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 parkEating 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.
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