Champagne Tasting

As a capstone to our visit to Reims, we spent our last evening at a champagne house by the name of Pommery. It was later explained to us that Pommery was hosting exhibits from a new art museum opening, and that the founding mother and daughter were art-lovers -- but as we were walking up the sweeping driveway and passed a massive bird's nest made of shopping carts, we kind of wondered if we'd found the right manor.

The tour is worthwhile for three reasons: (1) you get to see the champagne cellars, which they appropriately call caves. (2) You get to taste some of the best champagne they make afterwards for a (relatively) nominal fee. (3) You learn about different cultures -- mostly that Italians become rude when no one will give them a tour in their own language.

This is what the descent to the caves looked like:

And there was more art than just the shopping carts, too. Birds on guitars! So when they fly off the strings, they strum, which is cool.

The champagne tunnels stretch for about 18km beneath the surface, forming a network out of 120 chalk pits that the Romans had excavated for building materials millenia before. Our tasting was excellent too. So excellent that we bought a bottle of our favorite - the 'Fall time' -- an extra dry 100% chardonnay champagne. Delicious!