Champagne houses

Wednesday, I had a reservation at the Veuve Clicquot champagne house. More on that shortly. So I headed out about two hours early to see other sites and take photos. 

This is the Basilique Saint-Remi, another very historical site, but one not open, either because it was 7am or because of renovations, or both. 

Reims is on a small river called the Vesle. Pictured below,  however, is not a river, but a canal, about 58 km long. It has a series of locks.

The planned highlight of my morning was a tour and tasting at Veuve Cliquot. I had many options in choosing. Reims is, after all, the capital of the Champagne region of France. There are an incredible number of houses producing champagne. Given time and money, it would be wonderful to head out to the vineyards and visit multiple producers. I settled on this one, in part because our host, Nadange, provides grapes to Veuve Cliquot.

I was early so I took some random photos at the entrance.

One advantage of signing up for the earliest tour is that sometimes you are the only one there. So it .was that my guide, Clara, and I headed down into the chalk cellars under Veuve Clicquot.

The chalk cellars are perfect for making champagne - and they have about 40 million bottles in over 50 miles of underground pathways.

Veuve means widow - and Veuve Clicquot became one at 27, at a time when women couldn’t have a bank account, much less run a champagne company. A relative assisted for a bit, but she ultimately ran the company. She was also the first woman to get a drivers license in Reims - and the first to receive a ticket.

I learned about the three grapes used to make champagne: Pinot noir, meunier, and chardonnay. I learned about the harvest, the pressings, and the international market (90% of their champagne is international, mostly the US, followed by Japan.). 

If you are an employee there for 40 years, you can get a chamber in the cellars named for you.

At the tasting, I got to try the Yellow Label and their top champagne, La Grande Dame. Learned about the glass, the bubbles, how long they can sit in your home, etc. Delicious. 

Side note: the French love their baguettes, and they buy fresh bread every day. Apparently, not everyone can make it to the boulangerie (bakery), so some enterprising person created a bread vending machine. It has an oven and will dispense a warm loaf of bread. I’m not testing it - I like going to a bakery too much.

For dinner, we met up with our friends the Walkers. They have been so much fun to travel with, but their time here ends on Friday. Time to plan and to save up for the next trip!

Stefan was our very humorous server, and he made sure he snapped a shot of himself when he took our group photo.