30.08 - Day 228 - Epernay, FRA

Friday 30th August - Epernay (Day 228)

Rolling out my best GCSE French, we source some baguette and croissants for breakfast, though a new country doesn’t exempt Sienna and Seb from their schoolwork (especially after a full day of travelling yesterday there’s a bit to catch up on). 

At 2pm we drove to Mercier Champagne house in town to meet the people who created the reason for us to be here - Clem and Claudia. 

I worked with Clem at Aztec as we became part of an expat gang. There’s been many holidays together, Christmas dinners, and plenty more nights at the pub. Plus Sienna and Seb have hung out plenty with Noah and Mila through less since Clem and Claudia moved to Salzburg, Austria 3 years ago. 

A part of the wedding group of about 20 of us partake in the tour - with translated audio - aboard a slow moving train showing off the 18 kms of underground tunnels where the champagne is still stored and turned. 

In the reception, a huge barrel from the same World Fair as the Eiffel Tower is displayed - pulled for that event by 20 oxen and 18 horses to Paris containing the equivalent of 200,000 bottles of Mercier bubbles. 

Most of us then make it to the statue of champagne’s founding father Dom Perignon, elegantly crafted around a huge green bottle. After a boulangerie pit stop, Kate takes Sienna and Seb back to Epernay (this was technically a kid free event, but they managed to tag along) for a pizza dinner that goes down well, while I hitch a ride onto Reims - Clem’s hometown - where we walk around the imposing cathedral where for almost 1,000 years French Kings were crowned. 

Some gentle liquid refreshment is had close by at Le Clos - it is the wedding day tomorrow after all. 

Here we’re also joined by Kristian and Carolyn, fresh but dazed direct from Sydney via a short night in Rome. It’s great to catch up with both Clem and Claudia and Kristian and Carolyn, the former I’ve not seen for 3 years, the latter only 8 months but we had seen each almost daily for 4 years working in the same team at Petbarn. Off to bed with a wedding in the morning.