For those of you who don't know (and I didn't until a few months ago), Reims [pronounced rance-- with a soft r] is at the center of the champagne region of France; so, you go there to taste champagne. Sparkling wine made anywhere else can not be called champagne; which is one of the reasons it is so expensive, which is one of the reasons we can not recall ever tasting real champagne before this weekend.
Reims is also the home of the biggest cathedral in France, where most of the kings where coordinated. This is the first thing we checked out after our 3 hour drive to the city on Saturday morning. Man is it a BIG church. I quite liked it, and prefer it to Notre Dame in Paris. The Chagall stained glass created after all the originals were destroyed in WWI is impressive--- modern, but not so much that it is out of place in such a beautiful church.
After the cathedral, we had lunch at a very posh restaurant (Flo Brasserie) recommended by one of James' French colleagues. The kids weren't too tired at this point, so we were able to relax and enjoy a leisurely European meal with 2 courses each, including Escargot and Foie Gras (Translation= Snails & Duck Liver spread)... man was it good. Our meals got progressively quicker and less tasty after this: Dinner at the chinese restaurant with the dirtiest tablecloths ever and then lunch the next day was a sandwich and chips from the gas station on the way home!
After lunch we got lost trying to get out of the city to our B&B in the vineyards; our biggest frustration with Reims was the construction everywhere and inability to easily find the freeway (we love Luxembourg's clear signs). We did manage to get there in time for the kids to take a quick nap before exploring the vineyards and our first champagne tasting. The B&B was actually located in a champagne house called Mont d'Hor. They grow the grapes and do the initial processing of the champagne for the famous Veuve Cliquot Champagne House, so we
were anxious to try it out. We enjoyed the champagne and Anna liked driving the fork lift during our very personal tour (in French). Cheers!The next morning we went to another tasting and tour at the Pommery caves, which was cool as we learned about the champagne processing and also since they had random displays of modern art mixed in with their millions of bottles of stored champagne (55 million is the number that is stuck in my head, but don't quote me on that). Favorite art display was the tiny live birds flying around electric guitars that were plugged into amps... Anna loved that one. Oh, the champagne was good too :)
All in all a successful trip, and we happily drove back to Lux laden down with our champagne purchases.
