Champagne, Versailles and Paris
2/20/0
Angie, Mario and I left Dettwiller around 9 AM to visit Paris and the Champagne region. We stopped in Reims and met Flavien, a good friend of us, who lives in Versailles and was our host for the 2 following days. Reims' Notre Dame cathedral was our meeting point. It is the biggest cathedral in France and it has been built in the 13th century.
Two other churches where built at the same location, the first one in 407.
From there we went to visit a Champagne producer, Mercier, in Epernay. Mr. Mercier has a fascinating history and a special story about a huge barrel. Have a look below.
[Eugène MERCIER saw the Foudre as a means of blending wines from different "crus" on large scale. Jolibois, a cooper, directed felling of 150 ancient oaks in Hungary.
The drying took 3 years, and the bending of the staves took 7 years. The task which started in Epernay was completed on Christmas eve in 1877. Eugène MERCIER commissioned the famous sculptor from Châlons en Champagne, Navlet, to decorate the barrel. Marked in the annuals of Champagne MERCIER on the 7th July 1881. The barrel was filled the following year with the harvest of 1883.
160.000 liters of this finest vintages from Reims were poured into the oak. But Eugène MERCIER was already thinking ahead to the 1889 and the World Exhibition.
On 17th April 1889 the Foudre left Epernay pulled by 24 oxes and driven by 12 men. 18 horses followed behind the oak to help in some of the steeper slopes. There was also a crowd... a huge crowd... Three bridges had to be reinforced and five buildings were bought and demolished to make way for the giant. 8 days later, the barrel arrived to Paris for the 1889 World Exhibition.]
We went down to their cellar for a guided tour and it is huge, so big that the tour is made in a little train running in its corridors.
Try to imagine that the longest tunnel has 1km of extension and the whole cellar keeps around 15 millions of champagne bottles stored in a total of 18km of tunnels, and this is owned by a single producer. The tour ends with a champagne tasting, of course!
After the big producer, we went to see a smaller one with a familiar vibe, Berèche et Fils. They produce around 50 to 60 thousand bottles a year but also with an old history. They have been producing champagne since 1847. There we got to try as many kinds of champagne we wanted. The owners were really nice people and their champagne tastes great. And moreover their champagne is cheaper than the one from the big producers. It almost seems like an ad!!!
The day was over at this time and we left for Versailles. For dinner we had a special Choucroute prepared by Angie's mom on the night before. Again, a lot of excellent food.
2/21/05
This was a very very busy day, we really saw a lot of things. We left Versailles at 10:30 AM with the idea of visiting the Louvre, that is because it was cold and being all the time outside wasn't too appealing.
We took the train to Paris, switched to the subway and got off close to the Opera. From there we started our march in Paris, we went to Place des Vosges, Le Marais, Hôtel de Ville (City Hall), Île Saint Louis, Notre Dame and finally we got to the Louvre around 2 PM where we stayed until they kicked us out the building, around 6 PM.
We kept walking, since we had to wait for Flavien to call us and arrange a meeting point for dinner, so we walked buy the Bourse de Paris (Paris Stock Exchange), l'Académie de Musique, visited the Galerie Lafayette, Place Pigale where you find all kinds of sex related products, including women, and where the famous Moulin Rouge is located.
As if we hadn't seen enough and feeling like the day had just started, we 'walked' to Butte Montmartre neighborhood, all the way to the Sacré Coeur church, where from you have a nice view of the city.
Thanks God Flavien called, I couldn't do yet another walk. We met and had dinner and then he took us for a night tour in Paris by car.
We drove by the Canal Saint Martin, Butte aux Cailles neighborhood with lots of restaurants and people on the streets, Les Invalides where Napoleon is buried, Ecole Militaire, Chinatown, Mouffetar neighborhood where you can also die of eating with all the restaurant choices around.
We finally went home, a little dizzy though...
2/22/05
The next day was easier, we visited the Versailles Castle and the Museum of Orsay, two things in Paris that does not require any description or presentation. Really interesting was to see La Chambre, the Van Gogh painting made in Arles, that we had already mentioned in a previous post 'South of France II'.
At the end of the day, we met Jean-Pierre and Dagmar, friends of us living in Courbevoie, close to the Arche de la Defense and that hosted us that night. We had a white wine, a Chablis, for appetizer and then a typical French dish, Hachis Parmentier, for diner that we ate with a red wine, a Saint-Emilion and finally a Riesling with the cheese. Vive la France! O my good, I am slowly turning French with all this alcohol!!!......
2/23/05
We woke up around 6 AM to say goodbye to Mario as he left to go back to Recife - Brazil. We also spoke to Jean-Pierre before he left for work and, because he guided Mario to the train station and it was snowing, he suggested to take a look in the forecast that announced that it would keep snowing, something quite rare in Paris. As a consequence, the traffic was a hell and there were miles and miles of traffic jams in and around Paris.
Nice, we waited a little longer then planned before heading back to Dettwiller. For our surprise, we found out that the Parisian goes crazy with a little bit of snow, there was I think from 3 or 4 centimeters of snow but that was enough to create giants traffic jams for hours and cause several little accidents. To help our way out of Paris, I took a wrong exit, putting us in a even worse situation, delaying our way to the highway, but after getting out of Paris, our drive was very pleasant.
Angie, Mario and I left Dettwiller around 9 AM to visit Paris and the Champagne region. We stopped in Reims and met Flavien, a good friend of us, who lives in Versailles and was our host for the 2 following days. Reims' Notre Dame cathedral was our meeting point. It is the biggest cathedral in France and it has been built in the 13th century.
Two other churches where built at the same location, the first one in 407.
From there we went to visit a Champagne producer, Mercier, in Epernay. Mr. Mercier has a fascinating history and a special story about a huge barrel. Have a look below.
[Eugène MERCIER saw the Foudre as a means of blending wines from different "crus" on large scale. Jolibois, a cooper, directed felling of 150 ancient oaks in Hungary.
The drying took 3 years, and the bending of the staves took 7 years. The task which started in Epernay was completed on Christmas eve in 1877. Eugène MERCIER commissioned the famous sculptor from Châlons en Champagne, Navlet, to decorate the barrel. Marked in the annuals of Champagne MERCIER on the 7th July 1881. The barrel was filled the following year with the harvest of 1883.
160.000 liters of this finest vintages from Reims were poured into the oak. But Eugène MERCIER was already thinking ahead to the 1889 and the World Exhibition.
On 17th April 1889 the Foudre left Epernay pulled by 24 oxes and driven by 12 men. 18 horses followed behind the oak to help in some of the steeper slopes. There was also a crowd... a huge crowd... Three bridges had to be reinforced and five buildings were bought and demolished to make way for the giant. 8 days later, the barrel arrived to Paris for the 1889 World Exhibition.]
We went down to their cellar for a guided tour and it is huge, so big that the tour is made in a little train running in its corridors.
Try to imagine that the longest tunnel has 1km of extension and the whole cellar keeps around 15 millions of champagne bottles stored in a total of 18km of tunnels, and this is owned by a single producer. The tour ends with a champagne tasting, of course!
After the big producer, we went to see a smaller one with a familiar vibe, Berèche et Fils. They produce around 50 to 60 thousand bottles a year but also with an old history. They have been producing champagne since 1847. There we got to try as many kinds of champagne we wanted. The owners were really nice people and their champagne tastes great. And moreover their champagne is cheaper than the one from the big producers. It almost seems like an ad!!!
The day was over at this time and we left for Versailles. For dinner we had a special Choucroute prepared by Angie's mom on the night before. Again, a lot of excellent food.
2/21/05
This was a very very busy day, we really saw a lot of things. We left Versailles at 10:30 AM with the idea of visiting the Louvre, that is because it was cold and being all the time outside wasn't too appealing.
We took the train to Paris, switched to the subway and got off close to the Opera. From there we started our march in Paris, we went to Place des Vosges, Le Marais, Hôtel de Ville (City Hall), Île Saint Louis, Notre Dame and finally we got to the Louvre around 2 PM where we stayed until they kicked us out the building, around 6 PM.
We kept walking, since we had to wait for Flavien to call us and arrange a meeting point for dinner, so we walked buy the Bourse de Paris (Paris Stock Exchange), l'Académie de Musique, visited the Galerie Lafayette, Place Pigale where you find all kinds of sex related products, including women, and where the famous Moulin Rouge is located.
As if we hadn't seen enough and feeling like the day had just started, we 'walked' to Butte Montmartre neighborhood, all the way to the Sacré Coeur church, where from you have a nice view of the city.
Thanks God Flavien called, I couldn't do yet another walk. We met and had dinner and then he took us for a night tour in Paris by car.
We drove by the Canal Saint Martin, Butte aux Cailles neighborhood with lots of restaurants and people on the streets, Les Invalides where Napoleon is buried, Ecole Militaire, Chinatown, Mouffetar neighborhood where you can also die of eating with all the restaurant choices around.
We finally went home, a little dizzy though...
2/22/05
The next day was easier, we visited the Versailles Castle and the Museum of Orsay, two things in Paris that does not require any description or presentation. Really interesting was to see La Chambre, the Van Gogh painting made in Arles, that we had already mentioned in a previous post 'South of France II'.
At the end of the day, we met Jean-Pierre and Dagmar, friends of us living in Courbevoie, close to the Arche de la Defense and that hosted us that night. We had a white wine, a Chablis, for appetizer and then a typical French dish, Hachis Parmentier, for diner that we ate with a red wine, a Saint-Emilion and finally a Riesling with the cheese. Vive la France! O my good, I am slowly turning French with all this alcohol!!!......
2/23/05
We woke up around 6 AM to say goodbye to Mario as he left to go back to Recife - Brazil. We also spoke to Jean-Pierre before he left for work and, because he guided Mario to the train station and it was snowing, he suggested to take a look in the forecast that announced that it would keep snowing, something quite rare in Paris. As a consequence, the traffic was a hell and there were miles and miles of traffic jams in and around Paris.
Nice, we waited a little longer then planned before heading back to Dettwiller. For our surprise, we found out that the Parisian goes crazy with a little bit of snow, there was I think from 3 or 4 centimeters of snow but that was enough to create giants traffic jams for hours and cause several little accidents. To help our way out of Paris, I took a wrong exit, putting us in a even worse situation, delaying our way to the highway, but after getting out of Paris, our drive was very pleasant.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 8:14 AM
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