ahhhhhhhhhhhhh champagne

Posted on | June 30, 2010 | 2 Comments

we have been in cramant for four, or is it five? days already.
time blurs here, what with the long long summer evenings and the constant flow of champagne.
i will make a list at some stage of the champagnes we have tried….but seriously there are HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of champagne houses here and most we have never heard of.
i am kind of wallowing in obscure pink champagnes, to be honest…..but we will be picking up our game later this week with some dom perignon and other goodies. i hear perrier jouet calling my name, and a lot of vintage veuve clicquot seems to be floating around here.

we took the train from paris, and found the rental car place without too much drama.
we are zipping around in a renault clio, which is quite large enough for four passengers and their bottles of fizz.
the GPS is entirely en francaise, and fortunately i can understand a lot more french than i can speak, so things haven’t been too dire, nor have we been lost at all. my school french of almost 30 years ago has kicked in quite nicely….i retained a lot more than i thought.
i’ve got vocab galore: i am just unable to string it together meaningfully.

we have visited the beautiful notre dame cathedral at reims, where a thousand years of french kings were crowned….just imagine that! a thousand years! but there has been a church there since the 5th century.
notre dame is just as gothic and gorgeous as the big one in paris, but with about one thousandth of the crowds.
we had ample time and silence to walk around and marvel at the height of the vaulting arches overhead and to gaze at the exquisite stained glass work, including three simply breathtakingly divine panels by marc chagall.
so beautiful.

across the road was a little shop selling the special reims biscuits, little rose-pink coloured crispy sponge finger biscuits with a thick dusting of icing sugar on top.
surprisingly delicious with a glass of champagne, nom nom nom.

we have a cottage with a kitchen in cramant, so we’ve been mostly self-catering.
in the mornings, maurice walks up to the patisserie and picks up a baguette, and pastries du jour for breakfast.
along with some cheese and fruit and salad and pate and walnuts and dates and of course a lot of champagne, we are feeling quite replete.
everything that we have had so far is just scrumptious.
i suppose that at some stage we will actually go out to a restaurant and eat a proper meal….but we cannot stop buying the cheese and pate!
of course it is summer, so the stone fruits are in full fling….i am as happy as a clam when there are peaches and cherries about the place.

cramant is surrounded by vines and the famous chalky soil….just three minutes stroll from our cottage are some moet vines.
most people plant roses in front of their vines…..i have heard that the roses react first to any changes in the soil, so the vintners can act before the grapes are harmed….sort of the mine canaries of champagne…..i don’t know how true this is these days, but it certainly makes for a charming landscape.

we have also visited troyes this week and we want to go back for a more thorough look.
the city centre is in the shape of a champagne cork.
the locals are called trojans.
troyes is where the troy ounce comes from.
the city centre has entire streets of perfectly preserved medieval buildings (said to be the best collection in europe)…..all on a lean and bulging alarmingly with age (and i mean to say, who isn’t?)…o, the half timber and ancient stone is simply beautiful.

speaking of lovely ancient buildings, i have some photos of lavenham village in suffolk to share later. divine little houses, with nary a right angle anywhere in sight.
i said to maurice OMG let’s buy one! plenty for sale, anything from 250,000 to 500,000. pounds. sterling.

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hi, i'm patti flynn

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