Day 12 Mon 8/5/17
The first day in the car with our main objective in mind - no motorways!
Our first ploy was to follow the champagne route from Reims to Epernay. Along the way we drove through several of the grand cru vineyards and were amazed about the dwarf nature of the Pinot Noir vines.
We stumbled across a rare arboreal treat at Verzy, a colony of twisted beech, one of only 5 in Europe. The twisted beech are surrounded by their usual tall cultivars but are only a few metres high themselves with trunks which are similar to twisted willow.
Along the way we noticed many famous champagne names. This is an old windmill belonging to Mumm.
Once in Epernay we realised that it was VE day and we arrived at the Resistance memorial just at 11.00am as the remembrance ceremony started. It was moving and included a “Vive Les Anglais” with the National Anthem.
We walked up the Avenue de Champagne past some of the big Champagne houses. Winston Churchill apparently said that the Ave de Champagne was 'the most drinkable avenue in the world'. He was right! The most beautiful of chamapagne houses...
Moët
Venoge...and there were many more
Epernay was a pleasant little town so we strolled a bit, picked up some bread, cheese and pate for lunch and then set off for Dijon.
We stuck with our no motorway rule and crossed lots of agricultural land festooned with fairly basic ( poor? ) villages. For some of the way we had the top down even though the maximum temperature today was 10C but we had to cover up when the rain started.
In Dijon we stayed in an Ibis hotel at Clemenceau and walked into the old town for an explore and dinner. More lovely churches and fountains...
Due to the public holiday not much was open so we ended up at the Bengal Palace for a curry, which was surprisingly good and excellent value.
We debated where to head next, although the weather is not looking too promising in Switzerland and North Italy we still fancy heading that way so have booked Interlaken as our next stop. Not sure that we will be able to drive over the high alpine passes, Zermatt will be -4C and heavy snow on Thursday night!
Reims to Dijon 195 miles. Total 1320 miles
