Whelp, since I no longer have sexy stuff to discuss, I figure I can get caught up on some travel chronicles. Go back a few entries to see where I was. Then, onward…
Day 5: Woke early because I had to check out of my hotel this lovely, sunny morning as a tour van was going to pick me up at 9 am to take me on a tour of the vineyards outside of Reims and some smaller Champagne houses. I showered, drank coffee in the room, and packed up my bags to take with me because then the driver could simply drop me off at the train station when we were done.
Van came exactly on time and a tour guide named Sebastian came out and welcomed me and grabbed my bags. A family (mom, dad, baby) from Taiwan was already in the back of the van, and I said, “ni hao” to them as I entered the van and they thought it was the greatest thing in the world.
They asked me if I was fluent in Mandarin, which, of course I’m not. But they loved that I knew their hometown, Taipei. I’ve been there a few times, and don’t know a whole lot about it as I was there mainly in office buildings and factories, but still. Nice when you meet someone who’s been to your home.
We chatted briefly as Sebastian drove to another hotel to pick up two women who looked a bit younger than me. Turns out, they are from a city that’s 30 miles from where I live! They were friends and fellow geologists who were stopping through town as part of their tour around France. We got a good laugh about our proximity.
Then we went to another hotel and picked up another couple. These folks just happened to be from another town that’s just 15 miles from me! Not only that, they personally knew several people in common with the other women - the wife works in a dental office in the town where the women live!
It was getting almost weird, and I’m glad we didn’t pick any more people up because I was sure that we’d pick up someone who lives 5 miles from me or something. In a way it was really nice to have some people who are part of the culture I’m familiar with, but in another way, I came on this trip solo so that I could immerse myself in something foreign, you know? Still, even though that thought crossed my mind a few times, I didn’t let it bother me.
The guide took us outside of the city through windy road and into the countryside where we immediately saw the vineyards! A few minutes later, we were out of the van and right at the edge of a Pinot Meunier vineyard!
Sebastian gave us a lay of the land. Across the rolling hills of vineyards was the village of Epernay. It looked like a postcard. He picked up what looked like a rock, but it wasn’t…or well, it was part of the earth. And rubbed it on his clipboard. Chalk! Of course! The whole region sits on chalky ground and that’s what makes such a great base for the grapes to grow. The chalk absorbs the water in the springtime and feeds the plants throughout the hot summer. The geologists totally geeked out. So cool.
Then we drove into the very small village of Hautvillers. We toured a very small producer who had a teeny, tiny cave…similar to the caves I saw in Reims, only micro-sized. OH, to live in this village and be a Champagne maker! It was dreamy.
We did a tasting in the small tasting room. This is what tasting is all about. We sat around a table and chatted about the bubbles in a very informal, relaxed setting. We could all let our guards down and truly enjoy here, unlike at the big formal houses. Don’t get me wrong, there are plusses to each Champagne house, but this tour was by FAR the most relaxed I’d been on…ever! Smiles, laughter, JOKES! Yes!
Then we popped over to the Abbey where Dom Perignon is buried. It’s a small but beautiful church, and it was nice to look around for a bit, but I’m glad we didn’t stay long…the day was too beautiful and the Champagne was on my mind. We walked over to the marble slab that covers the body of Dom Perignon, inscribed in Latin. OK. Cool.
Then back to the tastings! We walked literally across the street to another beautiful tasting room that was also somewhat cave-looking, all white archways - just perfectly French, and sat at the giant round wooden table (made of wine barrels, of course). We tasted one kind of Champagne and then another bottle showed up and Sebastian pulled out a HUGE KNIFE and asked if anyone would like to SABER the bottle.
UM…hell yes?!
Once again, I raised my hand high. I’ve never sabered a Champagne bottle or even seen it done in person, but I wanted to get as many experiences in on this trip as I possibly could, and everyone was right behind me, cheering me on. So up we got, out of our chairs and we marched right back into the lush, green courtyard of the church of Dom Perignon where I was to pop a Champagne bottle with a sword (sort of…it was more like a machete!)!!
I could NOT believe that we were standing in Dom Perignon’s back yard, basically, and I was about to pop the top off of a Champagne bottle with a giant blade! Unbelievable!
Sebastian gave me an explanation of how it was going to be done - you take the knife along the seam of the bottle and follow the shape of the bottle to just…POP…the cork (and the top of the bottle) right off. He showed me the movements a few times as the rest of the group stood nearby and took photos. I handed my phone to one of the geologists so that she could take a video (so nice of her!). I was nervous because I had no idea if this was something that’s hard to do and if I could easily screw up. He was telling me to relax and not to use too much force. He then took the cage off the cork and stood back. I asked everyone if they were ready…took a deep breath and…swoosh with the blade - not even very hard at all…
…POP! Off came the top part of the whole bottle!! Clean, smooth break and everything - exactly as I’d seen on videos and movies and stuff. So great! Cheers and laughter erupted from our group!
And then we sashayed right back to the tasting room where we tasted the bottle I’d just sabered. Somehow it was even better than all the other Champagnes I’d tasted - combined! ha.
And then another bottle appeared (this time rose!), and Sebastian asked if someone else wanted to saber this bottle. The husband of the couple volunteered this time. And back out into Dom Perignon’s garden we went!
Three more times we went back and forth…sabering then drinking…sabering then drinking!
We must have tasted seven different types of Champagnes. This meant more than a bottle was drunk by each person. Yes, drunk. And this was a morning tour! Best wine tour I’ve ever experienced in my life. This is bucket list stuff, people, at least for me!
At the end of this tasting (or maybe it should have been called “guzzling”, I bought a bottle of the Rose Champagne, knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to bring it back with me (carrying everything), but that I’d have something to drink in the hotel with the macarons I’d be making the next day. I also bought some Biscuit Rose de Reims , which are these adorable little pink biscuits that you dip in Champagne (I did end up taking those home, but they have long since been devoured).
We all piled back into the van and chitter chatted and laughed and laughed until Sebastian got us to the train station. That was my stop as I was headed back to Paris in a little under an hour. I said goodbye to my new best friends, and the parting gift from this tour was ANOTHER bottle of Champagne from the tour company itself!
If you ever find yourself in Reims and want to experience a top notch tour to the vineyards and smaller Champagne houses, do it with these guys . They are #1 rated on Tripadvisor, and I have to agree. It’r run by a husband/wife team, they work with small groups, and it was well worth a mere 65 Euros.
I was starving and tipsy and needed something in my belly at that point, and French train station baguette sandwiches are one of my favorite foods in the world, so I got one at the food stand and I was happy as a clam.
Train came right on schedule and after an uneventful 45-minute ride, I was back in Paris! Back in the Gare d’Est with the pretty arched roof. I’d taken a nice photo on my way to Reims, and when I got to the station, I saw a different angle and wanted to get a shot of that as well, so I took a photo…no big deal, right? But a police officer saw me take this picture and came up to me and told me in French that I was not allowed to take photos (at least I’m pretty sure that’s what he said) and made me delete the photo while he watched! He was polite about it, but it was clear that there was very tight security happening at that moment, so I did what I thought he was telling me to do and he seemed fine with that and let me go on my merry way.
I knew better than to walk to my next hotel. It was a little further out than the Hotel Amour, but in the same kind of proximity as before, close to Montmartre and the Place Pigalle. I got a taxi to the hotel and started the check-in process which was really cool at this hotel.
The guy at the front desk first offered me a drink - which in this case was an expresso because I’d been drinking all morning. He then had everything prepared for me and gave me the lay of the land - complementary breakfast as well as complementary afternoon buffet of snacks, fruits, pastries, drinks. Really nice. The hotel was so whimsical I felt like I was in some kind of Alice in Wonderland type place. I loved it. I got to my room and it was adorable. Not as sexy as Hotel Amore, but all black and white decor, quirky, fun, modern and clean with a big, black and white tiled bathroom.
I decided to do some walking after I’d gotten settled into my room. I walked down to the Opera area and over to the Galleries Lafayette and wandered through a bunch of stores. Like I’d said earlier, the weather was surprisingly hot and I’d packed more for cool, Fall temps, so I did a little bit of shopping for maybe a cooler summery dress, but to no avail, really. All of the Fall merchandise was already out on the sales floors. Still, I wandered around for a couple of hours until it was dusk and I got hungry, so I went back to the hotel.
I’d searched out some cool places to have dinner, so I looked on Yelp and I’d found this hip little Thai place up the hill on Montmartre, so I asked the concierge if he could make me a reservation and he called, but they were closed on Mondays. He then suggested a place right around the corner from the hotel that might suit my needs. He told me it gets a little crowded and touristy because it’s across the street from the Moulin Rouge, but it was close and convenient. I looked the place up on Yelp ( Rouge Bis ), and it had fantastic reviews, so off I went, just around the corner, and ended up scoring a table outside, RIGHT in front of the Moulin Rouge!
The weather was outrageously perfect, the people watching was phenomenal, and I just soaked in the Paris night as if it were home. A couple more glasses of Champagne, a delicious Thai salad to satiate my craving (surprisingly wonderful), a couple of pieces of baguette and I was happy and tired and ready to be done with Day 5.
Walked back around the corner to the hotel and sent myself to bed, happy as a clam.
What a perfect day!
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