Reims

After touring the fortress, Wolfgang, Rhea, and I set off for Reims - the heart of the Champagne district. We spent the afternoon taking an audio tour of the cathedral and Bishop's Palace, and then sat down to another delicious French meal. I really struggle with French menus, however I was determined to try something I'd never had before, and with Rhea's translational assistance, I settled on something to do with pig's trotters for entree, and duck for main course. It's a real shame that I don't like pate, because every restaurant offers their chef's unique fois gras as the specialty of the house. Anyway, the pigs trotter dish was interesting - I expected something like a pork knuckle, but instead it was more like a slice of terrene with lots of gelatinous cartilege, scattered with pine nuts and doused in oil. It was OK, but I won't be ordering it again.

After spending the night in a cosy little hotel in Reims with a manager who looked like a midget version of Aunty Jack and had what appeared to be prison tattoo initials down her arm, we went to the Martel champagnery next door to see how real champagne is made. Tours were offered in French or English, however Wolfgang spotted a German number plate in the employee carpark, and managed to get a somewhat reluctant German speaking tour guide - a German girl who had just started some sort of internship a few days earlier. Fortunately, the video presentation was quite informative - explaining the process of making champagne. The tour was interesting, particularly the bits where we all groped around in the dark trying to find lightswitches for the various rooms of the cellar. There was nothing particularly interesting about the bunker-like cellar containing steel tanks and pallets of unlabelled bottles, however there were a couple of rooms where the bottles are held in cage-like containers that automatically rotate on a couple of axes (not that you can actually see the rotation, it only happens periodically).

The tour ended back in the shop with a tasting of three Champagnes. (This was good - we were given three proper glasses of champagne each, not the little tasters you get at vineyards!) The Martel company produces several labels, including the Charles de Cazanove. The prices were all pretty reasonable - about what you'd pay in Australia for good local bubbly. I suspect the prices at Pommery, Veuve Cliquot and the other big name cellars may have been a bit higher.

In Belgium, just over the border from Aachen there is a restaurant called Cafe Frite that specialises in French Fries (Belgian style, which means crisp, chunky beer battered fries). However, this is no "chip shop" takeaway joint. It has a clever gimmick of offering a variety of Champagne and other fine wines along with it's chip-oriented dinner menu. And the chips are really good - Rhea and I stopped there for lunch on the way back to Tuebingen.

I don't actually have any pictures from Reims, but there are plenty of pictures on Google Maps - click here! I've also added little blue placemarkers to the maps for the hotel and cathedral.


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