reims, champagne et hautvillers

saturday morning, i woke up insanely early to meet the rest of the CEA people at l'Opera Bastille, to leave on our 2nd excursion of the trip: Reims, the Champagne region, and Hautvillers. we left with our fancy buses at 8:15 am, and made it to Reims about two hours later.

we explored the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Reims (which is sooo much more ornate than the one in Paris), and ate at a great place called La Colibri. it was a little pricey and upscale, but the food was delicious. everyone's dishes looked amazing. but i had the parmentier poulet, which is basically a pot-pie like thing in a ceramic cup with cooked chicken buried in mashed potatoes, with a breadcrumb layer on top. it was beyond amazing.

Cathedral Notre-Dame de Reims

stained-glass reflecting onto the columns

gwen, caroline, & lexie

krystina and i (photo by jacob)

chocolat nougat, before lunch

these are good...

then, we went to the Champagne Pommery company. it was really awesome getting to tour the underground salt-pits that they turned into a place to make and store delicious champagne for long periods of time before being sold to places all over the world. AND we got to try their champagne too! it was amazing. if i ever get married, i am definitely going to call up this place and have some of it shipped over to the USA. even if i have to drop 2000 Euro on it. it'll be worth it.

such a cool place!

looks unreal, like it belongs in a movie

models for size comparison

on the way down

we were 30 meters underground

jumbo bottles. fills 80 glasses. 500 euro each. worth it.

part of an art exhibit "lights & sounds" in the pits

artwork carved INTO the walls of the salt pits

REPRESENT! (one of the many places they sell, worldwide)

the part of the art exhibit i wanted to steal.

and that was our guide. she was cool.

the only bottle from 1874 left! wow! (in the very front)

on the way back up!

tom was there too, i promise. just not in photos. haha.

arlinda and i, enjoying Pommery champagne

then, we took another little trip up to a very small town called Hautvillers, built on a pretty steep hill. Dom Perignon is buried inside of a church here, that we visited. it's in the Champagne region (yes, it exists) of France, where many of the grapes are grown and then shipped to the Pommery factory. it was beautiful, even though it's still winter, and none of the branches had grapes on them yet. it was just wonderful to experience the French countryside, and imagine what it'd be like if it were warm, and not freezing/gusty. haha.

gwen, rocking my shades more than i do! :(

in Hautvillers

Dom Perignon's (and someone else's) graves

we went to the edge of town to see...

...the vineyards!

i enjoyed the trip, though. i did NOT enjoy sitting in traffic for seemingly-forever on the way back into Paris. it was a saturday evening, and the traffic was unbelievably terrible! i don't understand why anyone drives in this city. you don't NEED to, and you SHOULDN'T. it's tiny (spatially) and yet it's a megalopolis population-wise. that's probably why they created such an extensive (and easily accessible) transit system. if i ever live here after i'm done with school, i will probably never have a car. and be perfectly fine without one.

on the way back home (before hitting the city & the traffic)

i can't really remember what we did after we got back and each went to our homes for a while. we probably went out, like we usually do. but it completely escapes my memory right now. it's probably better off that way.

the day was very eventful, very informative, and very tiring. i really loved being able to visit another region of the amazing country i am a resident of, for the time being!

- wanting more expensive champagne