Champagne Region of France

Last weekend, I went for a long weekend with some friends of mine to the Champagne Region of France. It is funny, because over the last several years we drove right through it several times on the way to Paris, but never stopped. The idea of the area reminds me a bit of Bamberg with regard to Beer. You have the main city (Reims), which has some big name Champagne producers such as Pommery and Taittinger, and then in the surrounding villages, you have the smaller Champagne Producers - around 500 in total in this region! I had always heard of Champagne, but until we moved here, I never realized that the only bottles that are labeled "Champagne", actually have to come (by international law) from this region in France. You have Prosecco, Cava, Sekt etc., but it can only be called Champagne if it comes from this region. Dom Perignon (also from this region) was the famous Monk who perfected the Champagne. We had such a good time. We went into the wine caves (cellars) and learned all about the process of producing Champagne. We even ended up in one of the villages in someones house - so funny. As always, it was not necessarily the best time of year to go, but really fun nonetheless. It was also great though - because it wasn't crowded at all. Yes - I will bore you to death with photos :-)...... Lots and Lots of photos....

Crossing the border into France

Almost there! (We stayed in the city of Reims)

The view from our hotel room..

Notre Dame (not the one in Paris, but the one in Reims). 29 Kings of France were crowned here

 between 1027 and 1825!

One of the biggest wine barrels in the world!

being silly!

This was the entrance to the Pommery Champagne Producer - it reminded me of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory

A closer look...

The steps down into the Caves  - unbelievable!

and miles and miles of Champagne!

This was interesting...The reason they store the Champagne on an angle is so that the sediments go down to the top of the bootle. They then open the bottle, let the sediments out, and then put the cork on it. 

The different traditional sizes of Champagne (the common size that you find at a store is the one second from the top (it is just a baby in comparison to what else they sell... I always picture the winner of the Tour De France spraying the huge Champagne bottle - apparently it is not so unusual in France!