From grape to glass

After a long and late night of eating and drinking our way through the Marais quarter of Paris with our friends from London, Dan, Laci and Paul the night before, we had to wake up fairly early the next morning to check out of hotels and make our way to Champagne country. Laci and Paul got the TGV through to Reims, while we and Dan hoovered down some cafe au laits and croque madames before getting the train to Paris CDG airport to pick up our little Dacia Sandero car, which will take us from Paris all the way through France, Spain and Italy and will be dropped off in Rome.

Champagne caves of Ruinart

We picked up the car without too much drama and Ryan got behind the wheel and quickly adjusted to the left hand drive and manual gears  and 130km freeway speed limit on the. We arrived in Reims, Champagne country where we met up again with Laci and Paul and got a quick bite to eat before heading off on some champagne cellar tours - Ruinart for us and Dan, and Taittinger for Laci and Paul (as they had already seen Ruinart). The tour was great - only 10 or so of us being taken around the dark and damp caves of Ruinart (the oldest established champagne house) where the chalk cellars wind for 8km and 38m below ground, and they were quite beautiful, not to mention full of millions of bottles of champagne literally in the making. We finished off the tour with 2 glasses of Ruinart (a blanc de blanc and a rose) outside in the warm sun in the gardens while chatting to Sebastian, the friendly and enthusiastic guide and another couple from Paris. It was a pretty enjoyable afternoon to say the least.

Having a taste of Ruinart (>$130 a bottle) post caves tour

After Ruinart we met up with Laci and Paul, and all squished into the little Dacia Sandero to drive on to Epernay, a 20 minute drive away where we were all spending the night. Reims is quite a big town/city, so Epernay seemed a nice town to spend a day or two where we could just walk around. 

The view from our hotel window!

We checked into our respective hotels, and to my delight our little cheap hotel had a great location, and although we had to haul our bags up 2 flights of stairs we had an amazing church right outside our window! Not bad for 55 euros a night.

Champagne tasting accompanied with foie gras

After meeting up again with our mates (post glass of Mercier of course - this is how they roll here) we then went through a wander around Epernay which we grew to love. We all decided on a place to settle in for dinner, and had steaks in various forms - for me I had my first steak tartare which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Heidi's first steak tartare

So we all enjoyed some French brasserie fare......  and then all went home via a night cap at the bar just near our hotel after what was a great day of champagne tasting.