All about Champagne

Quercy making her way along the River Marne near Epernay today

The Village of Mareuil sur Marne where the Champagne house Guy Charbaut is located

Today was our first day in the Champagne region proper and so having done a bit of research and established that the medium sized Champagne producer Guy Charbaut was doing cellar tours at 10am this morning, I duly rang them at 9am and booked us on the tour. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative tour of the old cellars dating from 1810 followed by a tasting in one of the old rooms surrounding the courtyard of their town house, which is also a chambre d'hote.

It is also just yards from the canal so we did not have far to lug our purchases.

Old walls of chalk with added concrete here and there where it has cracked.

Our guide explaining the turning process

Where they add something, I'm not sure what to replace the amount lost when they have to open the bottle to remove the silty yeast deposits

Automatic turner.

After our tour, having stored our purchases on the boat, we got on our bikes and cycled the few miles to Epernay the home of Champagne, and a town that has little going for it apart from one street which is lined with Champagne Houses.  Starting with Moet et Chandon.  A large modern building with big gold lettering - all a bit too much bling for my taste and I believe that you must pay 40 euros for the tour.  Glad we didn't, it's well and truly on the trodden tourist trail, and we prefer to take our chances with the little guys.  In fact the little guys sell their grapes to the big ones and it's all blended and generally a mix of many grapes from different areas within Champagne.

I have not drunk enough champagne to really tell what is good and what is not.  Champagne tends to drunk at weddings and special occasions where there are so many distractions. Here we were sitting quietly and could just concentrate on what we were drinking. I learned that rose Champagne tastes a little bit like red wine.  I love the colour but I was not keen on the tanin taste, made either by adding red wine at the end or crushed grape skins at the beginning. Although I had gone there determined to come away with only the beautiful rose, we realised that it did not taste as good as the whites.

Anyhow, we are not hard core when it comes to this kind of thing, so although there is a lot of banter amongst boating folk about getting in as many tastings as one can manage, no number is too many etc etc, the one visit was thoroughly enjoyable and enough for us.  We made some nice purchases for the family and we might even drink a bottle ourselves.

One of the ornate Champagne Houses

Another bigger posher one

The hill over the cellars of 1810 where we had the tour. The cellars were in this hill.

Having done the tour and then cycled onto Epernay we realised it was 1.25pm.  Panic immediately set in.  We were never going to find anywhere serving food at this hour.  Almost everyone in France is finishing, or at least half way through their lunch by 1.30pm.  A quick look at the restaurants confirmed this and so sadly we had to make do with a cafe'brasserie, that was still serving and offered seating in deep shade.  Friendly enough, with no English, which is fine if there is French spoken slowly which there was not.  I ended up with a salad that comprised of half an undercooked egg (thank god it wasn't a whole one) soggy tomatoes, limp lettuce, very thin slices of processed cheese and dried up Serano ham.

Chalon-en-Champagne unexpectedly good! (Indian restaurant also recommended)

Whilst traveling on the canals in France you invariably end up arriving in a town or village 'by the back door'.  So it was in St Dizier and Vitris le Francois.  By contrast Chalons seems to have turned things round and here in the port one feels in the centre of things.  Tree lined quays, nearby large parks, main street just around the corner and lock to the side where one can watch comings and goings.  The buzz is helped by the fact that there is a music festival going on just downstream between River Marne and Canal and we faintly hear the music from our position on the quay.

The quays are nicely shaded under trees for the whole day, so there is always a place to stay cool. This lot stayed there the whole day and evening!

Quercy is a little boxed in at the moment, but we are assured that Brave Hendrick will move today after they have been shopping, and we are not leaving til this afternoon.

Another baking hot day yesterday, so we took off on our bikes, and it never feels to hot when cycling with the wind in your face, and we found a perfect, and private, little swimming spot on the Marne.  Mind you we did have to cycle 5km past the spots occupied by local youth and winos to arrive at this one!

We arrived in Chalons in the morning, after just 5km cruising. Unusual for us, but we had not managed to get here before the locks closed the previous day.  A combination of loitering too long at swimming spots the day before, not being sure what time the locks closed, and finding a lock gate jammed just before lock closing time.  (At the time we were not sure if is was jammed or just that the locks closed at 6pm on Sunday).  Next morning after reversing yet again to twist the opening tube we decided it was definitely jammed, and so we duely called VNF - hotel barge arrived at the other side of the lock and we both waited for the lockkeeper to arrive. A rather surely youth who walked into the lockkeepers hut, pressed a button and just about managed a nod before getting back in his van and pulling away without bothering to wait and find out if the lock did actually work. I know it was 9am on a Sunday but he was getting paid for it!  

We dread these jammed locks as our French is not the best and the lock controllers on the end of the phones as well as the lock keepers themselves, invariably speak no English.  Funny when you read the international language on the canals in English.  For the majority of boaters maybe, but no one told VNF!

Anyhow, we were sort of stuck in the middle of nowhere, which is normally not a problem, in fact I usually prefer the middle of nowhere, but on this occasion is was the noisiest middle of nowhere that I had ever encountered.  Dogs were barking, people were shouting.  Julian was oblivious to the whole thing as he had taken his hearing aids out for swimming.  Eventually after commenting on this over the course of about an hour, I decided to have a little wander; which I usually do in the evenings.  I could see people coming in and out of little rat runs between the canal and the woods.  There were a others on the canal bank and loitering around the lock.  I peeped in and over a small river bridge and saw lots of cars and vans and so I guessed this was a travellers site and hence all the noise.  I wondered if I should suggest to Julian that we moved back to the previous quiet mooring.  Would think I was being ridiculously over cautious? - and so what if they were travellers, it did not mean that they would be unfriendly, in fact I had exchanged 'bon soir's' with quite a few of them in my walk.  Anyhow, I got back to the boat and told Julian what I had found and he immediately said 'Shall we move back?'! The chances of unwelcome night time visits are more likely with 50 people than with one or two.  I agreed with his logic -  so we moved. Here is a photo of us leaving the area on our one and only ever dusk cruise!

Anyhow, I'm digressing, yes the port, with friendly capitaniere, and an incredibly reasonable charge of 4 euros per night is in a pleasant position in the town of Chalons.  There are good walks including one we did on our bikes along the old canal St Martin ending up going under the canal before exiting in the river.  We saw a lovely horseshoe weir and it was a beautifully tranquil evening ride, unfortunately no photos of th weir as I was too busy looking at it.

The friendly young capitiniere

Swans, just now with 3 signets

Very old trees along the Canal St Martin last night.

The grumpy Belgians that would not help us by witnessing a contract have gone, and all is early morning freshness and cool with sun beginning to shine through the trees.  Today we are waiting for a shoe shop to open at 2.25pm, or we think so as there are conflicting opening signs on the door - what a surprise! (not) We must just be thankful that it has not closed down, it looks like it might.  Why you ask am I keen to delay our cruise today by visiting a shoe shop in a provincial French town that looks like it might be closing down? Well much as I love my lovely Green Shoes, made in good old Moretonhampstead, I have just self diagnosed myself, as of last night with Tendonitis! Walking has gradually been getting more difficult, and when I have to keep asking Julian (of all people) to slow down, I finally get the message that something is wring and it is not just 'old age' as he unkindly suggested.

Tomorrow we are moving into Champagne making territory and just how we chose which champagne houses to visit I simply have no idea.

Early morning leaving Joinville. Clean waters, swimming.

HEre is Julian as our first lock this morning as we leave Joinville.

Leaving the lock.

 Looking back at our mooring last night where we swam in the canal.  The waters here are so clean.  So much water considering that there is little rain.

We used the gang plank ladder to get in and out by hooking the rope at the en over a bollard on the quay.

15 minutes later there was a lovely sunset.

Me in the water. It looked much clearer than the River Marne which is followed by the canal all the way until Epinal when the River Marne is large enough to be navigable to Paris. It makes you realise how Paris came to be the capital, having two great navigable rivers flowing into it the Marne from the east and the Seine from the South.

Vignory and our cruise to Joinville

We've had a good cruise this morning through the Haute Marne previously a centre for metal working, both utilitarian and ornamental.

Julian started out from our mooring and I went by bike to see Vignory before joining him further down the canal.

Here are some photos of the church at Vignory and the boat cruising down the canal which cuts through some hills.

Pottery weekend near Chapaise and Cormatin

Last weekend we returned to the beautiful area of Burgundy that is inland from Tournus.   My photos just don't do that area justice, and besides I was too busy sculpting and enjoying the scenery and food to take many photos.  Romanesque churches in every village, crumbling stone balconies overflowing with geraniums and begonias.

Hi Summer and the hay has been baled. 

My finished nuthatch bird bath before firing.  I will leave it there and return for it when we have the car in August.

Lys Romanesque Church

Rolling countryside, with cows and a good many horses - a few sheep.  Deep forests and plenty of shade to protect us from the blazing mid summer sun as we cycled here and there.  As least this is what Julian did, as well as reading and pottering about generally doing nothing in particular, which is what he can always do and I can't.

Here above is Auberge de Grison where we stayed.  What a welcoming place.  Friendly owners and good home cooked food.  Yes it had limitations.  No wifi! All sorts of odd bits of furniture including a sort of bookcase (empty) made of chipboard. A limited menu, but all made from scratch (even the veggie burgers)  So the limited menu was only limiting if you stayed there for a week.  We stayed for 4 nights and ate there every night despite much posher places in Chapaize, which is a little mecca for countryside poshness about 5 miles from the Auberge and near the Pottery of Monique Delaigare where I did the pottery course.

At the end we were so embarrassed by the most reasonable bill that Julian tipped a ridiculous amount in comparison to the actual bill.  The padrone was taken aback!  He scurried out and round into the cellar and came back with two pots of home made confiture! I had been complimenting on his jams at breakfast.

Pigeonairre or something like it in a field outside Lys

Typical old house with turret and balcony

Here are some photos taken during the course.  There were four students and Monique the teacher above in the foreground.  As is typical in France, the lunch break was two hours long, about 4 courses including wine.  A bit tedious as my French is not too good. A was dying to get back to the pottery studio and my bird bath.

Lady and her  cat sculpture

The man's hippo!

The two on the left were Monique and Philip.

Monique and Philip's house

Bits of my bird after I had scooped out the inside

Drying a bit to avoid collapse

My bird bath almost finished.

Chateau Ozenay, you can stay there

Old archway to courtyard in Prayes where we stayed

Head maquette I made but I decided to do the bord (bath)

Small Kestrels (Lesser Kestrel as opposed to the Common Kestrel)
We were lucky to find another colony of these beautiful birds just outside Chissey les Macon near, in fact the nearest village to Prayes where we were staying.

It was abeautiful evening and the sunset was orange and purple.  Our phone camera could not pick out the Kestrel's and the sunset was a different colour, but the following photos show something of the evening sunset and the knoll where the Kestrels were hunting and then roosting.