Sorry it has been a while since my last post. Not that I have been busy. I've just been able to procrastinate and had a lot of things go on in the past two weeks that have given me more than enough to think about.
But back again! I've been here for almost two months on the dot now and I've gotten to know the city very well. But one thing I haven't gotten to know that well has been the areas outside of
France. Luckily I had the opportunity last weekend to visit to the east of Paris in two little towns called Eparnay and Reims. They gave me a much needed break for the sights and sounds of the big city, and though the scenery was older and different, the smaller town feel reminded me of home.We were transported by bus to Eparnay first. On the way there, I slept. But in between my REM cycles I caught brief glimpses of the countryside, which reminded me of Illinois without the corn. I guess that would be Missouri or Michigan. It was very pretty and made me miss the wide open spaces that we have back in the States. We stopped at a BP (yep just like the US BP's) and had a little breakfast. It was in the middle of the highway and was more like a rest stop. I got a croissant and a coffee for about 2 euros, which I thought was a pretty good deal, and one of many to come on the day.
We arrived in Eparnay and our first stop was the Champagne Factory of Castellane. Champagne factories function in the same way wine tour do, so if you've ever been on one of those then you have a relative idea of what this was. The difference between this and any other wine tour that you've probably ever taken is that these cellars and the champagne found in the cellars are VERY VERY old. Like 150 years old. So there was all kind of moss and mold growing all over the walls. Gave the whole place a very dungeony feel. After the wine cellar tour we got a free tasting ("degustation") of champagne. If I really knew my champagne, then I probably would have
appreciated this more. But the difference I noticed between this champagne and what I've drank at home is that I could actually taste the grapes in this champagne. It wasn't masked by a whole lot of sugar, though comparatively the champagne that we drank was one of the sweeter ones.
After our Eparnay champagne, we hopped back on the bus and headed to our next stop: the town of Reims (pronounced in French like "rance"). This town was absolutely delightful with plenty of old buildings and another fantastic cathedral, the Notre Dame de Reims, that seemed to be the center of the town. Some of the parts of it were even a bit more impressive than Notre Dame de Paris. After passing by the cathedral, we all found that we were starving and decided to seek out sustenance. We found a street that looked like one of the main streets and started to walk down them. There weren't an awful lot of restaurants. Instead there were a bunch of clothing and name brand stores for everything. My favorite was the 2 euro store... but we'll come back to that.
We decided upon a small pizza place that had advertised 5 euro pizzas in their window. I expected these pizzas to be very petit like a Pizza Hut personal pan, but they were bigger. They were about the size of what a medium pizza would be in America, and again only 5 euros. But they actually had an even better deal, of which I took full advatage. There was a menu formule (which basically means combo) of a pizza, a beer, a dessert pizza, and a coffee for 11 euros. This is without a doubt the best deal that I have found in Europe so far. And the pizza was fantastic. I ordered the "Germanic" pizza which had pieces of German ham, some pepperoini shaped sausage, white asparagus, artichoke hearts, and artichoke hearts all as toppings. Again, by itself, it would have only been 5 euros. Fantastic, deal #2. Deal #3 came after the pizza, when we revisited the two euro store. It was like a bargain hunter's heaven. They had big stuff, little stuff, and medium stuff all for two euros. Just like a Deals, except twice as expensive. Knowing I needed to take full advantage of this opportunity, I bought two small rammakins and a long
necked lighter, in which I am attempting to perfect Creme Brulee. (The first attempt tasted fine but the eggs scrambled a bit so it was a little chunky, but I'll get it). I was very happy with everything I found in this nice little town outside of Paris. I got a few other pictures of the quaint village, and you can see them in the new Facebook album I put up.Overall, the trip was really fun and worth the small amount of money I paid for it. I'm excited to go on other excursions like it to the other small French towns. This weekend we are taking a trip to Brettagne and Normandy. Should be an enlightening experience.
TTFN (TaTa For Now)
Justin
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