Cas and I just woke up to say bon voyage to the rest of the crew. All five of them shuffled out the door, lugging suitcases, backpacks and loads of memories. Probably a good number of souvenirs, as well. It was great to travel with my in-laws. I know not everyone can say that, but I married into a pretty neat group of folks. And even though I fully acknowledge that it was really nice to be around them for a week, and even though I really appreciate what they each brought to the table in this adventure, I am also grateful for the Heather-and-Cas time coming up. We got a little preview of that yesterday, in fact. We went to Reims and learned about Champagne.
Originally, we had scheduled our Champagne adventure for today. We were going to wave goodbye to everyone, drag our stuff to a hotel up the street and have them watch our luggage while we went out to enjoy our own adventure. Apparently, the guy who works Sunday was sick, so we were moved to yesterday. It turns out that Saturday was the day we all had set aside to do our own thing, so our own thing became a Champagne adventure. That makes today an unstructured day of infinite possibility. And laundry. But let’s dig into how yesterday went, shall we?
Cas and I were awake and ready when the driver for our tour came to pick us up and take us to Reims. We were the first on his pickup list, which included three other couples. What that meant was that we got to chat with him a bit- totally interesting guy- and we got the best seats in the van he was driving. There were three rows of seating and we got the row for just two people, right up near the front. The last couple in the van had to sit apart from one another. That simply won’t do. I feel bad for them, but certainly not bad enough to sit anywhere but right next to Cas.
The first stop on our Champagne adventure was Dom Caudron. The way they explained it to us was that they were a small village of about 250 people, and they made Champagne. They grew grapes out there in their beautiful French countryside, and when the time came to put in the majority of the work of Champagne production, it was all hands on deck. Apparently, it takes a village. Sorry- couldn’t resist.
It was a lovely vineyard and an informative visit. And did you know they ship? We should be arriving home with plenty of time to spare, but we’ll be receiving a six-pack of bottles on the front porch in Dallas in a few weeks.
After that visit, we were off to church, then lunch. We went to visit the Notre Dame of Reims, which is a beautiful cathedral in which many, many French kings’ coronations occurred. I didn’t know this, but Notre Dame just means Our Lady, which puts it right up there with other commonly used church names. There are many Notre Dames. This one had some rather unconventional and pretty modern stained glass in a few of its chapels, too, which was unexpected and kind of cool. I am sure there are historical purists who are infuriated, but I enjoyed the change of pace.
From there, we hit up a restaurant called Le Theatre. There, we had a three course meal. I had a cod tartare, while he had a terrine appetizer. I think that translates to: I had the French equivalent of sushi and he had something that kind of looked like an upgrade of pimento loaf sandwich meat. His meal was haddock, while mine was pork, and our desserts were an apricot tart for him and some coffee ice cream for me. Oh, and we each had a tiny, French cup of coffee.
After that, we were off to do a champagne tasting while overlooking the French countryside. Wow. I just read that back. I need to say it again- a champagne tasting while overlooking the French flippin’ countryside. I mean, dang. I’m not exactly living a rough life, here, am I? It was beautiful, of course. We practiced the best way to open a bottle. (Apparently, you hold the cork and rotate the bottle, not the other way around.) We mostly just enjoyed the space and the time there. It rained a little bit when we first arrived, but that cleared up so we could really take time to gaze out over the fields. These folks sure can do scenery.
Our final stop yesterday was a visit to Möet & Chandon. I couldn’t shake the Queen lyrics from my head- pretty much all day- from the moment our guide told us we’d be headed there. The song Killer Queen starts with snapping fingers and the line: She keeps Möet & Chandon/In her pretty cabinet/Left in a case, she said/Just like Marie Antoinette
If the other three couples were a livelier group, I am sure a sing-along would have been in order. Alas, they were all painfully grown-up seeming- I doubt they would have played along. So many reasons why I picked Cas. He plays better.
The tour there was presented by a young, French girl who was not the most compelling speaker, and there was a trio of women who the vineyard put with us who were chatting in Spanish throughout the tour. I am sure there was a certain amount of translation happening, but it was pretty distracting, especially given the muted tones of the tour guide assigned to the group. Our visit there concluded with a tasting and a visit to their “boutique.” You guessed it- exit through the gift shop. We were totally on board, too. They had given us a 2016 vintage in our tasting, and we had a great idea about sending a bottle or two of that back to the house. See, we got married in 2016. Might be nice to pop that cork in a year or so. But the apparent price to ship anywhere from 1-3 bottles to Texas is 240 Euro. That was just to send them. That didn’t include the purchase price. They really should talk to the folks at Dom Caudron and figure out what shipping company the small village is using. We decided we’d made the right move- ship from the little guys who we’d probably never find on a shelf in Dallas. For the giant company I had seen and heard of before, we can hit up the Total Wine or the Goody Goody or something back home. Möet & Chandon is a pretty big name, after all. For heaven’s sake, we bought their product at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and Freddie Mercury sang about it being kept in a cabinet.
But we’re here in our Airbnb for the last little bit of morning time, getting ready to move out to the next location. Time to get clean and ready. We’ve already shoved all our stuff into the luggage. Before I sign off, here’s a photo of me and my guy sipping champagne in the French flippin’ countryside:
Here, too, is our photo album: tinyurl.com/dunlap-pl
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