Reims - an educational experience

 Day 7 October 7 – Reims, Mumm caves and tasting, research, enjoying the sun

Weather – Sunny, cool to warm 6-20c

Today we have a tour of Mumm booked in for 11am so our plan is to get up and find somewhere to get breakfast. Although it appears we are getting used to the time zone and we weren’t really up and ready until about 8am! It was a pretty cool start to the day, I think in the shade it was around 6c, so fairly crisp. There was no one around at this time and none of the bistrots were open. We were looking for some sort of café for a petit déjeuner, however we couldn’t seem to find anywhere. Finally, the place where we had lunch yesterday appeared open, and we were able to sit down and figure things out. They were really only doing coffee; however, you could get bread, butter and jam, or bread, butter, cheese and ham – so that’s what we had. I’m not sure how the breakfast/brunch situation works in Reims. It’s a much harder place to get around with very limited language than I found in Paris. The other thing I’ve noticed is that the city is pretty much dead until at least 10am. They start late here – then there appears to be a Lunch rush – where the cafes and bistrots were busy. I noticed a lot of the shops like the butchers and grocers were also closed for an hour or two in the middle of the day. Finally, around 6 everyone is out enjoying the final warmth of the day, sitting at bars, or café’s, or out in one of the various squares. We noticed that no one was sitting on their phones, they were all talking and socialising with those present. It’s a very different rhythm to the day here than back home. We’re enjoying the change.
Anyway, back to the day – After a very “petit” breakfast, we had our tour of Mumm booked, it was a short stroll down the Rue Champ de Mars – on the way I made a brief detour to the Porte de Mars, an over 2000 year old Roman arch – impressive - and I plan to wonder back for a better look tomorrow when I have a bit more time.

The Mumm tour was excellent, and even Lucy enjoyed wondering through the caves and learning about the processes and methods used to make the Champagne. Although she did complain a little during the tasting session as she was left out – she managed to negotiate an orange juice at the next stop, and maybe an ice cream… 

They take you down into their cellars, first 7meters down and then 14meters down, into there “caves”. The caves are chalk and so they are damp and cool – a constant 10-12c and very high humidity. This is perfect for the champagne as it rests on its lees – the dead yeast – for 2-5 years, or longer. The time it takes to make a NV champagne is roughly 3 years, from grape to glass. 

And the process is fascinating. I have no idea how you would come up with this from scratch. Once through the caves you make your way up to the gift shop and the tasting room. The tasting itself was well done, we had booked in the Grand Cru tasting, so we had two of the RSRV collection.

The 2014 Blanc de Blancs and the RSRV 4.5 (You get full glasses not tastes I should point out) – The tour guide who had taken us through the caves did a great job of chatting to us and answering our questions, no one else seemed to be asking questions or chatting to her, so we had a virtual monopoly on her attention. I would say that while the tour and the guide were excellent, I felt that there as something missing re: food and hospitality. It had the feel of a factory tour – a fancy factory tour, don’t get me wrong – but I feel that some sort of restaurant, a different area to taste in? Just my thoughts.

Our plan for the rest of the day was pretty loose, Lunch somewhere on the way home, a bit of a break back at the apartment and then not sure… So that’s what we did.

Lunch was at Copain Comme Cochon, a small bar/restaurant next to the Halles, Katie decided to go with the tartare de boeuf with some sort of truffle addition, and I got the burger. Lunch was again very good, however the fact that you are supposed to eat a hamburger with your knife and fork is annoying. You can see that they have sauced the outside of the bun in an attempt to deter any would be hand eaters. The bun itself was ok, a lighter style brioche. The meat was a very loose grind of high-quality beef, cooked medium – oh wait -  sorry about that, wrong blog…

Anyway, back to the Phillips family blog, what was I talking about? Ah yes, so Lunch was good. After Lunch we decided to head back to our apartment to relax for a bit, and refresh before heading out to explore in the late afternoon. Our apartment is lovely, although it’s on the second floor so it’s up and down the stairs a bit. It’s a light filled space, overlooking a quite street, just off a main area with great access to the main parts of the town. Again a great job by Katie in securing this one!

Once suitably refreshed, we headed off into town to a small champagne bar that show cased a number of the smaller producers from the region. Here you can do tastings and find out about many of the smaller scale houses. It was another educational experience, we were able to taste 100% Chardonnay, 100% Pinot Noir and 100% Meunier, then some of the blends, a demi-sec and some rose. Very interest experience and a really interesting place. 

Lucy spent her time drawing

You could pull down on the bottle hanging from the ceiling and find out information about the wine, and there was a map of the champagne region on the floor that had the numbers of the houses that corresponded with the walls. Very educational.

After all that education we needed to find some food. Our plan was to walking into town a bit and check out some of the sights and pick up some bread and cheese. It was another beautiful, warm, autumnal afternoon, and as it was a Friday night, there was an additional buzz in the air. We found a place to sit in the place du forum – where they were serving drinks in amongst the tree lined square in the early evening sunshine. Sitting there enjoying a beer as Lucy ran around and played with other kids was a wonderful experience.

Around the square are various shops and bars. We stopped off to get some cheese – more comte, because I think it’s my new favourite cheese, some baguettes, some ham and some fruit.

Another cheese and bread platter for dinner – I could get used to this.

Tomorrow is completely unplanned, so we have no idea what we’ll get up to. I suspect there may be some more research involved, because I think it is very important to use travel as an educational experience.