Champagne

Today was Mothers' Day in France so we drove with Cindy's parents to visit her brother and his family in R(h)eims. The first thing we did there was take a tour of a champagne cellar at the Pommery winery. In fact, it was quite busy so we had to wait for a tour to start and the next tour in French was so far off that they actually decided to take the next tour in English. Which was easier for me and fine for Cindy but the other six of us had little idea what was going on. The cellars were all converted from Roman-era chalk mines so they were quite deep and a little chilly. As we walked through the guide gave us a little info on the production of champagne and constantly reminded us that it was Louise Pommery who first marketed brut champagne at a time when champagnes were much sweeter. (They're almost all brut now.) This all sounded very classy until a couple of weeks later at the airport I saw bottles of Pommery's newest blend, POP, which comes in small, brightly coloured bottles with a straw attached!

After lunch we went to see Rheims cathedral, where many of the French kings were crowned. It was pretty but they didn't give us a glass of champagne at the end of that tour.