First stop in France was Epernay in the wine region of Champagne. The famous Moet and Chandon champagne cellars are located in the centre of town, with some 28km of underground cellars. We joined a tour of the cellars where the guide described the process of making champagne ending with a tasting. Well worth a visit.
The following day we had to drop off our trusty Peugeot and lug the backpacks once again. After 2 months of driving we were both a bit sad to see the car go - we had traveled 8,140km with no breakdowns and no flat tyres The car was super comfortable with ipod connections, cruise control and a massive boot, superb.
After all our camping we had gathered quite a good cooking and outdoor living setup. So unfortunately we were going to have to bin all our gear simply because we wouldn't be able to carry it. A bunch of young lads had pitched up for the night next to us in the camping ground, so I wandered over and offered up our surplus camping gear... turns out they were uni students from Ghent in Belgium - cycling around France (8 of them cycling with one mate driving a van with their tents and food etc). They were super impressed with the offer and gladly accepted all our gear (except the tent which we will keep). They offered me a beer and were pretty good value - having lots of questions about NZ when they found out where I was from. A pretty good feeling to hand all our gear on to students rather than binning it. Having been in their position, I knew that the gear would be well used and probably end up in someones flat in Ghent.
Moet and Chandon
Dom Perignon - Moet and Chandon acquired the vineyards where Dom Perignon Champagne was produced and continued making the champange which is the most expensive in their range
Champagne maturing in the cellars
A bit of Moet tasting, very nice.
Scarlett Johansson the Moet spokeswoman in the background. The range of bottle sizes in the foreground. The largest bottle is 20 litres.
No comments:
Post a Comment