Champagne, encore

This weekend marks the first of three long weekends that the month of May brings to the people of France. The holidays all fall on Tuesdays or Thursdays, and so the French have created a way to make the most of these statutory holidays. Faire le pont. It means that they generally will off the day of work that falls in between the weekend and the holiday, to make the most of a long weekend. So, Alex, Katharina, Erik and I decided to be like the French and take a trip to Champagne.

We went to Champagne last June with our lovely friends Nancy and Daryl, and had a great time. Since we are now experts, Erik and I decided that one day in Reims and one day in Epernay and Hautevillers would probably give us enough time to fully enjoy the region without breaking the bank, so off we went on Saturday morning in our (brand new!) rental car (mental note: don't rent a car next time. No one wants to drive).

The one advantage of having a car is that we were able to stop at some lovely little towns along the way, and were able to visit more of the small, independent champagne makers that sell only directly to customers.

We spent the first evening in Reims, and had a nice dinner at the Brasserie Flo on the main street. On Sunday, after visiting Reims' famous cathedral (you know, the one where all the kings used to be knighted) we set off for Hautevillers, the tiny town that houses the abbey when Dom Perignon first invented champagne. The town is also home to lots of small vintners that we had enjoyed the last time, so we paid them all a visit again after a nice picnic lunch in the vineyards.

We spent that evening in Epernay, and had some fantastic couscous for dinner, before calling it a night. Monday morning was spent on the avenue du Champagne, at the houses of Mercier (third most popular brand in France and not sold outside of Europe--or in our Monoprix, for that matter) and Moet et Chandon (best caves, and best tour).

The weather was fantastic, if a bit too hot, but luckily all the caves in the region are at a constant temperature of about 10 degrees. Plus, what's more refreshing on a hot day than a nice cold glass of champagne?

You can take a look at the pictures here.

Picture time!

I've uploaded some pictures from my recent trip with Katie and Jen. You can check them out here.

On other travel related news, we've finally booked our tickets to come home in June. We're arriving in Toronto on June 15th, and I'm heading directly to Ottawa where I'll be until the 18th. We'll be in Toronto until June 26th, and we can't wait to see everyone (and eat fajitas, and have good sushi...). If there's anything you need from Paris, get your orders in now!

Birthday on the Orient Express

Yesterday was my birthday, and also the day that I had to say goodbye to Katie and Jen and head back to the (other) good life in Paris.

We had quite the train adventure getting from Cesky Krumlov, although most of the excitement was contained on the first train which not only had a broken horn, that blew for the entire two hour trip, but stopped for no apparent reason in the middle of nowhere, and we couldn't get the doors open. Luckily the Czechs are good at fixing broken trains, and about holding trains for you when you're late making your connections, and we arrived in Linz with enough time for Katie and Jen to catch their last train on to Salzburg, and for me to be thoroughly bored for six hours before hopping on my overnight Orient Express train home. No real excitement on the overnight train, aside from its name and the fact that I got free breakfast.

I rolled safely into Gare de l'Est at 10:30 this morning, and Erik was waiting for me, and as always, I was happy to be home. We spent the morning doing some of my favorite Parisian things like shopping at the organic market (which we should do more often), eating crepes and gelato and having lunch at the Marquise. Now Erik's making gigot d'agneau, and we're trying to decide how to best take advantage of the fantastic weather that we have.

That's all I've got for today. There's so much to say about my trip, and lots of photos to organize, so stay tuned...

A-Hoy from Prague

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'm in Prague, and doing well. I flew into Berlin on Saturday morning, and had no problem getting into the city to meet up with Katie and Jen. Berlin was a beautiful city, and we did all the touristy things, including an amazing walking tour. So much history, I feel like we only scratched the surface, and am already itching to go back. Surprisingly, compared to my last trip to Germany where I ate more sausages than I can handle, the only German food I ate this time was pretzels. There just didn't seem to be any around!

Yesterday we caught the train to Prague, and lucked out finding a compartment all to ourselves. The scenery was amazing, and the city itself is breathtaking. We had a nice dinner in the old town square last night, and got up early this morning to see the sun rise on the Charles Street Bridge. Today is Jen's birthday, so there is lots more celebrating and touristing to be done, but leave me a comment, or send me an email when you get the chance.

Hope everyone is doing well,
Torie :)