Champagne and shopping would be (for me) a dangerous combination, so fortunately they were on separate days last weekend! We went to Reims (pronounced 'Rance') in the Champagne region last weekend with my Australian pal, Penny, her partner, Will and their French friends, Nicolas and Stephanie. Penny and Will now live in London but came over for a weekend's break. Reims is a beautiful city - it's relatively compact and is dominated by the cathedral of Notre Dame de Reims, the traditional site for the crowning of French kings.
Paul in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Reims.
A bright, sunny day in Reims. They weren't able to take the scaffolding down in time for our arrival. You can see on the right hand side that, as with Notre Dame in Paris, the facade of the cathedral is being cleaned up to look really clean and bright.
Nicolas had arranged for us to then visit a famous champagne house - Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin - for a tour and tasting! The tour lasted about an hour and a half and was really quite interesting. The caves where the champagne is stored were quite breathtaking as they're so deep underground and go on for miles.
Our tour guide talking us through the different vintages of Veuve-Clicquot champagne. Given the fact that I would normally judge a bottle of champagne by the style of the label, I wasn't overly impressed with the easyjet-orange colour scheme that Veuve-Clicquot have adopted.
Max wondering why on earth we're all hanging around underground. Mag wondering when the tasting's going to commence!
After the champagne tasting, we headed out for lunch in Reims - Mag with Stephanie, Nicolas, Will and Penny.
In the afternoon, we headed to a park in Reims to give Max a run around before catching the train back to Paris. The journey on the TGV takes less than an hour, so it's a great day-trip from Paris.
On Sunday, Paul, Max and I headed up to the Buttes Chaumont park for a picnic via a 'Vide Grenier' (attic sale). This is vide grenier season, where neighbourhoods have fantastic jumble sales out on the street every weekend. It's easy to snap up a bargain and it's also really interesting to see French household things!
Vide Grenier! I found a beautiful little wooden trailer with wooden blocks for Max which he loves.
Max and Paul on their way up to Buttes Chaumont park for another picnic.
4 comments:
Great to see you on your champagne tour - it reminded me of our trip to visit the Hennessey cognac factory! (remember all the really good-looking tour guides with the green blazers??)
see you soon,
C
x
Sounds like a good day out and the jumble sale stuff reminds me of all the yards sales in Toronto...
speak soon, love Martina xx
when Jeanvaljean heard about ths sales he was on the ryanair web looking for a cheapie.Lucky for you none available!Poor Max didn't look as if he enjoyed the champagne session.The picnic would be more in his line!looking forward to seeiing you soon
love ,mum
I don't remember the good looking tour guides Clare but then I was more into the cognac I suppose! Looks like you are making the most of your last few weeks in Paris, can't wait to see you all soon,#m x
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