Champagne

Travelled:114km
Visited:Mercier Champagne house in Epernay
Stay:Mareuil sur Ay- aire, free parking and services on the canal GPS N49°02.721' E4°02.062'

We spent the first part of the morning driving through the fog as we made our way into the Champagne region heading towards Epernay. 

Canola crops.

No, its not Ayres Rock...just a great big pile of manure.

We stopped on the road side just out of Oger, on the hillside looking across the vineyards and the valley to eat a bacon and egg breakfast. 

From here we drove into Epernay, a town in the heart of 300sq km of vineyards. 

We made our way to the Avenue du Champagne, which is lined with many prestigious Champagne Houses. The largest one, Moet et Chandon, which we visited with Tom and Claire 11 years ago, is currently closed for restoration. Many others were also closed, but Mercier was open so we did their unique tour which included a panoramic lift ride taking us 30m underground and then a laser guided train ride taking us through part of the 18km of tunnels. There is actually 110km of storage cellars under Epernay alone, storing about 200 million bottles! We ended the tour with a champagne tasting. 

We then drove a short way to the aire in Mareuil sur Ay which is situated on the canal. A lovely spot to stop. The sun was shinning and we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon strolling along the canal and we chatted to a couple of elderly gentlemen who have spent their whole lives here. One had been a vignerons and the other had worked in a Champagne House.  We found out a few interesting facts, one of which was that it takes 1.3kg of grapes to produce a 750ml bottle of champagne. Also, the selling price of 1kg of grapes is €6 and from 1000 litres of champagne made only 900 litres will be used as approximately 10% is lost in production.

We topped the day with a BBQ on the cadac and watched the sunset.