July 31st – 2011 Epernay, Champagne Region
John here journaling: We started our day with a simple breakfast at the Royal Champagne and feeling very privileged to have the opportunity. We planned a day in nearby Epernay visiting a champagne bar and store and in the afternoon a tour of a Champagne House, and later we would head back to Paris.
Our first stop was the wine bar and shop recommended by the hotel. There we tried four different champagnes. Luckily for us, we had a 100% American young lady from Seattle to help us with the wines and explain the differences. She is from Seattle, attending University of Washington, in France for a semester and staying with a host family in Paris. After the semester was over, the host family took her with to visit friends in Champagne, and she ended with a job for the summer in the wine shop. Her French was pretty good from her recent immersion with the host family.
Our second stop was the Mercier Vineyard, complete with 10 miles of wine caves and a laser-guided electric train in which you traveled for the tour. The train ride covered the history of the winery and the entire process of making champagne was explained to us by very knowledgeable young men.
Grapes are pressed and fermented in stainless steel tanks for 1, 2, or 3 years. Three types of grapes are used - pinot noir, pinot menuiere, and chardonnay. Blanc de blanc made from chardonnay, and is lighter. Many brut cuvees are a mix of all three grapes with only a small amount of chardonnay. After first fermentation, then still white or rose wine is bottled and additional sugar and yeast added. Second fermentation takes place in the bottle. The gas has nowhere to go, so it dissolves into wine. Bottles are laid in racks and carefully turned a quarter-turn at a time many times over at least 16 months (at Mercier for two years). During this time, all the debris from 2nd fermentation goes to neck of bottle. Then the bottles are put into a minus 20 degrees ice bath, the debris freezes, bottle is opened and the gas pressure expels the plug of frozen debris (called disgorgement). Then a final amount of sugar is added to make difference between sec, semi-sec, and brut. The bottles are corked, wired, labeled and sealed; then laid down for two more months or more before being sold. In was interesting to hear the entire process.
At this point I’ll turn the story over to Carol….
As most of you know we are doing a home exchange and I’m not sure if we have mentioned it but this exchange included a car and a navigating system, a Tom Tom. We named her Marie obviously for Marie Antoinette. John has done a terrific job driving all over the north of France but we have commented many times, what would we do without Marie? As in the song lyrics “I’ll take you there..” Marie took us from cow path to motorway and roundabout after roundabout.
Aleur, we got in the car happy about our experience in Champagne and ready to head back to Paris for an early evening. I reached for trusty Marie and she was not talking! We tried re-starts, turning on and off, unplugging and plugging and there was no cooperation from Marie. It was Sunday about 4:30 in France where most everything is closed not to mention a shop selling navigational systems. This is a very small area with less people, other than tasting rooms, speaking English. Finally, we decided the only option available was driving back out to the countryside to the Royal Champagne. They were so good to us and many spoke English, perhaps they could help us in some way. The thought had crossed my mind that maybe we would have to spend another night but I didn’t speak it. During the drive back out John did mention that may be our solution.
We arrived at the Chateau and walked into that beautiful parlor where the same young man who greeted us the evening before was seated at his desk. Once again he rose to greet us with a smile having no idea why we were back. I’m sure we looked pathetic and rather wild eyed for sure. There are two antique chairs in front of his desk and we promptly seated ourselves and told our story to he and his female colleague. They listened and when we were finished they said, “so sorry but how can we help you?” Well, it turns out they thought our car had broke down so they were relieved when they understood it was only our navigational system. He said it would be no problem he could quickly Google a map. We thanked him and at about the same time we both reached the conclusion that although we could go all over California and most of the US (barring NYC perhaps) with a Google map, we didn’t see how that was going to work for us this evening. The motorways would be one thing but once closer into the city itself there are too many lanes switches, tunnels and inability to see street signs.
Of course his other solution was giving us a good price for another night with them and in the morning we could go directly to the closest larger town and purchase a new system. By now we were laughing and happily agreed this was a good solution to our problem. In moments we were transported to the same round table where again we were served champagne and Madelaines while they checked to see if our room was ready.
There was a British family who we had seen at dinner and breakfast who were relaxing at the next table. They heard our dilemna and asked if there was some way they could help as they also drove a BMW X5. Of course there was no way they could help but a one hour conversation ensued about everything from the world economy, to Great Britain’s National Health Care, Norway, immigration and so it went. We enjoyed their very mature and poised 16 and 18 year olds and had a chance to hear about their plans for their education. Those of you that follow our journals know that these chance meetings greatly enhance our experience.
After relaxing and visiting we returned to our room and settled in not sure where we would have dinner. Their restaurant, though lovely, was not the kind of place you (or at least we) would normally dine on back to back nights. We did take a little drive and this area is very rural so we were unable to find anything open where we would want to have dinner.
In the end we decided to return to this lovely place and my dinner was going to be an appetizer (Foie Gras of course) and a cheese course. John was hungry so went for the gusto with several courses. It was a great night and we were so much more comfortable with waiting till morning to make the trip.
It is worth noting my observations of the staff at the Royal Champagne. When the young man at the desk greeted us or brought us our champagne he always stood with the most perfect posture. He held his arms in a position that was somewhat relaxed but also at attention you could say. He always maintained that posture when working with clients. The same could be said about all the staff and certainly all the wait staff. There was absolute uniformity in how they stood, walked and conducted themselves. They spoke to each other hushed voices that could not be heard by clients. I wouldn’t want to mislead to indicate this was cold, rather very formal. And yet I had a great conversation with the young man, Luca, who served cafes at breakfast. He told me “I love to speak English.” He said he had been to America, specifically New York, once and loved it and hopes to move there. He said Americans are “so friendly.” He shared that his grandmother took him with her when he was 20 years old and her friends in America knew he was coming so when they arrived there were all these young people there to “welcome this French boy they heard was arriving.” He was so impressed by this and said, “French people are not like that, and we are more… (he struggled for the English word)….inside (interpreted meaning shy or introverted). It was good feed back to hear about our fellow Americans and I in turn complimented Luca on how kind his people had been to us during our visit.
On Monday morning, August 1st we had a light breakfast at the Royal and headed out this time dedicated to solving our problem and getting back to Paris. It was a straight shot to Reims and we had been directed to a mall that was right off the motorway. Of course in a strange country and not knowing the language a mall isn’t as easy as one would think but it only took a couple of stops to find what we needed.
We were thrilled to hear that voice when we returned to our car and got the system set up. From there we were home free and we knew it. It is amazing the difference a system makes and once again we just can’t imagine how we managed in these kinds of situation not so many years ago.
We arrived back at our flat (home sweet homoe) in the mid-afternoon ready to re-group, work on laundry and get set up for our last couple of days in Paris. The neighborhood we hadn’t discovered until we had been here a few days, the one with the view of the Eiffel Tower, has about four classic French sidewalk cafes where you can order dinner or something light. We chose one of these cafes and sat back and took this unique café atmosphere that is everything you hear about and more.
It was a great close to the evening; tomorrow we look forward to one of our last days here in this beautiful city.
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