Darcy's Paris Blog

Touring a medieval castle and champagne house

On Sunday I woke up waaay earlier than I wanted to, but for good reason. I was going with a colleague to a castle north of Paris and to Champagne, to visit a famous vineyard, Mercier. (Is it a vineyard if it’s for champagne and not for wine?) I picked him, Emmanuel, up at his home east of Paris. (First of all, I was guilted into having coffee across the street from my parking garage with the garage attendant. Apparently they often sit over there at the bar and run back to the garage only when somebody needs them.) I’m not sure why I was driving – considering the fact that Emmanuel knew where he was going and he doesn’t even like champagne (so no worries about driving afterwards) – but oh, well, I was nominated; so be it. We drove to Pierrefonds, north of Paris, where there’s a fantastic medieval castle and a lovely little town. (http://www.casteland.com/puk/castle/picardie/oise/pierrefonds/pierrefonds.htm) The castle was cool; I’d obviously never been to one before, unless you count Versailles (which is clearly in a different style.) This one was renovated by Napoleon, though, so he had all the interior redone with color – not too medieval. Around noon we headed out to Epernay, the town in Champagne we wanted. (We also stopped halfway for lunch at a place called Buffalo Grille, which is sortof like TFI Friday’s meets the rodeo, and where every dish is a steak named after something Texan. Very funny to a Texan.)

Emmanuel told me that everything would look different when we got to Champagne, and he was right. You could tell that this was a place where people had more money than neighboring areas. The houses were a little nicer, with a fresher coat of paint outside, and with more flowers. Apparently the soil for growing champagne grapes is very specific, and it must be on a hillside for drainage, so everyone wants their land to be champagne-certified. (There’s an agency, apparently, that does this.) For those that get their land certified, apparently it’s like hitting the jackpot. Epernay was even better, and it’s a great day trip outside of Paris. The town is filled with lovely little squares, kindof like Aix-en-Provence, and all the champagne houses are lined up right next to one another on one big street. (I think they call it Champagne Alley.) So basically you can bar-hop your way from one maison to another. It’s not like most vineyards I’ve been to, though; the grapes are grown elsewhere and brought there, so the actual places need less space and are therefore closer together. The one we went to, Mercier, is one of the best, according to Emmanuel. When you walk in, there’s a giant vat, over a story tall, that was built and filled with champagne for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris and was apparently a rival attraction to the unveiling of the Eiffel Tower. You can get a ticket for the tour plus one glass of champagne, or three – we chose the one-glass tickets, although frankly, I would’ve been happy with the three-glass tickets, having come all the way there. But oh, well. First there was a brief movie about the history of the place, conveniently with no spoken words, just English and French on the screen. Then we took the underground trolley through one of the 18 kilometers of bottle storage they have down there. (The tour was in French, by the way – the English tour was leaving later – so I had to just catch from the guide what I could and asked Emmanuel to translate the good parts.) The brilliant thing about it is that their underground storage tunnels connect directly to the French railway system – brilliant! Plus the champagne was pretty good, too, in my opinion. Anyway, if you want a day trip and you like champagne at all, it’s worth the trip.

http://www.champagne-mercier.com/default.asp#

posted by Darcy @ 9:38 PM