Champagne Supernova

Alright, so I'm currently playing catch-up right now with this blog since other than the most recent post, it had been nearly 3 weeks since I gave an update on how things have been going, so here it goes! 

Many times, if you ask people to tell you what first comes to their minds when you mention the country "France", their responses almost always include some or all of the following: The Eiffel Tower (duh), cheese, croissants, baguettes, berets, and of course WINE. That is why this entry will deal with the latter subject, as well as my recent day trip to the region of France known as Champagne. As we all know, France is a country that has long been known for its production of quality wines that come from all over its many regions. However, the Champagne region proves to be a bit different from the others in that its wines are fermented in different ways in order to make...you guessed it: champagne (a very original name, n'est pas?). Now, what exactly is champagne and how is it that much different from regular wine? Well, to be honest, not that much. In fact, champagne is just a very fancy name for carbonated/sparkling wine that is made in this quite famous region of France, but that is not to say that it isn't absolutely delicious!

As far as I'm concerned, this could be an art exhibit

One of France's most famous champagnes

So, the trip began early on a Saturday morning in Place de Republique, Paris where myself and other API student loaded ourselves onto charter buses that would take us on a nearly 2 hour ride before reaching our first destination of Reims, France, also known as the capital city of the Champagne region. It was in this fairly small, historic town where we made our first visit to the production headquarters of the Taittinger Champagne House, one of France's most famous, largest, and oldest families that have been know for producing high quality champagnes. We arrived into the lobby of the house where we were greeted by fancy-dressed employees who led us around on a tour of the facility which included a video of the companies very long history, a walk around the underground caves (yes, legitimate caves) where the countless bottles of champagne are kept and fermented, and the piece de resistance: the TASTING. Now even though I am an avid and very dedicated fan of the classy brand of champagne that is André (both regular and all of the other wondrous flavors), I must say that Taittinger's samples were actually very good...of course what else can you expect from a bottle of champagne that costs nearly 135 euro?

Descending into the caves

Bottles after bottles of fermenting champagne.

If I could have, I would have

These racks were set up all over the cellars to hold the fermenting bottles

Finally time for the tasting

I'll take the largest one, please

Surprisingly, 135 euro champagne is actually good

After leaving the Taittinger caves, we were then given some free time to grab lunch and explore around the city center of Reims. Although we didn't have much time before we needed to be back on the bus, we were able to walk around and of course visit the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame de Reims, which as you can see looks almost identical to Notre-Dame de Paris...either way, you can't deny the church is absolutely gorgeous inside and out.

The back of Notre-Dame de Reims

A lop-sided photo taken by none other than Lexi Hoge

Facade of Notre Dame de Reims

Beautiful stained glass windows

Side area of the cathedral

Beautiful view, minus the woman who decided to plant herself right in the middle

In the center of Reims

Once getting back onto the bus, we took about a 45 minute drive to an area just a bit outside of Reims which housed even more famous champagne and wine houses, including Dom Pérignon, where we made our second visit to champagne caves of the Mercier family brand. Like Taittinger, Mercier champagne has been around for quite sometime, however all of us got the feeling that the Mercier company may not be as celebrated as Taittinger due to the cheaper priced champagne, as well as the less formal, more touristy feel of the establishment...but of course, it's not like we were complaining at all. At the Mercier house we again watched a short presentation of the company's history before descending into the champagne caves which were much different from those of Taittinger in that they seemed much larger and included a tour around the caves via a mini-train much like a children's ride that could be found at Disney World. Needless to say it was a quite bizarre, but interesting and funny experience nonetheless. Finally, like any good tour of an establishment known for making alcoholic beverages, our visit to the Mercier house ended with a champagne tasting of one of their most popular champagnes which, despite our thoughts going into the tasting, proved to be a rather good tasting drink as well.

Welcome to the Mercier Caves

Friends on the Disney inspired train ride

More and more bottles of champagne

Really though, it looks like Disney ride, no?

These were apparently used to entertain large parties thrown by the Mercier family...beats a keg if you ask me

After everyone had sufficient time to buy all kind of souvenirs from the gift shop, including numerous bottles of champagne (sorry mom and dad..couldn't bring myself to splurge) we all then loaded back on the bus to make our way back to Paris for the evening. All in all, the excursion proved to be another fun escape from the city that provided us with the pleasure to see yet another area of our host country and the ability to snack on massive amounts of free bread that our program providers gave us before and after each champagne tasting to prevent us from feeling any buzz whatsoever from the alcohol...smart thinking API!

À bientôt everyone!