Champagne!!

I've always dreamed of visiting the Champagne region of France. I love the bubbly and couldn't wait to visit the place where it's all made.

It was our first time heading out of Paris. We took an early morning train to Epernay so that we could be there right when the cellars opened.

In Epernay, we strolled along Avenue de Champagne, the home of several large Champagne corporations. Epernay is a very small, quaint town. The streets were lined with mansions that had been converted into the corporate offices of the Champagne makers, but there isn't much else to see there. We walked by the corporate offices of Perrier Jouet, Esterlin, and others. Most were not open to the public.

At Moet & Chandon, we were lucky enough to get a private tour of the caves and a private tasting as well. Our tour guide, Suzanne, had been working there for over 23 years and had a ton of knowledge about the region, the history, and the Champagne making process. Suzanne took us through just a short stretch (1500 feet worth) of the caves; in total, there are 18 miles of caves at that location. Not only are the Moet & Chandon champagnes made there but Dom Perignon as well.

We were able to taste 4 different Moet & Chandon Champagnes, the Brut Imperial, the 2003 Grand Vintage Brut, the Rose Imperial, and the 2003 Rose Grand Vintage Brut. The vintage wines were out of this world. We ended up buying 2 bottles of the 2003 Grand Vintage Brut at the end of our tour.

With some time to kill before the restaurants opened for lunch, we headed to Café le Progrès for some coffee and hot chocolate. I ordered the chocolat viennois, which I thought was coffee and chocolate mixed together (kind of like a mocha). Instead, it was a hot chocolate with a large dollop of whipped cream on top... oh well, still delish.

For a nice lunch, we went to Patrick Michelon's in the Les Berceaux hotel. We started with a glass of Champagne as an apertif, then a crab salad (sent out by the chef) and beef tartare with a beef verrine for our entrées. Quinn had the foie gras and beef for his plat, and I had the grilled turbot. We finished off with a white chocolate mousse in coffee and a strawberry vanilla cream wrapped in meringue for dessert.

We took the 23 minute train over to Reims for some more bubbly. Our next stop was G.H. Mumm. There, we went on yet another tour where we saw the Champagne caves, learned about the different regions, and perused through the museum. We also learned about the different grapes used to make Champagne: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier.

The tour finished with a tasting. We had the Mumm de Cramant Blanc de Blancs, Grand Cru, Rose, Brut Cordon Rouge, and the 1999 Cordon Rouge Vintage. All were equally pleasant (so much better than sparkling wine!), but the clear winner for the day was the 2003 Grand Vintage that we had at Moet & Chandon.

We walked around Reims for just a bit before heading back to the train station to catch our train back to Paris. Reims is not the prettiest of cities. Before heading to the region of Champagne, I had pictured towns and vineyards similar to those in Napa and Sonoma Valley in California. Instead, the Champagne cellars are located in an industrialized city, which didn't have the charm and beauty of a city like Paris.

On the train ride back to Paris, there was an announcement made in French and then the train slowed to a 5 mph pace for the next hour. We aren't quite sure what happened, but eventually, the train came back up to speed and we arrived safely into Paris where we headed home for a hearty meal of spam, eggs, and rice (my fav!) along with a couple of episodes of Grey's Anatomy.