We definitely enjoyed a bit of a lie in this morning, largely in part due to the black out blinds and the fact that we haven’t really stopped since Friday morning. We got ready for the day and headed into the town centre for a breakfast at Matin Gourmand. There weren’t many choices in town this morning but luckily that didn’t stop us from having a great chow to kick start the day. We both ordered coffees with oat milk (lesson learnt I told you!) which were good and then Ash had the omelette and I have banana, bacon and berry pancakes.
The little French hostess was also such a vibe with a wide smile and infectious energy. The table before us left and she walked them onto the pavement and waved and saluted them as they walked off into the distance like they were Michelin inspectors and she was clinging onto a three star restaurant. It was cool to see and also another sign that the French aren’t too bad. Maybe it’s just the English (Brits) that they hate?
On the walk back home we detoured through the Avenue of Champagne, a road filled with many of the leading champagne producers from Moët & Chandon to Pol Roger to Mercier and Perrier. This street is crazy! It’s just massive, beautiful champagne houses and properties exuding wealth and status for all to see. The photos will hopefully paint a picture of this a little more. It’s also said to be the most expensive Avenue in the world (more than Times Square!) because of the millions of bottles of champagne stored in the kilometres of chalk cellars beneath it.
We followed up our walk through The Avenue de Champagne with a drive through to Ay-Champagne to visit the Pressoria Champagne museum and do a tour. The staff informed us that it would be a sensory journey to the heart of champagne and they were not wrong. This tour is a must for anyone visiting the region. It had various rooms with screens to watch informative process videos, aromas to smell – such as young, mature or well developed grape smells of the 3 varieties, a room which included a 3D screen all around you of the roots and soil below the ground and it emitted a fresh earthly smell as it you were deep below the ground breathing in. Unbelievable. There were also touch screens with various quizzes, games and processes to follow that kept us engaged and taught us loads. Am I missing one sense? Oh yes…taste! you didn’t think a tour would end without a tasting did you?
The sommelier, who definitely had a bias towards champagne, was an affluent and astute young Frenchmen. He knew his stuff and gave us a few recommendations as well. He has tasted over 1500 champagnes ! Come now, that’s just snobbish. We were treated to two tastings (pictured above) before saying cheers to the team and heading out. Also, I didn’t mention this but we had the whole museum and tour to ourselves which made me feel like Kim Kardashian must feel when they close down the whole of Greenacres for her to shop. Yirre you famous Kimmy.
Just before heading back into Èpernay for the football Ash had a quick pitstop for us in Hautvillers at Marion-Bosser Champagne House. This famous village was where the 17th century monk and cellar master Dom Perignon discovered how to create sparking bubbles in the bottle. This family business cultivates the vines with care, rigor and a passion for the terroir, a Premier Cru I’ll add. Bernadette relaunched the business in 1994. Today Elodie, her daughter and young wine grower, passionate about the land and wine, has taken over the reigns of the domain after studying viticulture and oenology in Burgundy.
We were super fortunate to have Bernadette introduce the 4 champagnes they currently produce and serve the tastings for us. Again, we were the only two people in their tasting room and had her attention to ourselves. We ordered a glass of each of the 4, the Premier Cru Brut Tradition, Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs, Brut Rose and Brut Millésime (their vintage). They were all really good and in all honesty our young palates couldn’t really differentiate the vintage from the non. Afterwards we bought a couple bottles of the Extra Brut and Brut Tradition and took the beautiful winding drive back to Èpernay.
Considering it was a World Cup final and the French were in it, the town wasn’t humming with anticipation or support. It might have also been the icy weather of a winter World Cup but still I did expect more from the local villagers. It would have been a different environment at a fan park in central Paris but nonetheless we found a bar, Café le Progrès, in the town centre and stood around the bar. It was a small bar but all the tables had been taken already and a group of young fans were gathered on the other side of the bar in front of the screen so we didn’t have much choice but to stand opposite the TV and watch from there.
We ordered beers and watched the build up with intermittent injections of “allez les bleus” from the patrons in the bar. This did lift the energy and along with them all singing the national anthem were the highlights of the occasion. They were all pretty silent for about 80 minutes of the match as Argentina were very convincing at 2-0 up. What followed was mayhem with 2 late goals in regulation to force extra time and then another 2, one from Messi and another from Mbappe to force penalties. Unfortunately for the French the penalties silenced the crowds indefinitely, while internally I was super pleased as I was routing for Argentina, and more importantly, Messi from the start. The G.O.A.T, period! We ate some snacks at home afterwards, I finished a blog post and then called it a night. Tomorrow is the 19th and that brings our 1 year engagement so we have decided to celebrate this at a cool hotel out in the champagne farms nearby. 🥂
KEEP RIGHT PASS LEFT 