Champagne Route, France

Champagne Route, France (6/19-22/2011) – This time of year is a great time to come to France’s Champaign Route (Route du Champagne) although we did have some rainy times a few days. Free tastings were available in the southern Cote Des Blancs area, famous for its champagnes made of chardonnay grapes. Free tastings were difficult to find in the northern pinot noir champagne area of Valle De La Marne but the views of the beautiful countryside and wine villages overlooking the Marne River were stunning. On the way to Reims, we drove through the Montagne De Reims area having a free tasting (and convinced to purchase a bottle) and a picnic of French pastries. We visited small Champagne producing villages around Epernay and Reims such as Oger, Cramant, Avize, Vertus, Mardeuil, Venteuil, Reuil, Villlers, Chatillon, Damery, Cumiers, Dizy, Mutigny, Ay, Avenay, Louvois, Verzenay, and Rilly La Montagne. Staying in or near the villages of the Champagne area was not as fun as in the other French wine regions we visited (Alsace and Burgundy) because nothing was going on in the smaller villages. Even restaurants were extremely limited so we stayed each night in Epernay, the nearby centrally located capital of the Champagne area with many good restaurants. One night they had a music festival with bands playing throughout the city – great fun. The Champagne Route is located in northeast France surrounding Epernay. A number of the world’s most famous brands are produced and cellared in the miles of tunnels dug through the chalk below Epernay. Notable brands include Moet & Chandon (18 miles of cellars), Mercer (11 miles of cellars with one ¾ mile long and one of the world’s largest wooden barrels with a capacity of 200,000 bottles), and De Castellane. In Epernay, we toured and had tastings at the cellars of Moet & Chandon (makers of Don Perignon champagne) and the Mercier (most popular brand in France). Moet is proud of its brand name exporting 80% of its production and Mercier is proud of its marketing. Champagne is sparkling wine made of pinot noir, pinot meunier, and/or chardonnay grapes. The cellars (caves) carved out of white chalk (this area was under ocean millions of years ago) are essential for making Champagne providing a cool temperature (50 degrees Fahrenheit), high humidity (90%), and darkness. The making of champagne was discovered somewhat by accident in the 17^th century by a monk with a now famous name – Don Perignon. He was making wine for the abby Saint Peter of Hautvillers and one year was very cold and the fermentation stopped yielding just grape juice that would spoil if something was not done. By placing the corked bottles in a warmer but cool place, the second fermentation occurred creating this unique sparking brut (extra dry) wine. The process was improved and additional sugar and wines added at the end to create sweeter Champagne (in order of sweetest: extra-sec, sec, and demi-sec). To remove sediment the millions of bottles produced were slowly turned daily by hand. Now a machine turns a large lot of them all at once several times a day. Next stop… Champagne Capital - Reims, France. See many more photos of our worldwide travel adventures click on our travel photo file: www.flickr.com/photos/unhooknow/sets (note: on Flickr, select any set of photos and then click “Slideshow” to easily view all the photos -- many more sets can be viewed by clicking “next” at the bottom). YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS CAN FOLLOW OUR JOURNEYS ON OUR TRAVEL BLOG… www.UnhookNow.com. Look for our upcoming book (“Plan Your Escape, Secrets of Traveling the World for Less Than It Costs to Live at Home”) coming out in October 2011 on how you, too, can travel the world!