Tag: Grand Est

We’ve visited the Champagne Region (including Epernay) many times before but that will never stop us returning. Even when the sun isn’t shining, there is something special about Epernay. There was no fancy hotel this time. We booked into the Municipal Campsite and it wasn’t at all bad; it’s best features being it’s close proximity to the town centre and the food and wine served in their pop-up restaurant. More about the restaurant later.

Being so close to the centre of Epernay provided plenty of opportunity to wander the town and I took advantage of that. During previous visits we were primarily concerned with visiting the Avenue de Champagne. This one kilometre long avenue, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015, is bordered with impressive 19th century neo-renaissance mansions, most of which house the great champagne producers such as Moet et Chandon, Perrier-Jouet, Pol Roger and Mercier and; many of these have massive underground cellars where champagne is stored. Indeed, there are over 100 kilometres of chalk wine cellars holding millions of bottles of champagne under the Avenue. We’ve toured a few of Epernay’s champagne houses and they are fascinating (Mercier is my favourite) but the focus on this occasion would be towards two other buildings on the Avenue, namely Chateau Perrier and the Hotel de Ville.

I started with Chateau Perrier at the western end of the Avenue de Champagne. This mid 19th century mansion was built in a renaissance style and was the home of Charles Perrier, a director of the Perrier-Jouet champagne house and one time mayor of Epernay. During the First World War it served as a hospital and during World War II it was used as the Military Headquarters of first the British Army (1940) and then the German Army (1940-1945) and finally the United States Army (1945). It was later purchased by the municipality and now serves as a museum. Of course, it being a Sunday, the museum was closed but it was pleasant enough wandering it’s gardens for a while and practising with my camera.

The Hotel de Ville is also at the western end of the Avenue de Champagne, almost directly opposite the Moet et Chandon champagne house. This neo-renaissance mansion was donated to the town by the Auban-Moët family after the previous Hotel de Ville was destroyed during the First World War and the town’s impressive war memorial featuring the Greek Goddess of Victory (Nike) now takes pride of place at the building’s entrance. It’s a fine enough building but it is the gardens at the rear which are it’s best feature. They were designed by the Bühler Brothers, landscape architects who plotted gardens all across France in the nineteenth century, and they are impressive. I spent a fair amount of time practising my photography in these gardens also.

The 19th century Eglise Notre Dame on Place Pierre Mendes is perhaps the most impressive of the churches in Epernay but, it is the Eglise Saint Peter and Saint Paul at the end of Avenue Paul Chandon on Rue de Magenta which I most favour. It’s a gem with it’s wonderful stained glass windows and it is well worth seeking out. The windows reflect various historical events associated with the Champagne area; my favourites being one of Pope Urban II triggering the Crusades by offering forgiveness for all sins to those who would help wrest Jerusalem from the Muslims and; another of Charles VII being crowned King of France at Reims Cathedral with Joan of Arc in attendance.

Epernay suffered badly from bombing during the World Wars and there are few monuments remaining which date back to medieval times. One which dates back to 1540 and is believed to be the oldest surviving monument in Epernay is the Portal Saint Martin near the Place Hugues-Plomb. It was a side entrance and it is all that remains of the renaissance Abbey of Saint Martin.

While strolling back to the campsite along the banks of the River Marne I made a point of stopping by Champagne de Castellane on Rue de Verdun. This champagne house is easily identified by it’s iconic tower (the highest point in Epernay). A wine tour with this producer includes access to it’s underground cellars (there are 10 kilometres of them – Moet et Chandon has 30 kilometres!) and, it’s champagne museum (dedicated to explaining champagne production methods over the years) and; to the top of the tower (which offers unrivalled views over the town and the River Marne). It was the climb to the top of this tower which most attracted me to the De Castellane tour but, having said that, the tour used to be free and it included champagne tasting. I don’t know if that’s still the case (the place was closed) but I’ll be back.

Last words go to the Blue Nautic pop up restaurant at our campsite. They made us so very welcome and served great food. As for the wines, the Charles Mignon Special Reserve Champagne was very good. Slightly better was the Pierre Mignon Premier Cru and, best of all and Vanya’s favourite (and the most expensive of course), the Pierre Gobillard Blanc de Blanc Premier Cru. All these from a Pop Up Restaurant in a Municipal Campsite! Only in France.

We visited the tiny village of Essoyes (pronounced Ess-wah) on a Sunday morning, out of season. It couldn’t have been quieter; which suited us down to the ground because I suspect it is a place that will be overrun with visitors during the summer months.

It is a charming little village in the centre of the Aube with less than 800 inhabitants. The village was ravaged by fire in 1763 and lost almost all of it’s many wooden houses with their thatched roofs. It was subsequently rebuilt with stone houses and tiled roofs but it remains a picturesque place. Obiter dicter: I swear that when I was a child we were taught that the plural of roof was rooves. I’m showing my age now.

Essoyes is famous as being a longtime home of the French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Aline Charigot, one of his lovers and the mother of his children, was born in Essoyes and she persuaded Renoir to buy a house in the village. They lived there between 1896 until 1919 when Renoir died (although they usually spent winters in Provence because of his rheumatoid arthritis) and he was buried in the local church (as were Aline and their three children when they died).

Essoyes is justifiably proud of Renoir and has created a ‘Renoir Route’ around the village which captures moments from his life. It leads to his grave in the local cemetery and, amongst other things passes his home and the local church.

NOTE: I’m having to give up on this particular blog. WordPress have issued a faulty update to one of the “Plugins” which keeps locking the site. We’re off to Burgundy next but I’ll finish with a copy of my favourite painting of Renoir’s; the ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’. Incidently, the young lady in the foreground holding the dog is Aline Charigot.

We fancied a day out from Dienville and drove 30 minutes south to the small town of Bar sur Seine (population of about 3,000 people) because (a) it was market day there and we both enjoy French markets and; (b) there are a few well regarded champagne houses in the town and Vanya wanted to “try and buy” some champagne to take home to the UK. We were late getting away from Dienville and didn’t therefore get to see much of Bar sur Seine but the market alone warrants a return trip.

I was so engrossed with the market that I failed to pay any attention to my photos. For such a small town the market is huge and the variety of goods, services and produce on sale eclipse anything I have seen before. Here are a few photos anyway but I’m not pleased with them.

To talk a little about the market – There were plenty of stalls selling the usual food, drinks, flowers and furniture (including beds and mattresses) which are to be found at any farmer’s market across France but the variety of live animals on sale surprised us; as did the range and quantity of tractors and other farm vehicles. There were also some really interesting stalls that you would normally associate with a flea market – for example, one selling the metal circular caps which top champagne bottles and another dealing in World War I uniforms and equipment but it was the fellow selling house roofs and another selling an enormous range of sheds and garages that most amazed us. You really could buy just about anything at this market.

We limited ourselves to buying ice cream and Corsican Cheese. Actually, the cheese tasted tasted so good that we bought lots of it – twice as much as our fridge could accommodate. In hindsight, that was a really silly purchase given that (a) we may well stop off in Corsica later during this tour and (b) Chaource Cheese (one of my favourites) is produced just down the road from Bar sur Seine. Good job that we both enjoy cheese.

Another interesting aspect to the Bar sur Seine market, although it came as no surprise, was the large number of stalls offering glasses of champagne. It seemed everyone was drinking champagne – even the on duty fire brigade officers lol.

We reveled in the market for a while and then sought out a local bar for something to eat. We couldn’t have Vanya sampling champagne on an empty stomach. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened. On market day the menu in most bars is limited to the Plat du Jour and Vanya wasn’t interested in trying any of the local dishes that were on offer. I should have followed her lead but, instead, ordered a Tete de Veau (without properly understanding what it was). It proved to be the flesh from the head of a baby cow served in a mustard and vinegar slop. Enough said except that I ate almost all of it (the slop was actually very tasty) – crazy or what?!? Vanya would be tasting the champagne on her own.

Late that afternoon we arrived at the classy Domaine Devaux Champagne House on the edge of the town. I walked the dogs while Vanya attended a brief tasting session and the champagne couldn’t have been too bad because she bought two bottles.

I did learn a couple of interesting facts while at the Domaine. It seems that during the early part of the last century, the champagne houses in the north of the region (the Marne) objected to the champagne houses in the south (the Aube) using the champagne designation (notwithstanding that Troyes was considered the champagne capital and that the better grapes were grown in the south). The disagreement escalated; there were riots which saw vineyards burned, wine cellars destroyed, houses ransacked and people killed. Some 40,000 French soldiers were needed to end the rioting. Only in Champagne!

Essoyes, home and final resting place of Pierre-Auguste Renoir tomorrow.

The drive south from Soissons to our next overnight stop at Dienville took us through Champagne (via Reims, Chalons en Champagne and the small town of Brienne Le Chateau in the Aube Department of Grand Est). We’ve decided to take our time this year, avoiding all toll roads and stopping whenever we feel like it.

I like to think we stopped at Brienne Le Chateau because of my interest in all things Napoleonic but it is more likely that we stopped so that Vanya could get to drink her first champagne of this tour. She wasn’t too happy with my driving straight past Reims and Chalons en Champagne (but, come on, she’s imbibed champagne in both those places during earlier visits).

Brienne Le Chateau is where in 1779, at the age of 9, Napoleon Bonaparte first attended military school. He lived there for 5 years until, in 1784, he transferred to the Ecole Militaire in Paris. Much later, in 1814, Brienne was also the scene of one of his last battles. The town simply had to be worth a visit and I wasn’t disappointed.

Much of the old military school was destroyed during the French Revolution but in 1969 a small museum, dedicated to Napoleon’s rise through the ranks, was established in what remains of the building. It is tiny but it’s a fascinating place to visit (full of interesting records and memorabilia) and a few of his battles (including Austerlitz, Borodino and of course Brienne) can be followed on computers in the museum. My visit to the museum was enhanced by a group of Napoleonic enthusiasts role playing outside the museum. He is wholly revered in this part of France and it is small wonder that for a time, between 1849 and 1880, Brienne Le Chateau was renamed Brienne Napoleon.

There’s not a great deal to see and do in Brienne but the museum is an absolute must and the Chateau Brienne (where Napoleon stayed during 1814) is perhaps also worth a visit. Take time out, too, to look at the Hotel de Ville (the Town Hall). It is quite unlike any others I have seen in France in that it doesn’t display the usual “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” strap line across the front of the building. Instead it displays a face of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (and, if that isn’t enough, there’s a statue of Napoleon as a boy outside the front of the building). Vive L’Empereur!

On to Dienville.

Now Troyes (pronounced Tois), capital of the Department of Aube in the Grand Est Region, is definitely worth visiting, notwithstanding it’s large population (60,000+ people). It has been described as an overlooked gem and I would concur with that description. Our campsite was some 10 kilometres south west of the city but we were quite happy making two trips into the city during our short stay, one in the evening and one during the day.

It’s a pretty city. I have never before seen such a huge collection of colourful medieval buildings in the one place and; all in such fine condition and, more to the point, being used. This is in part attributable to a large fire in 1524 which devastated the place and required almost the whole city to be rebuilt at the same time. It seems that the great majority of those who couldn’t afford to rebuild in stone, went for 4 storey half timbered buildings in pastel colours. I should explain that in those days, local taxes were calculated according to the size of the building’s footprint and so it made sense to build upwards – hence the four stories. The result is very impressive with numerous cobbled streets packed with similar sized leaning structures. The colours too are interesting with the predominantly peach and pistachio pastels now giving way to brighter more vivid blues, reds and yellows.

This building, the Maison du Dauphin has a particularly strong list.

A particularly picturesque street is the very small Maillard Street, now known as the Ruelle des Chats, where the upper floors of the top heavy listing buildings lean so much they have been joined by wooden beams. It was these beams that allowed resident cats to stroll from one building to another and which prompted the name change.

No prize for guessing that the Ruelle des Chats is on the right

Also of interest, to me at least, are the city’s many elaborate churches. Most prominent are La Cathedrale Saint Pierre Saint Paul (parts of which date back to the 13th century), L’Eglise Sainte Madeleine (that’s 12th century with additions in the 16th century), La Basilique Saint Urbain (13th century but significantly updated in the 19th century) and, last but not least, L’Eglise St Jean au Marche where under the 1420 Treaty of Troyes, England’s Henry V (of Agincourt fame) married Catherine of Valois and was recognised as heir to the throne of France. Sadly, I never got to see this last church.

The first of the abovementioned churches, the Gothic style Cathedral of Saint Peter & Saint Paul was built over a period of 400 years between the 13th-17th centuries and it is unusual in that it has only one spire. The city fathers spent all the money that was set aside for the cathedral and there was nothing left for a second spire. Another unusual feature of the cathedral is the amount of stained glass in the building – there’s a staggering 1,500 square metres of glass dating from between the 13th and 19th centuries.

Cathedral of Saint Peter & Saint Paul…

… with some of it’s 1,500 square metres of beautiful stained glass windows

The second of the principal churches, and without a doubt my favourite, is the 12th century Church of Sainte Madeleine. It too was built in the Gothic style but what sets this church apart is it’s intricately chiselled stone rood screen which was added early in the 16th century. This church also has the most exquisite stained glass windows which, for my part, are easier to see and understand than those in the Cathedral.

The Eglise de Sainte Madeleine (as seen from the Jardin des Innocents) and a detail of the stone rood screen inside the church…

… and the most incredible stained glass windows from the Troyes School of Stained Glass – the colours are so vivid. The window on the left features scenes from the Book of Genesis.

At the risk of boring you, stained glass windows mounted in blocks such as those in the Eglise Sainte Madeleine are generally read from left to right and from bottom to top. So, bottom left in the first of the above photos (that’s the one featuring the Book of Genesis) the world is created. In the second image from the left, the elements of sky, earth and water are being added. In the third from the left, these elements are separated and in the fourth image on the far right, stars are formed. Moving up to the second row from the bottom, the image on the left reflects the fish and the birds being added to the world and then in the second from the left, the other animals in the world are introduced. Adam is added in the third image from the left and then, on the extreme right of the second row up from the bottom, Eve is added. And so it goes on. Third image from the left in the third row up from the bottom, Cain kills Abel… it’s like reading a comic but starting at the end. Enough about stained glass.

From the outside, the Baslique Saint Urbain de Troyes is the most impressive looking of the big three churches. It owes its existence to Jacques Pantaleon, the son of a local cobbler, who was elected Pope Urban IV in 1261 and he chose to celebrate the life of a predecessor, Urban I, by building the church in his honour.

Saint Urbain, consecrated as a basilica in 1964, was built on the site of his father’s cobbler’s shop.

So what about the rest of the city? It has a great deal more to offer and for the most part it is all easily accessible. Most of the major tourist attractions, whether they be medieval buildings and churches, bars and restaurants or modern shopping opportunities, are tightly packed around the city centre.

We made directly for the centre of the city where, alongside the old canal (the Canal du Trevois which is fed by no less a river than the Seine), a modern stainless steel heart designed by local artists Michele and Thierry Kayo-Houel has been fixed. At night, this heart glows a deep red and the colour begins to pulse as movement sensors pick up on any approaching people. It is very clever and can make for some excellent photo opportunities, especially if the surrounding water jets are turned on.

There are a number of other contemporary statues dotted along the canal and some these too make for ideal photo opportunities, one being a life size statue of “Lili, la dame au chapeau”. I’m surprised Vanya didn’t pose Beanie with Lili but it was the “attendez-moi”, a statue of a dog chasing geese which most interested her.

Lili, la dame au chapeau

Troyes is in the Champagne producing area. Indeed it is the historic capital of the old Champagne-Ardennes Region. It is also the capital of the Aube Department which, after the Marne Department, is the second largest producer of champagne. Having said that, we were surprised not to see a single vine during our drive down from Montreuil sur Mer to Troyes although; we did “see” a lot of champagne bars in the centre of Troyes.

I was intending to go on and write a little about some of the many interesting museum’s here and also about the city’s retail parks (there are three) but since we didn’t visit any of them and because I have been dabbling with this particular blog for over a week, I’m going to finish now. I’ll leave you with my final photo of the heart of the city.

We’re looking to overnight a little way further south at Troyes in the Aube Department of the Grand Est Region but Vanya wanted to sample a glass of champagne sooner rather than later. So we stopped at Chalons en Champagne.

A quick visit to the tourist office and we came away with a map identifying the principal sights of the city (there aren’t that many) and, more to the point from Vanya’s perspective, directions to a highly recommended local champagne bar – Tiffany’s.

We didn’t stay in Chalons en Champagne for very long – there is surprisingly little there to see for a city with almost 50,000 residents. It is more about the surrounding, rolling countryside and vineyards here (we’re in the middle of the champagne producing region) but, in the city centre, there is a particularly impressive church in the predominantly gothic style 12th century Collegiate Church of Notre Dame en Vaux.

The city also has a nice park (Le Jard Parc) and offers boat trips along the River Marne although for the city to be named as yet another Little Venice, as one tourist site has described the place, is really stretching the boat.

It was a nice place to pause for a glass of champagne but it offers little else. Sorry Chalons… but your Champagne is good!

On to Troyes…