'Dons, dons, Paree dons'

A weekend away in France for Scouty's 30th!

On Friday (24th November) night Brad, Jackie, Robyn, Eugene, Heidi, Ben, Michelle and I boarded the Eurostar for Paris and what would be a great weekend away. Our first stop – Moulin Rouge (Direct translation 'Red Windmill'). After a customary Duval(8.5% Belgian beer) and a few Stella's we were raring to go upon arrival in Paris.

Moulin Rouge was excellent, despite being harangued by possibly the rudest people I've ever come across, I easily managed to put that behind me and really enjoy the show! Thanks largely to the free Champagne. The show was really full on. At first it seemed a little shallow but it soon developed into a full on assault of the senses. Bright colours, bosoms, miniature-ponies, pythons, acrobatics and easily the highlight, Eugene being pulled up on stage to participate in one of the mimes. I'm telling you Eugene, put that in your CV!

On Saturday we took a train from Gare L'est 1.5 hours north-east of Paris to a town called Epernay in the heart of the Champagne region. Nathalie, our tour guide picked us up from the station after we had lunch and it was off to their guesthouse/Winery, Domi-Moreau, to drop off our bags and start our tour of the vineyard with her. It was great to see how passionate she was about her job and it really was an informative few hours. Nathalie and her husband Max (Maxi-taxi) make 4 types of Champagne, 'Traditions', 'Blanc de Blancs', 'Cuvee rosé' and 'Cuvee d'argent'. We tasted the first two and were split down the middle as to which we preferred. Nevertheless, we all bought a few bottles in the hopes of actually taking a few back to the UK with us. How naive of us to think that we would not drink it almost straight away? It really was good though, not that I'm a connoiseur, but the best Champagne I've ever tasted.

Check out their website: http://www.champagne-domimoreau.com/pages/welcomepag.html

After some more wine-tasting and revelry, Maxi-taxi dropped us off in Epernay, where we would have quite an entertaining dinner, thanks to our wonderful understanding of the French language! Brad and Michelle both mistakingly ordered kidneys, which they thought would be veal (voue?).

So it was a great night and our accommodation was excellent, I would highly recommend staying with Nathalie and Max should you ever find yourselves in the Champagne region, which you should. Apparently September is the time of year to visit, when the vineyards are being harvested and everything is in full bloom.

On Sunday we did a tour of the 'Mercier' Champagne house, which has a very proud history of producing top quality Champagne. Whilst it was both interesting and informative the tour of Nathalies was infinitely better.

Thanks Brad and Jax for organising everything and to Euegene, Heidi, Ben and Michelle for making it all the more memorable!

Au revoir, Shaun

Some interesting facts about Champagne and so on…

Champagne can be made from any one of only three different types of grape, that is Chardonnay (a white grape), Pinot noir(red grape) and Pinot Meunier(red grape) pronounced 'Munye' like 'Simunye Grooooves'.

Rather embarrassingly for me, because I honestly didn't know this, white juice comes out of red grapes.

Champagne undergoes 2 different fermentation processes. The second one is what creates the bubbles and is also to reduce the acidity in the Champagne.

You aren't allowed to use any machinery when farming your vineyards in Champagne. Almost everything is done by hand.

Champagne consists of only 35,000 hectares of which Nathalie and Max have 6.

Roughly 1 hectare of vineyard is valued at €1 million.

Nice one Nathalie and Max.

Robyn has a surprisingly excellent grasp of the French language and was our interpreter for the weekend.

One of the reasons why the Champagne area is so unique and conducive to producing top quality vineyards is the chalk content in the soil. Brad is currently searching Google for any similar such soil types in South Africa.