Day 65...I'll have a glass of Champagne darling - 30th August

Had an inclusive breakky of cereal and croissants before heading off. We went to the new Chimay brewery to do the tour, but upon inquiring they said they don't do tours anymore and haven't taken the sign down yet this year (In August?) The tours they did last year they only showed a video and gave you a cheese tasting. We didn't need another promo video and we had eaten their cheese yesterday so we left content with our lot. It was a fantastic find last night. Nate would have liked to have seen one Belgium brewery from the inside, but the Belgians turned out to be rather secretive. I thought it was cool that we actually got to sleep in one.

We headed south and soon crossed the border into France (haw haw haw). Where we entered was the Champagne region where they make - ah take a guess. And it is only there that wines can be called champagne. Everything else outside that region throughout the world is called a sparkling white. We stopped at the town of Rheims but it felt too "big towney" so we left. We aimed for our second option, called Epernay which ended up being the actual capital for the champagne production region, not Rheims. It was a cute little town, surrounded by vineyards and micro-villages. The drive in to it was flat, agricultural land dubbed by the Romans as Campania (the Land of Plains). The vineyards themselves were in a small hilly section along the river.

We had a nice lunch in the town square, then went to the TIC and booked a guesthouse for 48 euro including breakky which was a steal for the area (everything else was quite pricey). Moet and Chandon was directly across the road from the TIC, so we ducked in there and were just in time for the English speaking tour. What luck!

We were taken around the Moet building, which felt very victorian and palatial. Then we watched a heavily propagandered promo video which could have given Glenfiddich a run for its money. (Moet was referring to 'art' with lots of palets and brushes, whilst Glenfiddish had rain and sleet and '2 hands, 50,000 bricks' or whatever). After enduring that, we were taken down into the cellars. Layered and crisscrossed, they make up 28km of underground tunnel. They were dark and cool, and felt very mysterious. We walked around getting shown the various ageing processes of the wine. They do the fermentation process a couple of times, and the bottles are consantly turned and monitored over the years. We wanted to nick some! haha. Still underground, they took us to the tasting room. Aah the best part! Nate and I tasted all 3 and they were faboos! Got a bit funny in the head but had a fine old time underground there. It was amazing to be sitting drinking Moet in their headquarters, dark underground no less! It was also weird to see all these dusty bottles in dank caves, and know they reached Australia in nice clean bottles with fancy labelling. I eyed a dark bottle off among thousands and thought "I'll be seeing you soon, someday old chap". Too right. Moet and CHandon also do Dom Perignon but they have two different master brewers and its two different wines.

After our cave experience, we left Moet and drove to our B&B which was in a microvillage nearby called Boursault. It was run by a winemaker (I felt guilty walking in clutching a Moet bottle) and the house smelt like wet dirt. He prolly had his cellars under the stairs. The room was nice, no TV. Feeling hot and buggered, we had showers. I was second and it ran out of hot water. I had a tanty for all of two seconds before Nathan laughed at me and we both cracked up laughing.

Freshened up, we went back to the centre of Epernay and at an an OK restaurant. The wine there was expensive (which was surprising, as it didn't have to be freighted far did it? The Moet we bought was cheap). So we declined wine and they looked at us like freaks. Since it was our first night in France and there were snails in the menu, (not literally uh huh huh) we got them as an entree. I've eaten them before, and these ones weren't so great. Nate had them for the first time and thought they were pretty herby and garlicky. As for the snail itself he took the oyster method by chewing the snail 3 times then swallowing.

I then ate cock (haha) for the first time for my main meal. Cock as in male chook, I'm not trying to be rude. Though the joke was open throughout the meal I agree. It was more gamey than hen, that's for sure.

We then drove back through the vineyards to our little town. Nate plucked a few grapes from a vine in the dark, as he's never tried wine grapes before. It took a few goes for me to kick him out of the car, so we ended up looking more suss with the car turning off and on and lights going off and on, than when he'd jumped out the first time. The grapes were so juicy they exploded in his hand, but they were pretty sour to eat. We made it home, snuggled up in our bed and read books before bed.