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Champagne The namesake of tart, sparkling white wine, Champagne is a destination for relaxation and celebration of the sweet fruits that life serves up to those lucky enough to experience the region. A short drive or train ride east of Paris, Champagne is a popular Parisian countryside destination. Interestingly, the initial Champagne-Ardenne region to the north near the Beligian border (if that’s how you arrive in Champagne) won’t provide that much of a visual landscape for anyone who had been eagerly expecting a green-orange-yellow-red checkerboard of French vineyards. Sooner than not, however, the pastoral farmland will burst in to color, and you’ll know you’re in the right place.
When picking up a few bottles as souvenirs, gifts a quick-fix picnic party starter, be careful to get the real stuff. Don’t buy any bottle that is not marked “RM” or “SR”, the legal distinction that assures the local authenticity of the champagne.
So, where to start out in Champagne? One of the best places for tasting the local varieties is Reims, a centrally located city, which is also famous for its Notre Dame Cathedral. If you’re coming from Paris and you’re convinced that no other Notre Dame Cathedral could compare, you’re probably right. However, don’t make that an excuse for not visiting the Notre Dame in Reims. The stained glass windows are unique, and their circular formation is breathtaking. Also, this cathedral is evidence of the fact that Europe’s millennias-old cultural legacy continues to expand and evolve to the present day. Just a handful of decades ago, Marc Chagall contributed a set of stain glass windows that adds to the incredible beauty found here. Reims is also a great place to taste champagne, as various local wineries grow the grapes, bottle it and display it for tourists here in local cellars.
If you want to see the biggest fortress-chateaux that France has to offer, then prepare to be awed in Sedan, whose fort comes complete with a algae-green mote, pointed, conical towers and overgrown, mossy rooftops that hearken back to the days of King Arthur, supposing he went to France. Discover the stash in the town of Epernay, which is home to the stunning complex of Mercier caves holding hundreds of thousands of gigantic wooden barrels. If you’re one of those see-it-to-believe-it types, you’ll definitely have seen it here, and you’ll feel rest assured that there will be plenty of fine champagne to supply all the world’s parties, for many, many years to come. Troyes lays claim to one of the most charming cities in Champagne, and has plenty of bars to satiate your thirst for a respectable nightlife scene – not to mention exquisite restaurants serving up the finest of local cuisine.
Champagne is also an ideal destination for the famous open markets. In fact, if you schedule your circuit right, you will probably hit street markets in every city, on every day of the week. The rotating schedule practically leaves nothing out, with Calais on Sunday, Chaource on Monday, and so on, for seven days.
One less hyped pleasure here is the simple experience of waking up in a hotel in a small town in Champagne, listening to the happy bustle of a street market and buying the goods for the day. Olives, cheeses, pate and fine, artisan wine, take it with you for a picnic by the riverside and rediscover the joie de vivre that has put Champagne squarely on the map. |
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