Champagne in Champagne

I promised to report on our short trip to the Champagne region of France, and now that things have quieted down a bit here, I can finally get around to it.

This month, my sister came for a visit for the first time in over 25 years. After a few days in our humble home, we headed off for France, where we met her daughter in Troyes.

Karen and Olivia

Troyes is an amazingly quaint and lovely town, full of narrow streets and half-timbered houses and old churches, deserving of a much longer visit than we had time for in the few days at our disposal.

From Troyes, we went to Epernay, home of such famous champagnes as Moet & Chandon. There, we took a tour of a champagne house and the cellars, and visited a number of places on the Avenue de Champagne for a tasting here and there.

After Epernay, we went to Reims, where we visited the very impressive cathedral. It doesn’t beat Chartres, but it’s still one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve seen.

Me and the old man in Reims

Olivia has been living in Nantes since last autumn, and it was great having someone along who was fluent in French. She even helped translate from English to French at one of the places where we were doing a tasting, which lead to a couple of extra glasses of champagne. *g*

We came back with a half case. Now I just have to come up with some special occasions in order to drink it. 🙂

You can see more pictures of our trip here.