Tuesday morning I woke up thinking about the conversation I'd had the previous afternoon with the lovely ladies from Melbourne I'd met at Laduree, and the fact that it was actually quite a challenge to find particularly outstanding food in Paris (that didn't cost you your second child, a lock of hair from a mythical creature, and the last vinyl recording of the Marx Brother's Night at the Opera!). I was a little saddened at the prospect of returning home and not being thoroughly delighted by a gastronomic experience. So, off I went to the Rue de Rivoli and Angelina for a cup of their famous Hot Chocolate l'Africain (Angelina was established in 1903 by an Austrian sweet maker, he named it after his daughter-in-law (obviously he was happy with his son's choice of bride!) and it became a regular haunt of royalty and the famous of Paris).
*Remember you can click on the pictures to enlarge them*
Now some real exercise was required, so I meandered my way over to the Arc de triomphe for some pretty amazing views over Paris. Donkey was having a good day too!
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| How your legs felt after you'd climbed all the stairs!!! |
Then it was off for a walk down the Champs Elysees, and the now mandatory photos of LV, Laduree, and although it's not on the Champs Elysees but rather back in the Opera area, I'm going to pop the photo into this section too - Repetto. I also found my boss his next car (hey, it's a Peugeot!) ...
Wednesday. And I'm up early to get the 8:00am train to Reims! YAY! CHAMPAGNE!! WOO HOO!!! Forty five minutes later (and a train which reached speeds of 320km/h) and I'm disembarking in chilly champagne country. It was a dreary day, and I can't say there's an awful lot to do in Reims at 9:00am in the morning, so I went to visit their Notre Dame Cathedral. I discovered that many of the kings and emperors were crowned in this cathedral rather than in Paris. Reims is also an important city when it comes to WW2. It's where the war officially ended on 7 May 1945. This cathedral also has a stained glass window created by Marc Chagall in it!
But enough history stuff, it's 10:00am and definitely time to find me some of the good stuff ... Mumm, G.H. Mumm. So off I went, map in hand, camera in the other. This sleepy little town is full of some of the really big names; Pommery, Taittinger, Lanson, Louis Roederer, Veuve Clicquot ... mecca. This is where they transport all the juice from the outlaying vineyards to make their sacred drop. There are over 250kms of cellars under the streets! (one little War fact while I think of it, all of this hidden space under the city was used for all sorts of things - smugglers, the resistance, hospitals, theaters & even accommodation when war was waging on the ground above. The tunnels (or caves as they're called) were originally dug out of the limestone earth to provide building materials for the construction of the city. Over time, the caves grew deeper, and longer, and it was discovered that they were the perfect environment for making champagne! Genius whoever that was - god bless him/her)).
G.H. Mumm was founded in the early 1800's by a German family (as I discovered later in the day, still a bone of contention among some in the area) who were winemakers in the Rhine Valley for decades before discovering the possibilities in France. ALL Champagne makers have to follow incredibly strict guidelines, which have been in place for over 200 years now, to be able to call themselves "champagne". The grapes are the biggest component (Cru or Grand Cru), followed by the techniques used to crop and extract the juice, then create over many months and years the final bubbles that you get when you pop that cork! How much sugar goes in, how the rains were in a certain year, how cold it was, all those things affect a vintage (or non-vintage as most champagne is). I found it really, really interesting how it all works, and while I've always loved French Champagne and had an appreciation for the technical aspects of how it's made (hence the price), like anything which has the soul of the creator within each piece, my appreciation & love of this fine work of art has grown even more!
Our guide was very informative, and took us on a great tour through the cellars. (I really want to say something about American's and their inane questions, but I will refrain). It was dark & cold down there, so hard to take photos, but I tried! I've even included a couple that perhaps look like the bottles after a few too many corks have been popped!
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First they used barrels, but found the tannins from the wood affected the flavour, so in the 20th Century they started using these concrete vats which were discontinued in 1991 and they now use the stainless steel ones.
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| Bottle sizes haven't changed - from the right, a piccolo, the third smallest is your standard bottle (weighing about 800g) the one in the very middle is the Magnum. The one with the bright green light behind it is what they use at the Grand Prix to spray over everyone (such a waste...). Apparently, the Magnum is the one which is best for champagne. |
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| A very rare bottle, housed in the cellar room which only the Cellar Master has a key to. This is where they house the rare and vintage bottles, and periodically the Cellar Master will go in there and taste a different vintage, just to ensure the Mumm flavour remains they way it should. |
Donkey and me (no, he didn't fall in, but he is so tiny on top!!)
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| These were the three I tried - Le Brut Rose, the Blanc de Blanc (Chardonnay grape only), and the 1999 Cuvee R.Lalou (instigator of the revolution of the Mumm company to what we know today) |
After some lunch of a very delicious provincial terrine, followed by a massive bowl of mussels (I couldn't finish my meal ... such a disgrace!) I went to the other side of Reims (about a 3km walk, two bottles of Mumm in hand) to find my one true love ... Veuve Clicquot. And there it was, just as I rounded the corner, rain quite steadily falling now - the angels from above started to sing and the beautiful orange-yellow glow embraced me and warmed me from head to toe. To be honest, it was actually pretty unimpressive, but I was no less ecstatic to be in the presence of such greatness! It's what's on the inside that counts; remember that looks aren't everything!
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| ... and so the choirs from heaven sang ... "AHHHHHHHHHH" |
I love this Champagne House, not just for its product, but for its amazing history (of which I was aware of quite a bit of before I got here). Nicolas Ponsardin, a textile merchant wine maker from Reims (born, bred, and burried) started sending bottles of wine and the champagne of the day to his customers as a gift with their large purchases. Over time, he had more & more requests for the bubbles and less for the textiles. So he had a lightbulb moment and decided to expand and improve his champagne business. At the age of 20, his daughter, Barbe Nicole Ponsardin married Phillipe Clicquot (who was 23). He took over the champagne business and turned it into a thriving company. At the age of 27, Madame Clicquot Ponsardin became a widow - that's where the Veuve (widow in French) comes from. She kept this as her title, and never remarried. Instead, she was able to keep & run the company (rather than it becoming the possession of a new husband - women weren't allowed to own property if they were married), with the help of her late husband's business partner and her father. Long (and fascinating) story short, she was integral to the reinvention of and distribution of champagne all around the world (and the role that women have played in business!!!)
So here are some photos. It's actually really dark in the cellars, so the light from the flash is deceptive!
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| Bottles of Le Grande Dame Vintage (very rare, and named after Mdm Veuve Clicquot herself) the bottles are a different shape (the traditional) |
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| One of Widow Clicquot's inventions - a table which tilts the bottles to aid in the separation of the yeast. |
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| A good example of how they dug out the caves - ironically, they all actually are in the shape of a champagne bottle! |
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| Our guide explains about the cross on the wall - this was a hospital in the war. |
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| Stairs leading out of the cellars, one for each year they were able to make a "vintage" champagne from the crop ... see, Mum! 1973 was a very good year for lots of reasons!!! |
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| Our tasting - a glass of the 2004 Grande Dame |
Ok, so we are nearly at the end of the chapter. We're up to today, Thursday! So now you know how it is I'm sipping on Mumm Champagne as I type, but what about the eclairs?!
I had a pretty non-eventful day today, but went back to my cooking school to learn about choux pastry and the art of making eclairs! AH! Now we know (which is a good thing, because it's taken me so long to write this I've pretty much finished off my bottle and the box of eclairs are long gone!) ... one thing our chef told us was to make sure we practice when we get home, so be prepared people ...
