The Vineyards...

On our third day in the Champagne region of France, we headed for Epernay via a leisurely drive through the countryside and the many picturesque villages situated among the vineyards...

These rusty old bikes were just propped against the tree in the middle of a village named Courville..

pretty houses, with their shutters flung open, were in abundance...

This red gate was begging to be photographed...

This floral horse was quirky and illustrated a little 'tongue in cheek' humour by the locals...

as did this scarecrow, found a little further up the road.

One the bank of the River Marne this village was very picturesque with the vineyards rising up behind...

The bridge itself was bedecked with masses of red flowers...

But...the whole point of the visit here is all about these little grapes...

that grow in these gorgeous vineyards...

Amid these vineyards are the villages or 'Crus'...

The 'Cru' is graded in importance according to the type of grape it produces...and if the soil, slope (drainage) and aspect are perfect these villages are rated at 100% for the 'pinot noir' grape...accordingly they are named 'Grand Cru'.

One such Grand Cru is the village of Verzenay, which is overlooked by the famous windmill...

situated on top of Mont Boeuf, it was purchased by Maison Mumm in 1972 and looks out over the cherished vineyards...

We were blessed with a beautiful day to see these sites...blue sky...green vines and picturesque villages with flowers blooming in window boxes and streetscapes...

and we still hadn't reached Epernay....the Chateau's were still to come...

Pretty in Pink.

I'm just faffing around the house today,

photographing a few blooms that I have inside and out...

Firstly, a trio of  pretty pink 'Antirrhinum'...

commonly know as Snapdragons...

they look lovely in the old gal pots...

or doing a solo pose on a chair...

A recent trip to Ikea found me adding

this gorgeous blue thing to my trolley...

This hydrangea started out quite green with faint blue edges...

and I've watched it turn completely blue over a period of weeks...

Here you can see it's getting a little aged,

which matches the ole gal beautifully...

Inside, there's not much going on...

some creamy white roses sitting in the entry...next to my boyfriend...

and a couple of 'die hards' in the kitchen...

looking a little tatty, but still beautiful.

Linking up with Sarah at Good life Wednesday.

 

Champagne-Ardennes - the highlights...

There was plenty of subject matter on hand to photograph during our recent trip to this region...

Reims did not disappoint with many beautiful buildings, shop fronts and monuments...

This Boulangerie was cued out the door with people waiting to buy their baguettes each morning...I did get some strange looks as I snuck in to take a shot...

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Of course there is definitely an underlying theme to a lot of the shop displays and windows...

and if not champas, there was cheese...

Look at this cute little window, peeking out from behind the foliage.

We stopped for a cafe au lait and found the restaurant was setting up for lunch...we all looked longingly at this gorgeous setting...reserved for two.

The Notre Dame Cathedral was impressive...with very ornate carvings going on and a program of restoration on some parts of the exterior.

Inside was beautiful and surprisingly simple compared to the outside...

On a final note...just to let you know...the macarons were delicious!

p.s. Hi Anne-Maree it's great to hear from you. Lou and Graeme arrived, not too tired and left on Friday morning for Paris...she's probably chomping on a macaron as I write...I'm glad you're enjoying my blog. Robx

Flitting Around

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. It never rains but it pours...I either have nothing on for weeks or everything happens at once.

Pretty flowers, pretty cottage - Aberaeron

My hubby had business in Aberearon in Wales, so he lined it up whilst my older son was visiting from Australia. So a couple of weekends ago, we took off via Bath and stayed a night in exciting Bristol.

Catching crabs - Aberaeron

We then returned on Tuesday night...late...I then had Wednesday and Thursday to wash all our clothes and re-pack for our visit to Reims on the Friday....

Biking in Bath

Upon our return late the following Monday, I then had two days to wash, change linen, clean my youngest son's bedroom up for our Australian guests who were arriving on Thursday morning...early, for one day and one night.

Royal Crescent - Bath

They left on Friday morning, followed by Josh embarking on his 3 month tour around Europe, who left on Saturday morning...again...more washing, beds to change and some re-organization of my younger son's room.

Roman Baths - Bath

Next weekend, we're off to Denmark to visit some friends who have invited us to their summer house...along with another couple from Belgium we are taking off in a mini bus for destinations unknown....I am hoping to squeeze in a flea market if possible...trouble is I don't actually know where I'm going...but I am hoping to see a little of Copenhagen...

Macarons in Reims

The biggest challenge this week will be keeping Dan busy and trying to convince him that Denmark really will be interesting for him....and of course what to pack....the weather could be cool I imagine...being further north and all...we seem to pack enough stuff for a fortnight every time we go away for 3 days...I guess that means more washing, ironing, packing....but I don't mind!

MUMM's the word.

Bonjour, mon amies...yes I've been away and yes I have just had a

 visit into France....

but can you guess whereabouts???

You can't guess...o.k....we visited Reims in the Champagne region...

and although I have hundreds of photos of the city and surrounding areas 

I thought I would start with our visit to Mumm.

We made some enquiries about having a tasting or two,

 but the only way they would give us a drink was

 to pay for a tour....so off we went...

We went down and down into the cellars...here we saw the original 

barrels that were used to store the champagne...

these are now no longer used due to the flavours

 imparted from the oak...

There was lots of clever displays, including these back-lit bottles...

I would have happily taken home a few of these boxes...

These old bottles contain the 'heritage' of the champagne house...

and are often referred to by the Cellar Master for taste comparisons.

There are 25 kilometres of caves which took 70 years to build.

A sample of some of the bottle sizes...

Some very happy customers!