is time for the tasting. We are in what looks like a living room. It is a room in the old chateau from the 1700s or so when one of the Ruinarts bought it. While their champagne is nice, we agree that the last one at Taittinger is still our favorite.
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| Left room is art installation |
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| Millions of bottles |
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| Art |
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| Not part of the former Abby, but I liked the shadows |
Notre Dame Cathedral of Reims
Within France, Reims' reputation is not limited to champagne. It is here at the Cathedral of Notre Dame that 33 of the 39 kings were crowned. (Yes, every city has its own Notre Dame Cathedral). It is a large very nice cathedral with gorgeous stained-glass windows. No coronation chairs or anything like that off to the side. There is a nice small chapel for Joan of Arc. She helped bring one of the kings here during the 100 years war so he could be crowned.
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| Joan of Ark |
The Surender Museum
Now this little gem was stumbled upon during my what else can we do there studying. It was literally across the street and down the block from our hotel. In a school during the latter part of WWII, General Eisenhower set up base in the teacher's lounge of a school while it was and still is an active school. They basically set up a secret war room here, where they were close to the front but not too close. What got it in my readings was that this is where the surrender agreement was signed by the German army commanders ending the war in Europe. There would later be a more ornate signing elsewhere, but this is where it really happened and much to Jeff's delight, they left everything in the room as it was as the war was ending. You could see maps on the walls with units marked, numbers of prisoners taken, weather reports, etc. Outside of the room there are displays about the war in Reims.
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| Street art on side of school where war room museum is housed |
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| The room where the war in Europe ended |
Perrier Jouet
After our quick hour in the museum, we head for the train station to catch a train to Epernay. Many say Epernay is the true heart of champagne country. We have 1 more tour booked and plan on walking on Champagne Boulevard too. I had stumbled across a blog from a young American lady who lives in France and used her write up of the area for a plan for us. She ate lunch at Perrier Jouet. We did too on their "all day menu" so we didn't need a reservation and the servings were smaller. We of course shared a glass of their champagne - purely scientific comparison. One thing is very different about this house from the other 2 we have visited. While everything is quite nice here, it is calmer and full of things with flowers on them. The champagne bottles have flowers painted on them; the flutes we drink from have flowers on them. They have a "tree" with glass leaves, a unique bottle and glass holder with flowers. it is a refreshing change. Afterwards as we walk along the Champagne Boulevard, I see a house that says Perrier- Jouet and even its front door has the floral motif.
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| Wine glasses like blossoms on a tree |
Moet Chandon
Final house. The blogger had really enjoyed this tour, or I might have chosen a different house. It was a good tour. We are back in the world of opulence. We start the tour with a walk through an area with beaded designs that are often a couple of feet tall. Honestly, I forget why they had them made, but they were made by some of the craftsmen who make pieces for the couture houses. They are quite lovely. We have the crown, which is their symbol, we have a horse, a portion of the statue of liberty, a bottle of champagne spritzing. Then we go to another dark room where we watch a movie about their process and history. The room has some artifacts too like a very old partial wine barrel, but no photos due to glare. Then we head into the cellars. Like all of the other cellars these are UNESCO world heritage sites. Their cellar walls look different at times. They have had to reinforce some of their walls and have even covered a few spots with concrete thus the different looks. We see a really old barrel that had been given to the family from Napolean III and is in a place of honor. We also learn that they hand stack all of the bottles in these long side passageways and will put a bottle on top with numbers representing vineyard information, date and how many bottles there are in that location. Again, we are down quite low in the ground. They too like Taittinger, do all the picking by hand and thus hires a thousand temporary workers for the harvest. Our guide says it is quite the logistical challenge and somehow, I have the feeling she has been a part of that process. We finish the tour and head up to the tasting room. Happily, the tasting room is still underground - first level of the tunnels although it is nicely finished. The heat wave has hit and none of us on the tour bothered with a coat to stay warm underground, we wanted to be cool for a while! We tasted an extra brut and its corresponding rose extra brut. Much to our surprise, we really like the rose. We decide to take a chance and buy a bottle, and our tour guide wraps it up in a lot of bubble wrap for us. Before coming to Reims, Jeff had asked me how much we were buying. I said I was limiting myself to 1 bottle and would only do that after I had tasted them all. I was very tempted at Taittinger, but the thought of that expensive of a bottle of champagne potentially breaking in transport was too high for me. Both of us like this bottle of Moet and Chandon so hopefully Alabama here it comes.
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| Gift from Napoleon |
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| More modern tunnels |
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| Thousands of bottles |
