{"id":1659,"date":"2013-04-14T18:28:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T17:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=1659"},"modified":"2026-05-26T04:54:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T03:54:53","slug":"across-the-champagne-region-in-a-generally-southerly-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2013\/04\/14\/across-the-champagne-region-in-a-generally-southerly-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Across The Champagne Region In A Generally Southerly Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whatever you are, be a good one<\/span>…<\/em><\/p>\n

We checked out of the Amiens campsite at 10:15am and headed south east past Roye and Noyen on an incredibly long, straight, presumably ex-Roman road.\u00a0 From Noyen we wiggled on down to Soissons and then directly south down the much faster D1 to Chateau-Thierry where we found a big supermarket to buy some lunch and dinner for the day.\u00a0 We then turned east along the D3 and pulled up in a lay-by for our first \u2018pommie picnic\u2019.\u00a0 The view out of the window was across the endless fields of grapevines, which looked very dormant and damp.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Vineyard
Vineyard near Epernay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The rain poured down outside and then the sun came out and then, of course, it disappeared again.\u00a0 We parked Eileen right outside the gates of the Moet & Chandon headquarters just off the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay.\u00a0 According to local hearsay, this is the most expensive street in the world, due to the 90 million plus bottles of champagne stored in the chalk cellars under the street.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"VIP
VIP parking for Eileen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a moment of sunshine, Piglet had his photo taken outside (he\u2019s the only one of us that actually likes champagne) and then we went inside to book a tour of the cellars for Saturday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Dom
Dom Perignon pouring Piglet a glass of champagne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

By now it was getting rather late in the afternoon, so after a quick stroll around the town in the rain, we drove back to the village of Vandi\u00e8res and checked in to Camping Rural which is actually in the grounds of the Nowack Champagne vineyard.\u00a0 Before sunset, I whipped up a pork in mushroom and cream sauce dinner while a storm, complete with thunder and lightning, shook Eileen and us inside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\""The
“The most expensive street in the world”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We made sure we arrived early for our appointment at Moet & Chandon and managed again to get a parking spot right outside the gates. We gathered in a rather fancy reception area with fifteen fellow tourists; we were pleased to find that we were all English speakers and one was a journalist from the New York Times, so his English should be really good\u2026..! \u00a0\u00a0We were told the history of the company and shown the sitting room of the original part of the house where Napoleon 1st<\/sup> was entertained by Mr Moet.\u00a0 We then followed our guide down the steps into the cellars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Down
Down in the Moet et Chandon cellars, yes that is mould on the ceiling….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Only a small section of the cellars are open to the public, but then I\u2019m not sure I would want to walk all of the dark, damp, 28 kms of tunnels. \u00a0Having passed thousands of bottles of the bubbly stuff, all in different stages of fermentation, we resurfaced in to a tasting room.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"(Pretend)
(Pretend) tasting…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The exit was, of course, through the gift shop where there were some ridiculously expensive bottles of champagne.\u00a0 However, having been informed that champagne has to be stored lying down, in the dark, at a constant temperature, we decided we better not buy any; Eileen doesn\u2019t have a cellar, doesn\u2019t stay still and we\u2019re travelling through too many different climates, sorry Mandy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"77043
77,043 bottles stacked in just this section, let’s party !!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the one glass of champagne we strolled over to the Orange phone shop. Unsurprisingly for France, it was closed for two hours; by the time we manage to buy some megabytes for our dongle, we will probably be in Italy!!!!<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t worth hanging around, so we hit the road and drove south through S\u00e9zanne, M\u00e9ry sur Seine, Troyes, St Florentin and Auxerre finally stopping at Les Ceriselles campsite on the banks of the Canal du Nivernais in Vincelles, Burgundy.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lovely campsite and we\u2019re so excited\u2026..there\u2019s free unlimited internet!!!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Meringue
Meringue stacks and there were more inside……<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

In recognition of its name, Sunday turned out to be a sunny day, a beautiful sunny day.\u00a0 The sky was blue, the light breeze was warm and the temperature reached 25\u00b0C in the shade; we were actually really hot in the sunshine.\u00a0 The winter clothes got pushed aside and we had to ferret around in the bottom of our bags to find something summery to wear! We grabbed the chance to get washing done and hung it outside in the sunshine; aaah, the little things that make me excited nowadays\u2026\u2026! Rodney cleaned the mud from Eileen\u2019s exterior, while I cleaned out her interior and after catching up on a few emails, we went for a long walk along the banks of the canal and through the village of Vincelles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rodney
Rodney by the Canal du Nivernais<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rodney has now decided that he is back on holiday at last.\u00a0 Oh and for the record, at the Johnson\u2019s request, tonight\u2019s dinner was a Mediterranean risotto with jamon, spinach, beans and edamame washed down by a \u20ac2 bottle of red wine, followed by strawberries and cream, our first of the season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Forsythia
Forsythia blossoming<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whatever you are, be a good one… We checked out of the Amiens campsite at 10:15am and headed south east past Roye and Noyen on an incredibly long, straight, presumably ex-Roman road.\u00a0 From Noyen we wiggled on down to Soissons and then directly south down the much faster D1 to Chateau-Thierry where we found a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8419,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions\/8419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}