Épernay

Épernay is the eipicenter of champagne in the Champagne region. There are champagne houses everywhere, and has a street literally named "Avenue de Champagne". It's a cute little town. Unfortunately the middle of November isn't the most popular time to visit dead vineyards (I can only imagine how beautiful the countryside would look in the summer), so a large number of the champagne houses were closed, but we did get to visit Mercier which is the number one selling champagne in France. You go down into their cellars and ride a automated "train" that goes around showing some of the areas, since the actual complex is gigantic. We called it Champagne Disney. It also houses a gigantic barrel that was built in 1889 and holds over 200,000 bottles worth of champagne. Mercier was quite a showman back in his days.

We had also wanted to visit Moët et Chandon, which is the owners of the famous Dom Pérignon champagne, and who was actually a real person (a monk none-the-less) from a small village outside of Épernay. Though he is often given far more credit than due for the role of "discovering" champagne. But alas they were closed.

We did try to go to one of the other ones open, but had some miscommunication on the time for the English language tour and ended up missing it. But we wandered around the town and found a store which had cheap gloves and hats and a suitcase (to replace the one I broke) so it was a successful day none-the-less. Then we got some pizza to go, and on the menu found Tex-Mex!! Except well, what they think is Tex Mex is not what anyone would remotely consider Tex Mex in Texas since the menu items included chicken nuggets, onion rings, and calamari. I kid you not.

I took lots of photos, so I'll have to work on getting those uploaded.

It's also been REALLY cold now, with highs around 3C (37F). And it doesn't look like it'll get any warmer anytime soon, and it'll get below freezing in Paris on Tuesday. They did turn on the gas for the heat in our apartment on Friday so at least we'll stay warm inside.