Our hire car has GPS. We've christened her Gladys. After a few false starts around the Somme we finally decided to put our fate firmly in Gladys' hands and let her guide us from Amiens to Reims and to the front door of our apartment. This was achieved without any mis-steps! The apartment is in a beautiful old building on a street that leads directly to the cathedral where once the monarchs of France were crowned. It's been a stiflingly hot day and we've only managed to limp to the supermarket and back before collapsing on the sofa and listening to the storm now breaking overhead.
On Tuesday Michael was keen to drive over to Epernay, taking in a section of one of the three champagne routes on the way. We passed through a number of pretty little "ville fleurie", among them Verzy and Verzelay. We also stopped at a wood on the Mont de Reims where "mutant" beech trees grow. They are shorter than normal beech trees and there branches form a canopy close to the ground like an open umbrella drying on the floor.
We arrived in Epernay and had lunch before wandering along the Avenue de la Champagne and gazing at all the famous champagne houses. We booked a tour with Moët and Chandon which was very interesting and informative. These statistics were much more appetising: 28 kilometres of wine cellars, millions of wine bottles and years of ageing. Happily the tour ended with a tasting which we really appreciated after learning what a long and manually labour intensive process it all involved.
