Arriving in Paris from Heathrow, Peter, Kathy and Caitlin proceeded by rental car North to the Champagne Region.  We organised some accommodation in a small village outside Epernay, staying in a little apartment at a Champagne House (winery). Villers-sous-Chatillon is a beautiful hillside village overlooking the Marne Valley and surrounded by vines. We spent 3 days exploring the village and the surrounding countryside, sampling a couple of bubblies along the way. Because the Champagne House we stayed at was a small, family-run operation we were fortunate enough to get a personal tour of the winery, including picking the grapes, tasting the juice and seeing all of the processes involved with the making of the Champagne. We were able to compare this to the mass-production operation at Moet et Chandon when we did the tour there. |
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From Northern France we drove East towards Germany, to the Alsace, and found another self-contained apartment in Herrlisheim, just outside Colmar. A beautiful, tidy little village of around 700 people, Herrlisheim had all we needed as a base for discovering the treasures of the Alsace. We spent a week split between wandering about Herrlisheim and driving through the scenic countryside and finding villages such as Turckheim, Kayserberg and Ribeauville, all very picturesque.  Being so close to Germany we also drove into the Black Forest for a picnic lunch near Lake Titisee one day. Caitlin enjoyed discovering new things and one of the favourites was probably croissants! She would happily munch on one in the pram on the way back from the patisserie before breakfast. Grapes picked straight from the vine were also a hit. Next --> |
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