A little bubbly to toast another year!

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Earlier this year when I was first thinking about where I might want to go for my birthday I thought of going to Switzerland.  A friend of mine, who lived in Germany for several years, mentioned how much she loved Interlaken.  We haven't been to Switzerland yet so I though it would be a fun, relaxing trip and close enough to drive to.

A couple weeks before my birthday though two of my co-workers (Danielle and Amanda) traveled to Epernay and Reims in the Champagne Region of France.  Hearing about their trip and seeing their pictures gave me the idea of visiting too.  The cathedral in Reims was celebrating 700 years and a laser light show was being shown in the evenings as part of the celebration.  Fortunately I was able to talk Tom into making one more trip into France even though he had said that our trip to Normandy in June was going to be his last trip to France.

Danielle passed along some great tips from her visit.  One of the most important being that I should book tours at champagne houses ahead of time if possible.  So less than 48 hours before our trip I was busy contacting champagne houses trying to make reservations.  It worked out (we were still getting confirmation e-mails on the drive) and I got one tour lined up for each day.

We spent our days driving around the tourist route, sightseeing, and watching the harvest.
Love it!  A village called Bouzy in champagne country.
The village on the hillside is where our bed and breakfast was located.
We learned that French vines are grafted to American roots - more resilient.
Roses act like canaries - show when farmers need to spray for bugs
We'll take two.
Typically the harvest happens later than the first weekend of September but because of the early spring the harvest came early.  Champagne can only be called champagne if it is grown in this part of France and it is prohibited to harvest the grapes using a machine.  Everything is done by hand.  Volunteers and laborers come from all over Europe to help harvest the grapes.  People come on bus tours and have even paid for the pleasure of back-breaking labor.  Sounds like fun...not! 

Our first tour was at Launois Pere & Fils, which is in Le Mesnil sur Oger.  This was a great first tour providing a lot of good background information on the region and the process of making champagne.  This champagne house also has a great collection of wine antiques and champagne memorabilia in a museum that is in old, renovated cellars.
Old presses
Part of the museum
Me with our tour guide Aurore
Waiting to pick up our first bottles of bonafide champagne
The second champagne house we visited was one we just happened upon and didn't have a reservation.  Having heard about a village called Bouzy from Danielle and Amanda, I decided we needed to stop too. While I was taking a picture of the village sign, Tom saw a truck driving down a dirt road and a sign for a champagne house.  We followed the truck and found the house of Bernard Tornay.  They were still open so they let us come in for a tasting and we got a tour of the facilities too.
We stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast in Chavot near Epernay. 
Chambres d'hote Chavot Bellevue
From Chavot and Epernay we headed to Reims where we visted two more champagne houses and also visited the Reims Cathedral and viewed the laser light show.

The first house was G.H. Mumm Champagne, which has been making champagne since 1827.

Party in a bottle
Our final champagne house was Pommery. 
The history of this champagne house goes back to 1836.
Staircase leading to the caves
These have been here a couple days
Vintage

During World War I, schools and a hospital were in these caves.
Since this was our last champagne house I decided to go all in.
The beautiful line-up
Cheers
Going...going...gone.  Glad I wasn't driving.
Tommy with our loot
Making it all fit
Besides the bubbly, the other big highlight of our trip was Reims Cathedral.  The cathedral is where French kings and queens were coronated.  Joan of Arc led Charles VII here to be crowned in 1429.  As you can imagine there is a lot of stained-glass windows.  Probably some of the newest panels are windows designed by the artist Marc Chagall in 1974.
Reims Cathedral
Marc Chagall stained-glass windows
Statue of Joan of Arc
The evening laser light show was projected onto the face of the cathedral and set to music.  It really was quite spectacular.  Here are some pictures and I'm going to see if I can load a video too.




After the show I was able to get closer to the church.
What a great birthday trip!  Since there have been no food photos in this entire blog, I'll end with Tom eating French onion soup in where else...France!  Thank you baby for a wonderful birthday and for going to France one more time.  I love you!
Bonafide French Onion Soup

 

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