I write this post in the Burgundy area in the middle of the French countryside. My lovely husband cooking up a storm of Beef Bourguignon (very appropriate) on our little gas stove…ahh there pops the wine….
It has been just been over a week since we bid a very fond farewell to our lovely guests and friends in Paris, and we have seen so much already and so much varied countryside… so let’s start from the beginning.
We headed to the outskirts of Paris and picked up our brand new zippy little black Peugeot directly from the factory. We quickly fell in love with our sports model with leather interior and in built GPS, and we both marvelled in the fact that it had only done 5km when we took ownership of it! It hasn’t taken us long to affectionately know our little car as our “lounge room”. As we have no seats, we can be often found sitting in the back seat after a long day driving with a glass of red wine eating our dinner and watching the latest TV eps which Duncan downloaded for us. (Note: We still need a name for our little spritely Peugeot let us know if you think of a great name J Winner gets fame on our Blog J).
Funny thing happened as we were heading out of the Paris in our brand new car. While I was desperately trying to make the GPS work, Duncan amazingly managed to drive himself onto the Champs Elysee (of all the avenues in Paris!!). For those who have been to Paris will know that the round-about at the Arc de Triomphe is utter chaos (think National Lampoons!!! On my Contiki Trip 10 years ago they played Danger Zone – Top Gun, while we circled the Arc – it is crazy!!!). Momentarily looking up from the GPS I saw a large monument and exclaimed jovially “Ha, ha, ha, that looks like the Arc de Triomphe”. It actually was the Arc, and a picture flashed instantly in my mind of us and in our brand new Peugeot stuck forever on the Arc de Triomphe going round and round. BTW, it takes quite a bit of effort to get off the Champs Elysee once you are on it!!!
Our first week’s intinerary ended up being a bit windy due to us arranging to meet Doreen and her friend Bettina in the Champagne region in seven days.
First on the itinerary was Chartres. This was a little bucket list item for me. I learnt about Chartres Cathedral in High School and Uni Medieval Studies and I have this romantic vision imprinted on my mind of the massive gothic cathedral looming from the French countryside. Approaching Chartres from the right angle was all important so that I could get the same perspective. Tingles… that’s what I felt when I saw the spires first appear in what seemed like the middle of a French hay field (the town of Chartres sits in a valley so the Cathedral is the only thing you see until the last minute). It was such a beautiful day that even the scaffolding which unfortunately hid most of the famous Chatres blue stained glass windows did nothing to ruin the moment. To really absorb the atmosphere Duncan and I had a carafe of French wine on the deck chairs within the cathedral grounds. So French.. and 4 days ago we were sitting on the streets a Ho Chi Min City drinking 20 cent home brew and eating Pho!!!
In Sooty (that is the name that I wanted to give our Peugeot, but Duncan PooHooed that one) we zipped across the countryside for the next couple of days and found ourselves in Troyes. I loved Troyes! I may be naive to the whole tourism marketing thang, but in my mind the towns that you hear about most as the best preserved i.e. for old architecture, must be it. But I had never heard of Troyes before arriving on its doors step and there was street after street of half timbered houses. Not in the pristine Disneyland kind of way, but in the still lived in almost about to fall over kind of way. Squint and you can almost see the merchants still walking the streets and selling their wares.
After a couple of days of skipping around the skirts of Paris, Duncan and I felt we needed to get some distance from the great city. We made a snap decision to bomb it as close as we can to the German border and see what we can find. What we found was the Alsace full of Alsatians… not big dogs, but a countryside full of French who eat and drink like Germans… ooooh, yeah we had found the perfect combination! After experiencing around 25 degrees for the last few days we hit the mountains, and as if by magic, the temperature dropped to 10 degrees and all we felt like was a large stein and hearty German food. Alsace is more German than French. We hit town after town on the recommended tourist trail “Routes de Vin” of the chocolate box variety, full of half timbered houses and cobbled stones; cute, so god damn cute!! The cold weather demanded that Duncan and I discover the local specialities… We parked ourselves in one of the bistros in the little cobbled town of Riquewirh. I thought it was over doing it by ordering Baeckeoffe(aptly sounds like “bake off” which is kinda what it is) which had lamb, beef and potatoes baked in a large ceramic dish. Duncan ordered Chourcroute, Sauerkraut covered with 8 kinds of meat…yep, 8! It was a massive German platter of meat cooked 8 different ways with no signs of salad or vegetables….. He finished it. Not without later getting the 8 kind of meat sweats.
We headed back towards the Champagne area with a stopover in Verdun. I read somewhere that “even on an bright sunny day Verdun is still a sombre place due to the atrocities which happened on its’ soil almost 100 hundred years ago”. This is an apt description. 300,000 soldiers died in Verdun in 300 days in one of the longest battles in First World War. Duncan and I visited one of the remaining fortifications, war memorial and the cemetery. However what spooked me most was the memorial which marked the spot where a battalion of French soldiers were found 3 years after they had been buried alive by a large mortar. To this day you can see their bayoneted tips sticking out from the earth, exactly how they held them moments before.
Heading further west we had almost done a loop and reached once again the Champagne region again after leaving it after Troyes. Doreen had arranged that we could meet up with her friend Bettina whose parents owned a Champagne vineyard. Bettina’s father offered to show us around his plot and the process of making champagne. As it was Mother’s day Bettina asked if we rock around to her vineyard around 4:30, this gave Duncan, Doreen and I plenty of time to do some tasting in the area. By 4:30 we thought we knew everything about champagne… we didn’t. Bettina’s father and mother welcomed us into their home and insisted we stay the night. Their house sits high above the champagne region overlooking the priceless vines. I had the surreal experience of sipping their own champagne in their sunroom while looking at the vines outside where it had come from.
Bettina’s father gave us the most awesome tour of champagne making. Just under their house they have cellars to store their champagne. 2 hour of description of demonstration saw me have a new respect for champagne. Biggest thing I learned. After 2 years of cellaring the Champagne authority guy comes around and tastes your vintage (just 5 bottles I might add). If he deems any aspect of the Champagne not to be perfect, he will not certify it as Champagne. Sounds bad, but it is much worse, not only are you unable to sell the wine as Champagne (which you have spent 2 years producing), but the worst part is owning Champagne vines that have not actually produced Champagne!
Bettina’s parents welcomed us into their home with a hearty 3 course dinner served with their finest champagne. To top off a perfect day we made the trip to Reims to watch the amazing light show projected on the famous cathedral facade (this is the cathedral where the French kings were all crowned). It was breath taking the way they depicted different scenes with light onto the cathedral. A perfect way to finish a perfect day in champagne!
