Reims to Epernay ( Champagne )

Arrive back from Oostvoorne to find we are now parked  NOT by a road , but the road has been turned into a summer street festival for families, running for 10 days. ( luckily closing at 8pm)
We are a little concerned about the pedillo boats on the river but luckily they seem to all go the other way up the canal.


21st July  Picked up Don and Elaine from the Gare ( Train Station ) and back at the boat introduced them to a street party alongside the moorings then a few drinks and showed them the light show on the Cathedral at 11PM. … Stunning once again.
22nd July.. Cycled to visit The Pommery Champagne House and had a tour and tasting.  


24th July. Set off for Epernay, ( The centre of Champagne district). and introduced Don and Elaine to the locks. A doddle. The weather at the moment is hot and cloudless. The scenery is green and serene, with distant hills covered with vineyards but just too far away to photograph. Only did 10k today and moored in Sillery which is yet another quaint French village. As it is Monday everything is closed. Had dinner on boat and enjoyed a beautiful night.

25th July Off again and in front of us is The Billy-le-grand tunnell, just  2.302m long but this time it is well lit. We are only 4 M wide and the tunnel is 5M wide. After 40min of shear concentration, ( not sure I breathed too much during the whole time )  and excellent boat handelling we emerged into brilliant sunshine. Time to stop and pull over for a well deserved lunch. Hands still shaking and would like a siesta but off again through another 8 locks and moored at Conde-sur-Marne. This is where we change Canals and enter the Canal Lateral a la Marne. Another hot evening in the sun under a tree with the chairs and of course wine.





Conde-sue-Marne..We all got up early on 26th and cycled into town for bread. But somehow couldn’t find bread but found a small champagne house OPEN. Samples a few glasses (pre-breakfast)and of course bought a bottle. Then eventually found bread for breakfast.


Off to Mareuil-sur Ay, and it was such a hot day, 30 ‘ in the shade that all we wanted was cool  shade and a light breeze… so found lovely spot, moored, and we slept all afternoon in chairs under the trees. Then at 5pm the obiligitary wine and cheese before dinner. ( with an excellent beaujolais bought by Don) . Which we have now learnt best served chilled

FINALLY reaching EPERNAY.!!
Elaine cycling ahead of us for exercise on our way.


Entering the region of Epernay and finally just surrounded by vineyards on all the hills- the Champagne grapes…yum yum.

Epernay is in a region of the Champagne district, where the hills are called The Cotes des Blancs owing to the Chardonnay vines that thrive in the limestone and chalk soil here facing due east. The home of Moet et Chandon and Mercier.
They only use Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes from the area to make the champagne and still most is hand picked to ensure only the best are used. There are over 1000 champagne houses in the total area,(awsome eh!) some that own their own vines or they buy from one of the 49 groups of villages in the area..
Some houses leave their basic brut for 4-6 years in the chalk caves,and the special champagnes for up to 7-10 years. Millions are sold each year and in between there are several hundred million bottles ripening in the 120kms or more of tunnels under the region, where the ambient temp is 12-14 degrees.
Castellane Champagne House, Epernay. (Free tickts from the Captainaire at the Marina.)
80% sold in France, 10% Belguim and the rest???? Tasted very nice, thankyou.
This house has its own 6km of cellars under the town..out of a total of 100kms!!!!!


Off on our bikes for more discoveries…..
More tasting at Paul-Etienne Saint Germain,…….    and max with his purchase

Some great champagne houses in Epernay.

Back to Oostvoorne for the car and more parties!

Sat 14th July, Bastille day.

As we are off from Reims to Oostvoorne in Holland to pick up the car, we ( Max) decided to purchase a padlock and chain to fix the boat to the bollard as some mongrels may  release your boat at night and you float away. !!

Caught train from Reims to Rotterdam which took 4.25 hrs with change in Paris—Cost 150 euros one way each!!!  First time we have seen VINEYARDS and it was from a train.!!

Weather also crap in Holland. Thank-god for merino thermals. Bill picked us up from the metro and we are staying on his beautiful boat Kaprikorn 1.

Had a good catch up with John and Maureen from Yorkshire and Bill and Min from Portsmouth at the old marina then off to the Mariner Bar. It all felt a bit like coming home as we has stayed there for 5 weeks at the beginning of our adventures.

Went clay shooting again as a treat for Johns birthday and I am afraid to say I was not so good this time.

Had good few days staying on Bills boat and had JOHNS BIRTHDAY PARTY on the Monday. It was meant to be on a island off the marina with deck chairs, tent and BBQ. Instead it was a large tent in the even larger boat shed as its was pissing down with a force 7 wind!!!.

Left on tues and went to catch up with our friends Bart and Lia in Brussels for a night. Good food and times again!!!  Marc ( the camera man, who got us tickets to the WTCC in Valencia last year)  and Liddie arrived for a drink as well.

On the way back to the boat just outside Brussels, we visited Waterloo where the memorial is for the battle that took place between Duke of Wellington and Napoleon in 1815. Very graffic pictures of the battle ..amazing. We climbed the 425 stairs to the top of the hill, built to commemorate the 300,000 men from 7 nations that fought against each other.  Here the huge bronze Lion stands proud, with his paw protecting the world, and was supposed to bring lasting piece to Europe.(.shame Hilter didn’t see it.)

The boat was still where we left it in Reims,( luckily Max had pad-locked and chained it to the bollard), but we found a children’s festival in the setting up stages which will run for the next  9 days. It starts on Saturday so we will only suffer one night, and it will be quieter than the cars speeding along the road after 8pm. The only real worry is that they are having pedillos on the canal right next to our boat..so maybe we should put some more fenders out.

Spent friday finding my Uncles ( Mums brother ) grave from when he was shot down over France in 1944 in a Lancaster. Driving through the countryside towards Suippes, with kms and kms of corn, maize and barley growing you suddenly come across military Cemeteries of  their fallen of the 1914-1918 war, with a French flag flying proudly. Some had graves for over 15,000 and some larger at over 40,000 men. They even had areas for the fallen Germans. Hard to imagine so many men disappearing from the local communities in such short time.

Germans…………………………and ….French………………………………………

We found James Stanley Calder’s grave in Souain,30 mins outside Reims. The grave was with the other 6 of his crew, who were all British. The graves were very tidy and looked well kept in the small village communal cemetery. It felt good to find him and honour him. We left a kiwi flag and picked some wild red poppies from the next door field and left them on his grave.

We then drove on  for 2.5 hrs to see where our winter mooring might be in Migennes, on the river Yonne ,just south of Paris. Looks Ok so will book in there. Its run by an English guy so language will not be a problem. (hehe) and only 4 and a bit hours from Calais by Tom Tom.!!! . We can leave her out of the water, polish and clean her and check for damage before we finally leave her tucked up in her winter tent.  

Reims Cathedral by night

An amazing light show run daily at 2300 hrs. ( cos it doesn’t get dark till then!)

 

 

Laser lights can change everything.!!!!

 

TATTINGER < tour and tasting.

Started by the Fourneaux family in 1734 in Reims, then bought by Pierre Tattinger in 1932. Still a family run business and has over 618 acres of vineyards, the grapes still being only hand picked. The 15 million bottles are stored, maturing in the ancient Gallo-roman chalk galleries and crypts of the old 13c Abbaye, St-Nicaise.

Lucy has over 72,000 bottles behind her in one of the many tunnels.

 

Who is that sauve fellow?