Champagne, France weekend

And my travels continue... this time it was off to the champagne region in France for the first May long weekend. I went with Hannah, my flatmate, Nicola and 7 other girls - trip was organised by a good friend of Hannah's, Naomi. The girls were fab to meet and we all got along really well so it will be great to meet up with them again soon.

We caught a Eurostar train at some unbeknown time on saturday morning to Paris and then it was onto Reims by train. So that afternoon it was off to the Verve Cliquot champage house to visit their cellars and do a bit of sampling. The cellar was amazing and these cellars are huge... they go for about 24klms for each champagne house... i wouldn't mind getting lost in their for a while though :) The making of champagne is quite an interesting one but after visiting 3 champagne houses by the end of the weekend we knew the story quite well including what grapes they use, where they are from, how long it takes etc.

But after the history and cellar tour the fun part comes where we get to sample the champagne - Yumm! And of course I had to buy a bottle of champagne (I actually bought a bottle of champagne rose from each of the 3 champagne houses we visisted and can't wait to compare them!). That evening we had a quiet dinner at a great little restaurant in Reims... it had been a very long day.

The next day we were off to the Mumm champagne house for another tour. We were a bit rushed unfortunately as we had to make our train... still fun but was my least favourite out of the three we visited.

It was then back to the train for a quick trip to Epernay to visit Moet. This was by far my favourite tour... not only was the champagne house and cellars impressive we had a private tasting of vintage champagnes - so after each having 3 large glasses of fantastic vintage champagne we were all rather chirpy... and you could well imagine how noisy 10 girls would be after all that champagne!!! The train trip to Paris that afternoon went really quickly but I think it was the longest trip ever for the other passengers in the same carraige as us.

In Paris we stayed right opposite the Louvre -fantastic location! For dinner we went to the most amazing restaurant which was built where an old train station had been - beautiful. And the food was unbelievable. By the time we left we could hardly move from the amount of food and wine consumed. But we did charge on to a cocktail bar just off Champs Elysees.

Monday was a huge day spent sightseeing around Paris. We headed out our hotel past the louvre, up Champs d'lysee to Arc de Triomphe which we climbed all 280 stairs to the top. Then it was lunch time which we spent in full view of the spectacular Eiffel tower. After lunch we caught the metro to Montemartre which is the old vibrant artists area. Great place to wander with beautiful cobbled stone streets. And of course it was a necessity to have crepes for afternoon tea - yum!

Then it was back to the eurostar for our trip home. It had felt like we had been travelling for a week as we had fit so much in. I was so exhausted once I got back to London but what a great way to spend a long weekend! So much food, wine, champagne and great friends... and i had forgotten how unbelievable Paris is - I have already booked tickets for a day trip to paris with Suzie when she visits me (yes Paris in a day - life is tough).

Anyway that is enough from me. Hope everyone is well - would love to hear from you all.

My next post will be in about 2wks after my trip to Barcelona - bring on the sun!!!

Miss you all

x L