Map of Tour

We left Paris today to go on our tour of France, one that went to a number of wine–growing areas and also to other places of sightseeing interest. Including our hotel in Paris, we would be staying at eight different hotels and only one night at five of them. When I first looked at this tour, I thought it was going to a really tiring tour with all the changes of hotels. However, as you can see from the map, we covered a lot of ground and many of our stops of the day were two to three hours from each other. We also spent much driving time on toll roads with the only view on them of trees along their sides. So all this meant, at least for me, time along the road to take some good naps. The naps actually made this tour a very relaxed one. We also had only 27 on our tour and a big bus so people could spread out and not feel cramped. We also had wifi on it which occasionally worked. Our first stop on our tour was at Epernay in the Champagne region.

Leaving Paris

Saying a sad goodbye to beautiful Paris, but we would be back here again at the end of our tour.

Champagne Region

In the Champagne region, there are about 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres or 123.5 square miles) of vineyards. Champagne is made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay grapes and sometimes with a small amount of other grapes. There are vineyards here as far as you can see.

Champagne Trail

The Champagne Trail is almost 250 miles (402 km) long. There are more than 100 champagne houses in the region plus about 19,000 smaller producers. In the European region, champagne can only be called “champagne” if it is from this region and there are many strict requirements by the Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) as to how it is grown, pruning of the vines, pressing, etc.

Epernay

We were heading to the town of Epernay, the “capital” of the Champagne region. This photo was taken along the Avenue de Champagne lined with elegant buildings and where millions of bottles of champagne are stored in their cellars.

Moet & Chandon

We stopped for a tour of Moet & Chandon winery which makes both Moet & Chandon and Dom Perignon Champagnes.

Moet & Chandon

First, we climbed down to their cellar––a wine cave.

Moet & Chandon

Photo: Wine and champagne storage in the cellar. How champagne is made was very interesting: after the primary fermentation of wine, yeast or rock sugar is added to the bottle for a second fermentation (a minimum of 1.5 years) which will result in champagne bubbles.

Moet & Chandon

You could buy Moet & Chandon and also Dom Perignon Champagnes in their elegant gift store. When entering the United States, you are allowed only 1 liter of alcohol duty free, but the duty is so little on extra liters that it is not much to worry about. But you have to be 21 years old to bring alcohol into the United States and some ports of entry in various states may have different rules.

I have put my photos of the Champagne region on a slideshow. Go to
http://www.peggysphotos.com/champagne–region/
(Slide Shows, Western Europe. France–2, “Champagne Region”).

Rest Stop

We visited a number of very nice rest stops on our tour and had some of our lunches at them. The rest stop buildings were large and offered a good choice of food. The couple in the photo were part of a motorcycling group and dressed in what I thought was very fashionable French motorcycle attire.

Rest Stop

This rest stop also had quite nice floral display made up of the doors to the toilets. Incidentally, most of the public toilets in France lacked toilet seats but at least they were Western toilets.

Dijon

Our next stop was at Dijon, the capital of the Burgundy Region of France, where we would spend the night. The Dijon historical center is a World Heritage site. It is a great city to explore and you could easily spend at least two days here eating, shopping, and exploring all its streets and buildings. We had only part of a day to do this. We entered the historical center through the 1700’s Guillaume’s Gate. We had a local guide to give us a tour of the historical center.

Dijon

At the Place Francois–Rude. The buildings in Dijon are of many architectural styles and from medieval times upward, a very interesting combination.

Dijon Mustard

Dijon is known for its mustard, which originated in 1856 when Jean Naigeon substituted verjuice, the acidic juice from not yet ripe grapes, for vinegar in the traditional recipe for mustard. It is very good and very spicy. I was going to go back to this store in the photo after I ate dinner to buy mustard for souvenirs but, sadly, this store and other souvenir stores selling mustard had already closed when I went back to them. Even though there were large crowds in the area, the stores did their usual closing at 7 p.m. I did not expect this, so I asked the security guard at the Galleries Lafayette, which was still open, if I could buy mustard at it. He said no but directed me to the Monoprix (similar to our Target). I was able to buy some mustard there and also at another town on our tour.

Notre-Dame of Dijon

Seen on our walking tour: The Church of Notre–Dame of Dijon is from the 13th century. Dijon has a number of old beautiful churches.

Dijon

A great mixture of architectural styles.

Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy

Also seen on our walking tour: The Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, with parts added to it from 1364 to 1737. The Dukes of Burgundy ruled the Duchy of Burgundy from 843 to 1558. They had tremendous wealth and power and the duke was right under the king in hierarchy. Burgundy was also a center of arts, learning, and science.

Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy

Another part of the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy.

Saint Michael Church

Seen on my own walking tour: The beautiful Saint Michael Church built in 1020.

I have put my photos of Dijon on a slideshow. Go to http://www.peggysphotos.com/dijon/
(Slide Shows, Western Europe, France–2, “Dijon”).

Dinner

I ate dinner at one of the several restaurants in front of another part of the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy.

Dinner Menu

I ordered the ble vert fume: sirloin from France, old style mustard creme, and smoked green wheat.

Dinner

At a French restaurant, you are usually first served delicious French bread and also tap water, neither added onto the menu as separate items.

Dinner

My ble vert fume. The smoked green wheat was tasty––something I never had before or ever seen on a menu before.

Dessert Menu

The dessert menu. I had the fantasisie meringuee aux fruits rouges, glace vanille. All of the desserts looked very good.

Dessert

My meringue fantasy.

As our hotel was near the historic center, we could stay as long as we liked here. I walked around some more and then went back to the hotel.