Not that you really needed tempting…

I usually only get out to the Champagne once or twice a year, but I was able to spend a week or so out in my soul home this May, as part of the birthday celebrations for a certain big round number (gasp). And of course what visit to the Champagne would be complete without a trip along the way to see my old haunts at the Veuve Clicquot tasting room in Reims? Some of my friends had never been, and if you haven’t either here are a few photos to tempt you. Though when champagne is on offer, who really needs tempting? Some photos here of the underground caves that run for hundreds of miles beneath the city of Reims. They were used by the knights Templar for all sorts of shenanigans in the Middle Ages, by radicals during the French Revolution (and I’ll bet monarchists too), by clever winemakers who knew that they were the perfect temperature and humidity for storing bubbles, and by regular folks trying to escape the massive bombings of the city of Reims during the First World War. You can see in one of the photos here the “street signs” painted onto the walls of the caves during the war, giving people directions to the underground, war-time hospital station. Reims is 45 minutes on the TGV out of Paris, and for the first time in ages and ages all the scaffolding is finally off the cathedral of Notre Dame in Reims as well. It’s the first time I’ve seen it–or anyone has in a long while–in its restored beauty. Will be back out in August, and the vignerons say that due to the warmer than usual weather the harvest will be a full month early. Perfect timing.

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