Another Day in Epernay

Since we stayed the night at the lovely Hotel Jean Moet, we started our day in Epernay.  We had plans to tour Moet Chandon later that morning.  You may have heard of them... they make a little champagne called Dom Perignon.

As with any typical day we started off the day with croissants and coffee.

Jamie and Kelly went for a walk around the downtown area of Epernay while Tari and Duane took it easy in the hotel room.  A very nice local gentleman saw Jamie taking a picture of Kelly and stopped to offer his services, so a picture could be done together.  The people of Epernay are very friendly people!

Downtown and the Avenue de Champagne

While waiting for the Moet tour time, Kelly and Jamie wondered downtown Epernay and also the main road of Avenue de Champagne.  Avenue de Champagne is the main street in town where the large internationally known champagne houses are located.  Along with Moet, where we had our tasting, there were other houses such as Pol Roger and Perrier Jouet.  Underneath the street is over 68 miles of champagne caves!  Like an underground city, each house's cave complex is complete with their own street names for each corridor.

 

 

This building looked to be quiet governmental, but was actually a tourism office, hotel, and restaurant. It also had a huge lovely garden behind it that was open to the public and connected you to other areas of Epernay.

Moet-Chandon Champagne House

We had scheduled an 11 am tour and tasting at the Moet house.  The house itself was huge and had a statue out by the entrance celebrating the life of Dom Perignon, the French Benedictine monk who made important contributions to the wine industry by finding better ways to make quality champagne. 

As part of the tour we walked the champagne caves where all the champagnes are stored for aging.  Napoleon also walked these same caves as he was a big fan of Moet Chandon and would often come to visit and leave with 300 or more bottles after each visit. Napoleon said he liked to have the wine to celebrate victories and needed it to get over the losses.

 One of the original wine barrels used to make champagne.  Moet was actually one of the first houses to stop using oak barrels and start using steel.  They did this in the 1960s, about 40 years earlier than others,  

The walls of champagne that we walked down during the tour in the pic below is all Dom Perignon Magnums!  Gotta say, don't think we have ever been around that much ever!  These walls normally go back a few layers and the photo is only of the end of the corridor!

 The rows of bottles are often marked in a "secret" code that only the wine maker knows that tells about the wine's origin.  Along with that information, the number of bottles in that grouping will be listed.  In the case of Moet, the number would often be in the thousands. This nook had over 86,000 bottles in it!

Time for Bubbles!!!

As you can see from Duane and Tari's excitement, we ended the tour by leaving the caves and going to a tasting room.  As part of our tour we were able to taste two different champagnes.  The first one was the Moet Imperial and the second was Moet Pink 2008.  

 

The tasting room at Moet was a little different than most we have been to.  For one, it was down in the caves and not up by the shop and it was also decorated room with chandeliers and no tables and chairs.  I think the intent was to not have you stay long in this room. 

 Our tour guide helped pour, but there was also a gentleman who was a champagne sommelier that came in to pour and tell us about the wines we were tasting.

Once the tasting was completed, the next stop was the Moet gift shop where of course you could purchase all the champagnes and other items with the Moet label like beach towels, champagne buckets and a USB drive.  Yep, you could actually purchase a USB that had the Moet logo on it and looked like it was done in gold.  Not sure why anyone would need that.......

After completing the tour, the four of us did a walk all the way down Avenue de Champagne and then circled back up toward the main downtown area.  The walk was way longer than we expected, but we did get to see a lot of the town.

                             

One of the neatest looking buildings in Epernay was the Castallina.  It was very large and appeared to be another champagne making house.  The building itself looked very Austrian in style and had a tower that could be seen from almost anywhere in town.

As we walked through town we saw this street sign in several areas, finally we had to stop and take a picture.  1) because we were pronouncing it Chateau Terry and joking that our Tari had a house named after her and 2) because we had no idea what the symbol meant next to it.  The car on fire symbol did not seem obvious to us.  We searched the internet for answers with no luck.

 

Of course there were several shops in town that sold only champagne, but what amazed us was the prices they sold them at.  A bottle of Pol Roger that we would typically spend about 65 dollars for in the US could be purchased for about 30 Euro!  It is a good thing local establishments do not ship directly to US consumers or we all probably would have been shipping back some boxes of wine!

More Bubbles! 

Once we completed our walk around town and had some lunch at a small sandwich shop, it was time for more bubbles!

Attached to the hotel we stayed at was a wine bar named C.Comme  The wine bar was a creation of several of the smaller champagne houses where flights of champagnes could be tried or bottles could be purchased for take home purposes.

We decided since we had time to waste before our train back to Paris that we would do flights of champagne.  Each person had 6 different champagnes to try.  Once thing they are not stingy on in France is samples of wine.  In the States we normally get 2 oz pours or so... these were 6 oz.  That is over half a glass!!!

Nothing but smiles and bubbles!

On the Road Again!

Finally it was time to make our way back to the train station and to Paris.  Both couples purchase a couple bottles when we toured Vollereaux the day before, luckily it fit inside our backpacks... Unluckily for the guys they got to carry those bags back to Paris. Quick tip in Europe, if your name isn't on the ticket, be sure to validate it before getting on the train.

                      

Back in Paris and Back to a Favorite Dining Hole

We arrived back in Paris right around dinner time.  We dropped off our bags and made our way to one of our favorite restaurants from our last trip, Le P'tit Troquet.  It is a very small place, with only about 10 tables or so.  It is owned by a local family that does traditional French food.

It was good to be back here again!

Had a wonderful Cotes Du Rhone Red to go with dinner

As part of the meal, each person has their own starter.  Tari and Kelly both chose poached egg with Lima bean mash and panchetta.  Jamie had the rabbit terrine and Duane went with a grilled St. Machelin cheese on a bed of mixed greens.

One of the nice things about this restaurant is that for 35 Euro a person you get a three course meal with a starter, main course and dessert.  That is a pretty good price for a French place.  They normally have a standard menu and then a daily special menu as well.

For tonight, Tari choose the daily special main course of grilled Sea Bass.

Duane chose the leg of lamb and both Kelly and Jamie had the Beef Bourguignon.  The beef bourguignon was still just as good as we remembered!

The night ended on a sweet and stinky note with dessert.  Kelly had a wonderful strawberry and rhubarb compote that came in cute little mason jar.  Jamie had traditional creme brulee and both Duane and Tari choose the 3 cheese option.  The cheese was very good, but there was one cheese on there that gave the definition to "smelly cheese"  Normally an older cheese will smell a little funky due to aging etc, but the one cheese on the plate had a strong enough smell to clean one's sinus passages!

Go to 6/1/17

Epernay = EperYAY!

On the 2015 Paris trip, the group had done a day trip to Rheims for champagne tasting.  For the 2017 trip, a day trip to Epernay for champagne tasting was planned.  Epernay is a city located near Rheims that is home to many champagne houses and it is where champagne is the center of all things.  For many reasons that will be listed below, our visit to Epernay, was definitely an enjoyable one.  The town should have been called EperYAY!

Look alive boys!  We need to be ready to jump on that metro!

                                         

Getting to Epernay was pretty simple, we took a Metro to the Gard-Est station and jumped on a small commuter train that went straight to Epernay.  The travel time was about one hour by train.

 The train ride gave Kelly perfect time to work on catching the blog up.

As mentioned earlier, the train was a small commuter one, but unlike the ones we had taken in the past to Rheims and to the Normandy region, this one was oddly empty.  In our train car, it was us and three others.

The views as we traveled were mostly rolling fields and small French villages.  Most of these villages had wonderful Gothic churches to be amazed by.

Epernay!

After a brief train stop in a small town before Epernay, our train pulled into our station.  We had made it to our destination.  The plan was to have the guys take our day bags to the hotel we were staying at and then meet us by the bus stop outside the train station as we had scheduled a champagne tasting just a bit outside of Epernay.  The local #6 bus traveled from the train station and had a stop right outside the champagne house that we were going to visit.

           

Key, Key, who has the key?

While waiting for the guys to walk up to the hotel and back, Tari and Kelly thought it would be a good time to use the restrooms.  The toilettes at the train station were easy enough to find as they were right outside the main door.  What was not easy to find was the key to unlock the doors to the toilettes.

If you ever played "Button, Button, who has the button as a child" then this story will sound familiar to you.  We started with the most logical place to find the key, the small sundries shop inside the train station that sold beverages, magazines etc.  After very limited English by her and very limited French by Kelly it was determined she did not have the key nor did she know who would.

From there Tari and Kelly went to the bus window worker to ask them.  They stated the "Train Man" had the keys.  Having no idea who the Train Man was and again working on very limited communication abilities, back inside the train station we went.  Working with the idea of Train Man, Kelly asked at the train ticket window.  We finally had a winner!  The second person working the train window was able to explain that outside and around the corner the train conductors would have a key!

Once outside we see a conductor leave the office and start gong down the stairs to another train platform, so we had to rush to him to ask about the key.  He points us back up the stairs to the door and says a person there will get it for us.  Finally, we knock on the door and a very not happy man is there to help us get a key.  He doesn't say one word, just closes the door after the request and then reopens it to hand out the key!

Needless to say this event took just as long as it took the guys to walk to the hotel and back!  We had to admit the bathroom was pretty darn clean, even if it was hotter than Hades in there.  Mental note for when we need to leave, use a bathroom BEFORE going to the train station! 

Reason #1 Epernay = EperYAY!

Volleraux Champagne House - We started our champagne experience with this medium sized champagne house.  Duane actually lined this up as he met the exporter, Julian, at an event last October at the Cheese Shop in Des Moines, IA.

Julian met us outside and proceeded to give us a tour of their facility including the champagne caves where they store the champagne that is being matured.  On average, the caves held 2 million bottles of champagne and sold about 600,000 per year.  

Part of the champagne making process is Riddling the champagne.  This happens after it is bottled to help move the sediment to the neck of the bottle so that it can easily be removed at a later stage of the champagne making process.  In years past and for some more special bottles today, a champagne house would employ a man to do this work.  It consisted of rotating the bottle 1/4 counter clockwise as they rested in wooden racks (pictured next to Jamie above).  Skilled Riddlers could do thousands of bottles a day!

In more recent times, champagne makers have started using Riddling Racks.  These are machines that take the place of the manual process and can be set up to automatically rotate many bottles at once several times a day.  This speeds up this step and instead of taking 1 month with the manual process, the automated process will only take 1 week.

After completing the tour, came the best part...the champagne tasting!!  We actually tasted 5 champagnes and one after dinner drink called Ratafia.  The champagnes were all very good.  Rarafia was a new beverage to all four us. Julian compared it to a port.  Kelly said it reminder her of a iced tea with some sugar in it.

Over all it was pretty good and both couples took home a bottle along with a bottle or two of champagne.

The group was all smiles at the end of our time at Volleraux.  Julian was very informative and not only were the bubbles very good, the price points were very good as well.  

Leaving the winery, we walked by some of the older equipment Volleraux used to use in the champagne making process, an old press and a giant wine barrel that of course Jamie had to make sure had no wine left in it.

Towards the end of our tour, Julian asked if we had lunch plans.  Having none, we said, "No" and asked if he had any recommendations.  He said he had a place he liked that was very good, if a person likes very traditional French food.  He stressed very traditional a few times, so Jamie eventually asked, "How traditional?". He was a little concerned with what the options would be, because traditional French food often means dishes that were created by the general population during rough economic times. In other words, it was made from everything but the main parts that we are used to in the US. With that said, we have learned over time in our travels to trust local recommendations. These places often bring about the best food and best experiences, so we were on-board. 

Julian called the restaurant to make us a reservation and also called to get us a taxi to take us straight there instead of taking a bus back.

Reason #2 Epernay = EperYAY!

The restaurant Julian recommended was just past our hotel a little bit and called Chez Max, which means, "At Max".

 

The restaurant was a local favorite and pretty full when we got there.  We were escorted upstairs to begin perhaps our favorite food journey so far on this trip.  Reason #2 why Epernay is an EperYAY was this restaurant.  Everyone agreed that we had the best Duck Terrine and the best french fries. In addition, the steak tartar that was out of this world!

Our wine choice for lunch was a lovely wine called a Cahors. Don't bother trying to pronounce it correctly, you never will. Even the French say that it is hard to say in French. It comes from an area of France located near Bordeaux and produces wines that are very dark in color and have a spiced cherry note.  This wine is made mostly with Malbec grapes and interestingly enough is the only red wine to come out of the southwest section of France that does not use any Cab Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

Champagne tasting can work up an appetite, so instead of getting our normal two starters we actually got three!  The Duck Terrine that was out of this world, our typical escargots, and then a few oysters as well.

We had mentioned that the Steak Tartar was the "Dish to Have" while dining here.  Part of that reason is that Chef Max himself comes to the table to prepare it for you.  He was very entertaining as he mixed up the meal and stated that if we had not had tartar at Chez Max yet, then we have not had Tartar in France yet!

 Both Tari and Jamie had the Tartar.  Having sampled some of theirs, we all agreed that it was the most flavorful tartar we had eaten so far this trip.

 Kelly ordered the Chateaubriand.  The meat was tender and almost did not need a knife.

 Duane went very traditional by ordering the sweetbreads, which he said were probably the most tender he has ever had. Sweetbreads are often made from calf pancreas.

One would think that after stuffing ourselves with wonderful starters and main courses there would be no room for dessert.  While not everyone got a dessert, Duane and Kelly kept the food coming.  Duane ordered a cheese plate and Kelly ordered a raspberry Mille Feuille.

Both were wonderful!  It seems the word wonderful was used alot during this meal!.  The other nice thing about the cheese that Duane ordered is that they came to the table with the cheese options and then sliced it for you after explaining the options.  If only the restaurant on Rue Cler did this during our last trip we probably would not have eaten an entire cheese board!

The Town of Epernay

Once lunch was done, we made our way to the hotel to officially check-in.  The restaurant was not too far from our hotel, so we walked back. This was a good idea since we needed to walk off all of the food we ate, but it also let us see the town in more detail.

 In France you are always on the look out for the "Green Guy" or "Homme Vert" as we started to call him. He lets you know that you can cross the street.  Unlike in the states where they are normally always in the same location, in France it is more of a "Where's Waldo" experience, as they are normally not that large and can be on a building, a pole, etc.

The picture below was too interesting to not take and add to the blog.  It was a store window for a place that sold orthopedic supplies like knee braces, back braces, walkers etc.

When one first walks up to this window however, orthopedic items were not the first thing that popped in your head.  It looked more like toy store for adults!

Reason #3 Epernay = EperYAY!

For our overnight stay we chose Hotel Jean Moet.  It was located right in the heart of Epernay and within easy walking distance of everything.  The hotel was nicely kept and had a small spa as well.

The most exciting thing about this hotel was the bathroom!!!  Not only was the room itself larger then what we are used to in Europe, but the bathroom was about the size of our room in Paris!  The shower was actually large enough to stand in, shave your legs in, and not bang your elbows on the walls as you washed!  Kelly was so excited that she took several showers just because she could!

 

Another challenge that we normally face in Europe is enough plug-ins for the electronics.  Hotel Jean Moet handled this too!  We actually had six plugs in one spot by the desk and that did not count the others scattered through out the room.

After being amazed by our rooms and taking a quick nap, we hit the town again to wonder before a dinner reservation at 7:30 pm.

 This was the local dentist office... gotta say they don't look like that in the states!

 Epernay is pretty small so there was only so much town to walk around while killing time for dinner.  Duane and Tari took some time to play in the park

Eating Again!

We had made the dinner reservation prior to arriving at Epernay and eating at Chez Max for lunch.  Looking back, we probably should have cancelled our dinner reservation at L'Oeil de Boeuf.  None of us were very hungry since our lunch was so big.

                                     

 We were so full that night, that we only had 1 bottle of wine!

It is an inside joke that Jamie doesn't like carpaccio, but he always calls it "gazpacho" by mistake or some other combination word between the two like "gazpaccio", which may explain his confusion. In an effort to spite and surprise everyone, he ordered gazpacho while thinking that he was ordering carpaccio. It would be this night that he realized that he doesn't like either one, so he no longer has to remember which one not to order. Cold tomato soup is not his thing.

As mentioned above, we probably did not give this restaurant a fair shake since we ate so much at lunch.  The food was overall good, but I don't think any one thing stood out.  The best part about the night was watching Duane try to get the waitress to make eye contact with him so we could get the bill and pay.  For some reason once we had our dessert and coffee she would not come by our table again. We finally walked inside and paid at the bar so we could go back to our rooms and crash.

Go to 5/31/17