Day trip to Epernay and Reims in the champagne region. Rental car was a chartreuse colored Citroen (J: "mais ce coleur -- mon Dieu!"). About 100 km from Paris. Epernay is home of Moet and Chandon, founded 1743, largest producer of champagne in the world. We learned how champagne is made (second fermentation, how they get the sediment out, etc etc). We also learned that their cellars where wine is aged run 28 km on three levels and that Japan is the largest importer of Dom Perignon. Of course the tour ended with a tasting--we had a glass each of the brut and the rose.
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| vineyards of Champagne |
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| The cellars of Moet et Chandon. Each "cave" has some 2000 bottles. |
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| When the monk discovered champagne (made accidentally) he said "I am drinking the stars" |
We had lunch at a local place with wood-fired pizza, though definitely not a joint -- Epernay's bourgeois ladies lunch there. Then, a lovely drive through vineyards and across a small mountain to Reims (Rheims), site of 800 year old cathedral (construction started in 1211 and took 200 years to complete). It was badly damaged during World War I by German artillery; the stained glasses was redone in the 1920s-30s. But some are much later, including a tri-panel of Biblical allegories and figures by Marc Chagall (1971) The informational panel stated that Chagall was devout but managed to not say he was Jewish (the phrase used was "in the Hasaidic tradition"). Two new sets of abstract tri-panels (2011) by Imi Knoebel celebrated the cathedral's 800th anniversary, and I think they chose the German artist as a gesture of reconciliation.
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| stained glass, 2011 (Knoebel) |
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| stained glass, 1971 (Chagall) |
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| stained glass, c. 1930 |
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| scary gargoyles ward off evil |
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| our little green Citroen--possibly also wards off evil |
1 comment:
Love the car!
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