you make me dizy miss lizzy (Champillon)

no, I haven't spelled it incorrectly, Dizy is the next village to where we are staying amongst the grape vines that produce the grapes that make the best bubbles in the world.

To the dedicated few who have been following us all the way, you will have noted that we have been a little slack with publication of late. Yesterday was a transit day and the day before we finished with a party at the gite because 6 of us were heading in different directions.

The view from our window.

We are now happily ensconced on the hillside in Champillon, in the middle of the Champagne region. Sadly, Saturday is another transit day, but happily, it will take us to Paris where we'll settle for 12 days.

And I believe that we need to welcome a new reader, hello Maureen Q. I know you've seen all of these sights, so it will be great to swap stories when we return home.

Charles de Gaulle

I've seen bigger.

The General and ex-president, not the airport, lived in a little place called Colomby les deux Eglises, which just happened to be en route to Champillon. Always looking to break up a 4 hour + drive, we detoured to visit his house and the museum and admire the monolithic cross of Lorraine that dominated the hillside.

The house was lovely and full of memorabilia, not all of it politically correct - like the huge polished elephant tusks inside the front door - but most things were presents from other Heads of State. The country side was absolutely beautiful and peaceful. It was easy to see why he chose to raise his family and retire here.

The lift was shaped like his hat. Cool.

The museum was a short drive away and was situated beneath the cross of Lorraine. When we went inside and they handed us an audio-guide each I knew we were going to be late. Audio-guide = 3 hours (at least). The war history and de Gaulle's involvement was fascinating, but the later stuff on his career as President didn't do much for me. By the time 2pm had been and gone I was thinking of lunch and another 2 hours of driving, so we moved through the last part fairly quickly. I think it is fair to say that the French love Charles de Gaulle.

The Champagne Trail

No caption required!

We headed out this morning to follow the Champagne Trail from Epernay through to Sezanne. It was a very scenic drive and probably the best sign-posted I've seen in France. There were a number of interesting sights along the way, including an 8 metre high champagne bottle. Sadly for Jayne it wasn't full.

What is that?

The tourist guide warned of narrow country lanes. Clearly they haven't driven in the south; the roads were fine and not very crowded, so it was relatively easy to pull over and take some scenic shots. Or some not-so-scenic ones. This thing dominated the landscape in the same way the cross of Lorraine did in Columby. When I took the shot, neither of us had any idea what it was. It turned out to be the memorial for the battle of Marne from World War 1. And it doesn't look a great deal more attractive close up either, although you can at least read the inscription.

Proof.

So, there was lots of driving through vineyards and wheat crops and canola. The white chalky-limestone soils were evident everywhere. Any Frenchman will tell you it is the terroir that is important, not the grape variety. Which is why it is easy to find out what a region a wine is from, but not so easy to find out the grape variety. Anyway, today we saw definite proof of terroir tampering. There was a new field that was being prepared for planting and in piles every few metres was the precious terroir! Soil tampering! we cried.

And tomorrow?

Sadly, more of the same, except we are heading for Reims to revisit the cathedral we did not have time to tour properly in 2003 because we were there on a day bus trip from Paris and to do a tour of a Reims based champagne house.