April 30th Wednesday

Today, I had a trip with Adrienne and Amanda scheduled. We were going to Reims, France in the Champagne region. We had an early train so I got up at 6:00am and had some of my fruit granola cereal mixed with yogurt. I got ready and finished collecting my things. Adrienne and I left the apartment at 7:00am. Karuna was still sleeping. She had a flight to the states later in the morning the same day.

Adrienne and I took the metro to Gare de l’Est where we met Amanda. We were all very excited to be going on our trip together. We got on the train and it left at 7:57am. We headed off to Reims through the French countryside. It was fun watching the passing trees and fields. It’s always surprising to see how fast you can leave the Parisian buildings behind. We had a fun conversation with Amanda. The ride was only an hour long and it went by very quickly. Amanda said that she realized it took her the same amount of time to cross Paris on the metro as it would for us to take the train from Paris to Reims.

We arrived in Reims around 9:00am. Amanda had done a lot of research for the trip and had some great suggestions. She even made some reservations for us! We made our way from the train station to the tourism office. We got some maps and asked them questions about the town. It was quite cold and gray there. The wind was blowing severely. I didn’t want to stay outside for long.

Next to the tourism office was the famous cathedral of Reims called Notre Dame de Reims. The outside had some pretty impressive carvings but it was a bit too cold to admire them at the moment. We went inside. The inside of the cathedral was huge. It was very tall and long. It was also very dark. It gave it a kind of older and mysterious feel. The stained glass above the entrance was impressive. Reims’ cathedral was known for its stained glass windows made with a dark blue color typical of the Reims area. Sadly, many of the windows were damaged in wars throughout history and they needed to be replaced. The replacements were actually made with some of the original blue fragments of the old windows. Some of the walls still had marks from all the blasts.

The redone windows on the sides and in the back were more modern and equally impressive. The rear windows were a dark blue and had a flowing design of figures from the bible. It looked a bit like a dark watercolor. With all the blues and greens the Virgin Mary looked kind of like a mermaid to me.

In another corner there was a statue of Jeanne d’Arc. I was pretty excited to see it. It was painted with neat designs and colors. There were other interesting stone statues in the cathedral as well.

We finished looking at the cathedral and made our way out the front again. We walked to the Basilique de Saint Rémi which was nearby. On the way we got to see pink cherry blossoms falling from the trees. I was wishing that some of my high school group was there so that we could make jokes about anime.

We got to the basilica and went inside. This was very different from the cathedral. It looked much brighter. It was probably a combination of better lighting and different building materials. I also discovered that the roof stones were very recent. The entire roof had been blown away in the bombardment in 1918. They had some impressive yet depressing photos of the devastation.

I liked the design of it. It had a much brighter and closer feel. There were also some modern stained glass windows here. We took our time walking around and looking at everything. It really was much brighter here than the dark cathedral.

After we’d finished looking at the basilica, we walked around the town. There were some streets that had very different styles of architecture all crammed together. It’s one thing to have two houses sitting next to one another that look very different. It’s another thing when it all forms one wall on the front.

We also passed through the Gallo-Roman doors to the city. They were just stone remnants of the gateway built in Gallo-Roman times but it showed how much history existed in this city. People walked right by these things every day and find it normal and quotidian. And we think our high school buildings are old.

While walking along we came upon a large pink building. As we went around the front, we realized that it was the Marché du Vins that we’d read about. We would be visiting champagne houses later and this was a place where we could buy bottles cheaper than on the estate. We peeked in and looked around. We asked when they were closing deciding that it was better to come back later so that we didn’t have to carry around the bottles.

It was getting to be lunch time. We passed the Hôtel de Ville on our way to the restaurant. The Hôtel de Ville was done up with French flags hanging out front.

Lunch was at a restaurant called Le Boulingrin. Amanda had made a reservation for us. It had a really fun interior. It was fairly large and had white tablecloths on all the tables. There were big scenes painted on the walls. Amanda and I decided to get the Brasserie menu for €18. It actually turned out to be a really good deal. It came with a first course, main course, dessert, wine, and coffee. Our waiter was quite funny. When we realized how much came with the menu he said “It’s magnificent isn’t it? But not as magnificent as these ladies in front of me of course.” We all kind of laughed. He continued to look over and flirt with us various times throughout the meal. French waiters are the only ones that I can put up with flirting with me because they always do it in a classy way.

Since Amanda and I both ordered the menu, we both got wine with it. We agreed on red and they brought out a full carafe. This led to over 2 glasses between the two of us (Adrienne doesn’t drink). That was quite a powerful drink for lunch. For my first dish I had œufs meurettes. This was actually a piece of toast with poached eggs on top with bacon and mushrooms. It had a brown sauce spooned over the top. It tasted amazing. There were so many flavors in that sauce.

For my main dish, I ordered the filet de tacaud, sauce champagne. This turned out to be a white fish on top of a bed of green beans and covered in a white champagne sauce. I was actually able to taste the champagne in the sauce. It was a very light flavor that went well with the fish.

My dessert was a plate called œuf à la neige. I’ve also seen this called île flottante (floating island). It basically consists of a light fluffy egg white meringue with a crème anglaise sauce. It also usually has toasted almonds on top. The dish is extraordinary. It’s light and cool and perfect for a spring treat. Adrienne is a chocolate addict so she ordered a chocolate mousse that turned out to be extremely rich. Amanda’s dessert choice was the cheese plate.

We finished off our meals with a cup of coffee. We sadly had to rush them because we had a tour at a champagne house scheduled after lunch that we might be late to. Our coffees also came with little caramels. I greatly enjoyed my lunch at the restaurant.

Our next stop was at the Pommery champagne house. It was all the way across Reims and we had to make a bit of a run for it. I must admit that after the two healthy glasses of wine with lunch I wasn’t feeling up to running. It had also started to sprinkle a little bit and the air had become quite humid.

Finally we arrived at a gate that had Pommery written on it in golden letters. We walked up the expanse of a large lawn toward a sprawling building that looked like a modern imitation of a castle. We were rushing to try to get to the tour that Amanda had tried to reserve for us. When we arrived I was sweating and red in the face. It was a nice looking building so I felt like a bit of a bum showing up in such a state. It turned out that we’d missed the French guided tour. We’d have to wait and take the English tour next. Thank goodness we can speak both languages eh? I paid 10€ for my tour. We would have a guided tour followed by a champagne tasting. The price varied based on what kind of champagne you wanted to taste at the end. I went with the “tradition” option.

We went and sat down in a little waiting area in a room the size of a small warehouse. We noticed one reason for this was that there was a two story tall wooden wine keg set into one wall. It had wooden sculptures on the front. Eventually, our tour guide, Benjamine, came to look for us. He was a funny sort of man who was shorter and wearing a suit jacket over long pants and sneakers. He also had a scarf to go with it.

Benjamine led us down a very long flight of stairs into the wine caves below. As we went along, we learned that the Pommery champagne was named after the widow Pommery. After her husband died, she took over and made the champagne successful.

The different underground chambers were actually pits dug into the ground. They had a wide base and got narrow near the top like a pyramid. This was because the Romans had originally created these as chalk quarries. They used the chalk as building materials among other things. Madame Pommery found these and decided it was a good place to age the champagne. She had them dig out tunnels connecting all the pits. The chalk made the atmosphere more favorable to keeping the bottles.

As we continued through the tunnels, we saw many dark bottles stacked along the wall and covered in dust. We also saw names of cities on the walls in certain nooks with bottles stacked as tall as I am. It was a tradition that the Pommery widow had created. She had started tours of the caves with candles and torches. She had put the names of where they ship to on the walls. All the guests were excited to see their city’s name on the wall. I took some pictures of different names that struck me like Munich, Berne, and Kyoto.

As we walked through the tunnels, our guide told us about champagne in general and how it’s made. He showed us different sizes of bottles. The largest, of course, was the magnum. The bottles were arranged in a shelf that had their corks pointing at the floor. They had developed a way to get the yeast out over the years. They used to just leave it in, hence the tall skinny glasses.

Our tour also included some interesting art. The piece that was most memorable was entitled Phantome. It resembled a man hanging upside down made of shiny silver material. There were also glass pieces that, through internal lighting, projected images and words onto the floor and walls. It was really interesting and quite creepy.

After the tour, we all emerged back into the large room/entryway. The end of our tour came with a tasting. Amanda had sprung for the more expensive glass. I stuck with the cheaper champagne under the “tradition” category. This meant that we got to try both of them. I could taste a distinct difference between the two types. They were both very light but the flavor was drier on the better quality one. I preferred the cheaper kind. Adrienne can’t drink alcohol so she gave her glass to Amanda and me to split. We definitely didn’t complain.

Adrienne was a sweetheart and bought one of the bottles of the Pommery champagne. She wanted to give it to my parents as a gift. I felt it was way too much money for her to spend but she insisted.

We left the Pommery place and had to hurry to Veuve Cliquot. We hurried in and paid for our tour which was €8.50. The tour had already started as we joined it in the next room. This tour was in French. We had a woman tour guide this time. She was in the middle of explaining the history of the family and people who started the company. Much like the other champagne house, this was started by a man who had then died and left it to his young spouse. Veuve Cliquot (Widow Cliquot) was a rough businesswoman who wanted nothing less than the best. They showed us a picture of her and she looked like she’d led a life full of running a business. She and her husband had been able to conceive a child before his death so she had a daughter. Veuve Cliquot wanted to protect her child from the difficulties in her life which, they say, made it impossible to hand the business over to her. She wasn’t able to survive in the business world.

The Veuve Cliquot champagne has a very distinct color as its theme. Its labels are a rich golden yellow. The color was present everywhere. It was even present in our tour guide’s voluminous yellow scarf which looked like it may have been a mile long. She finished telling us about the widow and continued with where the grapes were collected and other information. This tour felt much more modern. We headed outside so that we could go down into the caves like we had in the other place. But Amanda was stopped by the man at the cash register. Apparently he’d accidentally charged her the wrong price and needed to charge her the rest of the ticket. He had to do it on her credit card and those take a very long time to go through. I had to get the tour guide to wait for her.

The tour was mostly the same. Our guide explained to us how the champagne was made and showed us bottles in different stages. After our trip through the caves we went up into the very stylish bar where we’d get our tasting. Our guide even showed us how to open a bottle of champagne. With one hand, place your thumb on the top of the cork and wrap your hand around the cork and top of bottle. Place your other hand on the bottom of the bottle and use it to twist the bottle while maintaining a firm grip on the cork with the other. It should ease the cork out with the satisfying pop. She poured our glasses and we toasted and drank them. Once again, Adrienne gave Amanda and me her glass to split.

We were the last ones in the gift shop. I was intrigued by the champagne carrying cases that they had. Everything was the same yellow color as the labels on the bottles. We looked around and headed out. I didn’t realize how late it was. They had to unlock the gate for us to leave. We had had a wonderful time in both tours and now headed back into town.

We rushed again because Amanda had read about a bakery in Reims that makes famous pink biscuits. It was getting late and we didn’t want to risk it closing. The woman was just closing up as we arrived. Amanda asked her very sweetly if it would be possible for her to keep the shop open just a bit longer so that we could buy the cookies. The lady hesitated but because Amanda was so nice, she agreed and let us in. She was very nice to us. We ended up buying bags of the pink biscuits. They’ve been a tradition in France since the kings. They used to dip the cookies in champagne.

We thanked the lady and continued onto another chocolate store we saw down the road. There, we bought a few pieces of chocolate. I had one with cinnamon in it and a piece of marzipan.

Our next stop on our whirlwind tour was the Marché du Vin. This was the large store that sold bottles of wine and champagne for cheaper than on the properties. We arrived an hour or so before closing. I ended up buying a bottle of the Veuve Cliquot carte jaune. It was around €40 but I thought it was worth it to share real champagne with my parents. Adrienne bought a bottle of Veuve Cliquot riche (a vintage year).

Happily laden with our bottles of champagne, we walked toward the commerce and downtown area of Reims. Here, it began to look less traditional and more modern. We came up to a big square with lots of restaurants. I was hungry and wanted to get something to eat on the train ride back. I ended up buying a pizza sandwich with chorizo, and ham. I had an orange Fanta to accompany it. Amanda and Adrienne also bought some food.

We made our way back to the train station. We found our train and boarded. The train was packed. We got to our seats and found a family with a young child sitting there. It felt wrong to displace them, but we really wanted to sit and the seats were assigned to us. We did get to sit down and as the train started across the fields surrounding Reims, we tucked into our sandwiches. We were kind of silly on the train. It could be a lasting effect of how much we drank in Reims. The ride felt very fast. I was sort of sad when we arrived in Paris, wishing the ride had been longer. We’d arrived in Paris in the late evening.

Adrienne and I said goodbye to Amanda and took the metro to the RER C. We took that home to our apartment.

Once home, we were able to put down all of our belongings and I called my dad on Skype. I talked to him for a while. I ended up going to bed around 2:30am.