Amazing (Reims)

with a nod to Alex Lloyd, it's his song. Today was my 37th day driving in France. You know my opinion of French drivers, dedicated reader, so you will be surprised to learn that after nearly 6,000km of travel, today we saw the remnants of our first accident! That is truly amazing. Amazing enough that we both remarked upon it and Jayne actually calculated how many days we've been on the road in France. Thankfully, our car is still relatively unscathed, except for some minor door scrapes that we can't explain and a small mark on the passenger side mirror that I may speak of one day if you ply me with enough bubbly inducement.

Last night

Last evening was meet the guests night. Not all of our gite hosts have done this, but most have and it's a great way to learn about the area. In the situation where there are multiple gites it is also a way to meet people. We always knew it would be difficult, Christian has as much English as I have French, so that left Jayne and Catherine with their smattering of the other language. Cleverly, Christian and Catherine invited a friend, Anna, who also spoke a little English.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I am hopeless at these functions and Jayne is superlative. As always, things start a little slowly until the alcohol provides some assistance. Christian produced an unlabelled bottle of champagne. I thought it may have just been a cleanskin, but no, he is a retired champagne maker. Retired in the sense that he no longer produces for commercial sale, but his 25 acres still produces. Rather a nice drop too. We spent 2 and a half hours chatting slowly about our 2 countries and, although we went to take our leave a couple of times, another bottle of champagne was produced. Anna, who had driven to our hosts' house, clearly was not worried that she might be pulled over by the RBT on her way home. Probably RBT would not be well-received by the industry here although the houses are always quick to remind patrons about responsible consumption of alcohol. Eventually we made our farewells amid many merci beaucoups and bonsoirs and came home to a cup of tea and bed - the French were then going to have dinner - clearly they have more stamina than we do.

Reims

We had intended to set out for Mercier, one of the champagne houses in Epernay that does tours, this morning. However, a load of washing and a Skype call home made us a tad late for that, so we headed straight to Reims. And for the second time the GPS took us straight to where Jayne wanted and there was plenty of above ground parking.

The towers were never completed.

After wandering aimlessly for a while, we located a landmark that was of use and would get us to the Tourist Bureau where we could get a town map. While there we talked to them about getting an audio-guide for the Cathedral and Palais du Tau. I'm not sure if the woman who served us understood the concept of tourism, she was not particularly helpful. Despite her, we managed to get the guides and head to the Cathedral, Notre Dame, Reims.  As Bruce MacAveney would say, "special". The windows, the restoration work, it was just beautiful. We actually visited Reim in 2003 for about an hour on a bus trip - that is no way to do things people - so we are keen to see what photos we have at home. The audio-guide ensured we spent almost 2 hours in the Cathedral. I have so many pictures I'm not sure at this point what to include.

The smiling angel.

We returned to the Tourist Bureau where we surrendered our audio-guides and made our way across the plaza to the Palais du Tau. There, we found that the guides were also for there! Grrrrrr! I told you that woman wasn't helpful. In the end it probably wasn't a bad thing, as it would have halved our time there.

A re-furbished gargoyle.

The Palais itself now houses many of the original pieces from the Cathedral. As things were replaced, the original was moved to the palais. There were numerous statues, in various states of decline and tapestry after tapestry, artifacts from the coronation of Charles X and chalices and other objects from centuries ago used in Mass. One of the most fascinating rooms contained pictures of the Cathedral after the fire in 1914 and then subsequent bombings in the First World War. What they have done to bring it back to it's former glory is incredible.

 

Lunch

Lunch always deserves its own title in France, after all, most of the country shuts down for 2 hours. While at the Tourist Bureau in the morning, I spied a brochure for the Cafe du Palais and decided we should lunch there. It was a short stroll from the Cathedral. 

It was a great choice. After almost ordering tripe yesterday afternoon, we read the menu carefully. We both had scallops and prawns with salad, accompanied by the house champagne - a half bottle, I still had to drive. The food was delicious. The champagne also passed muster. And then? Dessert. OMG! We walked for an hour straight after lunch and I believe dessert is still with me. Jayne had ice cream made from rose biscuits. They are a local delicacy that you have with champagne. (They only sell them in really large quantity). I had a plate that had a chocolate pot, some rose ice cream, cake and a short black. Sigh! Heaven.

Mumm

After lunch we needed a walk, so we decided to walk the 1.5 km to Taittinger to see if they were offering tours in English. Nice walk, despite the increasing heat as the clouds cleared. Tours yes, English no. That meant a 2 km walk to Mumm. And isn't that typical, things don't work out so we go for mum (everybody needs their mum and it is mothers' day in France very soon).

Underneath my house ... I wish.

We arrived to tag into the last English tour of the day. We did the Moet tour in 2003 and it was far more impressive.  Anyway, we did the tour and saw all the usual things: long rows of bottles, kms and kms of cellar, really old precious wine ... and then ended up at the tasting. Remember I said that our host Christian was a champagne maker? We asked last night what Houses he rated. Jayne suggested Mumm and there was a shrug of the shoulders. We should have listened. Their 2004 vintage, €37 a bottle was the best tasting they had and I preferred the €20 bottle we picked up at the supermarket. As for their "popular" release? I would wash my socks in it. It was, as they say in France, merde.

Life wasn't meant to be easy

The walk to the car was fine, although we couldn't see an auto-teller anywhere and I need to have around €1600 in cash for the rent in Paris tomorrow. Back to the car, found the pay station and it doesn't take notes and wouldn't take any credit or debit card I offered. Frustration. Went to another pay station. Same story. We didn't have enough coin to pay, so we had to find a shop to buy a bottle of aqua and asked for the change in coin. Thankfully, it accepted the coin and set us free of the car park for our next adventure.

And yes, the next adventure involved our duelling GPS systems. Neither could find us or offer anything. It's OK, I thought, I know where we came in headed for there. Sitting safely at the lights, Sybil still didn't have a clue where we were (even though she navigated us in) Jayne says, "John wants you to turn right". I should have know better, but complied. As soon as we'd turned the corner, Jayne said, "he now wants you to do a U-turn". From that point for the next 20 minutes, in peak hour traffic, I was guided to turn into one-way streets, the wrong way and didn't, or to complete a U-turn across 6 lanes of traffic. I declined that one too. I was not happy, and those of you that know me well will know how NOT HAPPY I was. Enough said.

And that dear reader brings me from the point where we saw the car accident to being safely home, and calmed and cleansed by the cathartic experience of writing this blog and sipping on a glass of Rothschild Brut. Tomorrow we go to an arranged champagne tasting at Larmandier-Bernier at Vertus (the bubbles we drink at home) and then, sans car, we head for Paris!!