Felix and I went to Reims this weekend with our little French car to check out a city we've driven past many times but never stopped. Here is what we found!
Lots of neat Art Neuveau buildings like this theatre.
An old Roman arch - very similar to the ones I saw a few weeks ago in the Roman Forum.
A wonderful covered market, newly remodeled, with great vegetables and seafood.
...no french market would be complete without brains for sale!
Notre-Dame de Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned. Great gothic architecture.
Who doesn't love a region whose products are gothic statues admiring champagne?
...we didn't watch this movie, but I am now checking twice when I brush my teeth in the morning.
...turn left if you want to drive to Europe...?
Champagne tasting at Pommery!!!!!
Madame Pommery was really into supporting art and had pieces throughout her property and champagne caves. The creator of this piece calculated that a live elephant could do this 18,000 km from Earth and used a stuffed on to show us what he was talking about.
The Pommerys sent this enormous barrel to the Worlds Fair in the US and carved an Indian on the front representing "old America" and a french lady handing a glass of Pommery to an American lady - "let's share". Hard to see, but the Statue of Liberty is also depicted in the top left corner of the barrel.
Into the champagne caves we go! 17km of caves were dug just for this one company using old chalk mines still existing from Roman times.
This underground art display involves an angel statue taken by an American after WWI and given back to the French out of guilt, a giant red paper machete ball, and a fake dinosaur vertebra in a glass jar - it's up to the viewer to make the connection.
Bottles of champagne fermenting for the 2nd time - these 3 liter ones take about 50 months and lay horizontal.
Madame Pommery had this woman carved into the chalk wall of this cave where the bottles of champagne are finishing their second fermentation
The bottles are stored tipped down at the end of their second fermentation so the dead yeast cells are collected in the neck (for greater clarity). The bottles are turned 1/4 turn to the right and 1/6 to the left each day. At the end, the liquid in the neck is frozen, the cork removed, the liquid (plus the dead yeast cels) are removed, and the final cork is inserted.
Unlike wine, champagnes are mixed from a variety of years and grapes (Pinot noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay) to produce consistent flavor. The exception is when particularly good years are kept aside - here are the best years of the Pommery champagnes.
We took a nice bottle into the park to enjoy in the sunshine...
...in classy plastic cups.
Good times in Reims!
