Got the scooters fired up and headed for a ride around the hills through the small villages and vineyards... Rode about 95km for the day...
Young vines with poppies for company...Moet & Chandon stainless vats all housed in a huge glass walled building behind...The vats seemed to be half below ground level...
And outside the entry gate...
Champagne grapes for miles... immaculately attended rows...
Then when everything was going swimmingly, like hot temp, awesome country side, scooters on song... STOP....
Whats going on now..
Not another Bloody message on Facebook....
OH well I'll look at the view... boring EH...
Stopped and ate our home prepared fresh bread rolls in one random small village... crowed as...
The scooters have been awesome and must thank Paul from NB/motorhome "The Manly Ferry" for his advice on having them...
Next day and a scooter ride into Epernay...
Walked along Champagne Avenue where impressive buildings house some of the big names....
At Moet & Chandon there was renovations of the building going on plus these under ground tunnels/cellars were getting some attention..
Inside the Moet "Shop" of bling their was plenty to chose from.... just had to tip the wallet....
'
Now thems what I call...
Doors... Oak??...
On Boulevard Champagne....
Champagne house Collard - Pickard...
We made our way to Mercier Champagne...
Delivery truck....
We paid for a tour of the cellars...
Monsiuer Mercier was a man of vision and way ahead of his rivals in many ways. For the up coming Paris world fair he commissioned a large wine barrel to be made, for advertising, and it was towed there by a team of Oxen. Trouble was it was upstaged by the opening of a rival attraction. The Eiffel tower... Nevermind...
150 oak trees over a 5 year period, during Autumn, were used to construct....
The tour through the cellars was on a remote controlled, laser steered train...
110 foot underground and 14kilometers of tunnels to house the Champagne...One celllar is 1 kilometer long.. all dug by hand...
On the train....
Champers resting at the perfect temperature... about 10c....
Cellars full... a 5 year wait....
Our tour price, 18 euro, included a couple of free tastings...
Pissed.. Not Even....
Outside and it was time to...
Pick some grapes and have a go at this champers thing....
Tomorrow??...
Good advise re the bikes eh.....pity I bloody havent got one!! Maybe later, its hard when you have the dogs, cos we would have to leave them in the van, which could get a bit dodgy.
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