Tasting champagne IN Champagne

One of the things I wanted to do when I found out we were moving to Europe was go to Champagne France and taste champagne. And that’s just what I did last weekend. My friend Lee from my old team in SF was in London and Paris for meetings so I met up with her in Champagne for a girls weekend. We stayed in Reims, which is the main city in this region. Lee had arranged for us to have a private tour guide, Rachel, to take us around Saturday and Sunday. Saturday started off with a first stop at a champagne house in Epernay recommended by a friend of Lee’s. This champagne house also doubled as a champagne museum so we decided to take the offered tour. This tour was in French (Rachel translated for us) and it took almost 2 hours. It was kind of interesting in the beginning but then it just got weird and went on for way too long. There were many different rooms all underneath the champagne house filled with multiples of things. For example, there was one room that had all shears displayed on the wall. Then another room had a bunch of axes and then one with cork, one with presses and on and on. Anyways, we finally got to tasting the champagne….3 types and they were yummy! We were then off to lunch and after took a walk down Avenue de Champagne where many champagne houses are located. For example Moet and Chandon is there. We did more tasting at a little champagne bar in Epernay and then our day with Rachel was over.

Sunday was a bit more like what I imagined Champagne to be. We went out to this small champagne house (Wafflart-Briet) in a village of 360 people called Sacy. It was super cute and in such a beautiful setting with grape vines and cute little village roads and houses. Here we tasted more champagne, learned about the champagne making process and had a lovely little lunch that Rachel prepared for us. The plan was to go to Pommery after for a tour but we were just thoroughly enjoying ourselves at Wafflart-Briet and we would have been rushed to make our train if we went to Pommery so we decided to stay. We had a nice tour of their small operation, more champagne and then before we knew it, we were off to catch our train.

It was a weekend filled with lots of good champagne and I even managed to bring three bottles home with me (it’s amazing how heavy three bottles of champagne can make your suitcase!).

Overall it was a lovely weekend and I would definitely go back. OH and I almost forgot to mention the BEST chocolate croissant I have ever had in my entire life. Lee and I went for a run on Sunday morning (because when traveling with Lee, exercise is always a must) and at the end of our run we found a cute little Patisserie in Reims. Here is where I got the most delicious, fresh, warm from the oven chocolate croissant of my life. I will be returning to this exact Patisserie at some point…it's a must!