I’m not much of a drinker, but when in Rome! L + I took a tour of the G. H. Martel champagne house here in Reims, complete with a tasting of 3 of their champagnes. Larissa was in heaven. Fun fact about the making of champagne: once the yeast dies and forms a sediment, the bottles are inverted so the sediment pools in the neck. It is then frozed, the cap is removed and the pressure inside pops the frozen crud right out. Top off the bottle and it’s ready for corking!
Beneath the city, there are endless tunnels which had been dug out originally by the Romans for building supplies. During the First World War, Reims was almost completely destroyed and the people moved into the tunnels. Emerging to rebuild the city, the tunnels have been used to store champagne ever since. Reims fared better in WWII because the Nazis were too fond of taking champagne back to Germany. They couldn’t shut down production!
Reims is also the site where the Germans first signed a surrender to the Allied powers at the end of WWII. We visited the little museum with the map room where the surrender took place and Eisenhower gave a victory speech. All in all, Reims is quite a nice town and I’m glad we came here. Too bad we have been here for a few days too many…
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