France 2013 - Reims, Champagne

So it all started on House Hunters International.

Gina saw an episode featuring Strasbourg and here we are.  We knew we wanted to go to Paris again, but this time we decided to spend some time travelling around first, and after seeing this episode, our itinerary was sealed.

After a long flight, we knew we would not be able to drive the whole way to Strasbourg, it is about a 300 mile drive from Paris.  We looked for a place that would get us part of the way there and discovered Reims.  Reims is at heart of Champagne country, and is right off of A4, the autoroute to Strasbourg.  It took us about one hour and forty-five minutes to get here, about all I could drive after the overnight flight.

Our hotel is about 200 yards from a Champagne producer, Pommery, which made it easy for us to tour yesterday, despite our passport incident.  The tour began by descending 116 steps (30 meters) into caves carved from a chalk mine.  The chalk mine dates from Roman times, and serves the purpose of keeping a consistent temperature of 10 degrees celsius, 50 degrees fahrenheit.  Pommery uses these caves as the place that they age their champagne.  It is amazing how many caves there are, but you do need a lot of space to age 28,000,000 bottles of champagne (not a typo).

The 30 minute tour was followed by a quick tasting (one glass).  A 30 minute tour was enough for us, I am sure champagne connoisseurs would want something more in depth, possibly the 60 minute tour.

In the evening we drove into the downtown of Reims.  A very nice city, but deserted on a Sunday.  We quickly toured some of the sights of Reims, including the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Mars Gate, which dates from the 3rd century, when Rome controlled this area.

We've enjoyed our stay in the hotel, the grounds are beautiful, and Gina can't stop talking about the club sandwich she had for lunch.  And though she could not believe that I was not disappointed by the plate of jambon placed in front of me, I must say it was one of the best dishes I have eaten.