Day 4 Tuesday August 5th - French service?

This morning and the entire day was blue sunny skies and warm weather. Started with another excellent breakfast and making plans with Pierre's assistance. We began breakfast at 0930 and were in our car by 10:30. The plan is to drive north to Troyes (pronounced like their number three) and in the mid-afternoon return to Côte de Bar Champagne Region which is where we are staying and exploring.

First thing when we get in the car is to program an address for our destination; city first, then street (Rue) and then number on street. It is about a 60 minute drive to the centre of Troyes. Lana is eager to find a Champagne magnum and Pierre seemed to think the famous part of old Troyes has a public market that might carry this?

The drive up is through farmer's fields and vineyards. The closer we get to Troyes the more traffic and trucks. In fact, some of the farmers drive their tractors on the main road which really slows down the traffic. Our aim is to get to the older part of the city which has some famous churches and houses that were built in the 16th Century. Find parking area pretty quickly. Need to use the public washroom which is a small cylindrical metal contraption that cleans itself after usage. You plug in 30cents Euro and the door opens. You press a button to leave and then it automatically closes shut and it cleans itself. All instructions are in French.

We have a good map of the central area to Troyes that ironically is shaped like a champagne cork. The Marché Les Halles is a giant building with stalls selling fresh produce, meats, breads, pastries etc. Not what Lana was hoping for. Such a great day for walking. First stop is a kitchen store; Tarte Tatin pan (French upside down apple pie maker), wine chiller cover and a decorating tool. For some reason, not a lot of people/tourists wandering about this large pedestrian only neighbourhood.

We do visit the famous Saint-Paul Saint-Peter Cathedral 13th Century gothic style. Lots of beautiful stained glass windows. Extremely high ceilings which must have been pretty intimidating 800 years ago. No charge for admittance.   :-)

We are getting hungry so lunch is next. Pierre had provided a list of restaurants recommended for this area. We stopped at Crêperie La Rozelle for lunch. OK, I still haven't got used to the typical French service. Takes a long time to actually acknowledge you might need a menu. After menu received, server disappears. Server takes order eventually. When you want to leave and pay your bill = impossible. Eventually, we physically walked inside to pay our bill after asking more than once for the bill. Food was pretty good and we ate outside. Lana had a Ratafia alcoholic drink that is basically the alcohol from champagne and the juice of the grape.

Chocolate and banana crepe. Yes, I know this can be considered dessert. It was delicious.  ;-)

Lana ordered ham, cheese, egg and mushroom savoury crepe. The menu described this a Britonne pancake. Lana enjoyed it and it was very filling.

Some very interesting sights in this very old neighbourhood:

Typical medieval architecture.

Yes, this Subway outlet had its own outdoor eating section.

 Example of architecture, except it is slightly leaning to one side.

More architecture that appears to be leaning to one side.

Macaron Concept is a new store in the neighbourhood with so many different flavours (Lana starts drooling while looking in the front window!)

Successfully managed to pay the parking ticket of 1.50 Euro for 3 hours. Wow, what a deal. Driving south to our area of Champagne. We had three different Champagne vignerons that Pierre recommended for us to visit. Each was in a different town. More champagne to taste and maybe buy!

First stop in Celles-sur-Ource at Champagne Pierre Gerbais. The young woman didn't speak too much english, but it was good enough and we used our very poor French when she struggled. We did purchase a unique bottle in that it was 50% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Blanc. Pinot Blanc is rarely used in making Champagne, but it was delicious and different yet traditional. We tasted about four champagne and used that bottle as a baseline.

Next stop was in Ville-sur-Arce for Champagne Rémy Massin. For the first time, there were other persons doing champagne tasting. Large room and one group totalled about 12 and two other groups were sitting near us. More tastings and we purchased a Cuvee Prestige of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay. Cuvee simply means the blending of various vintages. For example, this bottle was blended with 2008/2009 and 2010 grapes. Prices in the Côte de Bar are dramatically cheaper than the Grand Cru and Premier Cru areas to the north in Champagne. For example, we spend about 15Euro per bottle. For champagne, that is ridiculously cheap.

We drive to our town of Essoyes and walk over to Champagne Charles Collin located on the other side of the river. We figured though that we needed something in our stomach before our final champagne tasting. Stop at the boulangerie for a pain de chocolate and Lana got a Paris Brest. This dessert is a pastry with a hazelnut creme filling. Yes, it tastes as good as it looks! The Champagne house was good, but we already have too many bottles that we need to get to Paris.

OK, time for dinner and the only place open in this very small village was La Carbonara. It did not open until 7 pm and we arrived about 20 minutes early so went for a walk in a part of the village we had not explored. Pictures of Essoyes:

Yes, all villages have a Catholic church and roads that in some cases two cars can't drive.

Many of the houses are extremely old and this case look like they are leaning.

Room for one car only.

The restaurant was pretty slow as we were the only customers for at least 40 minutes. They do a brisk business of pizza pickups though. No english spoken, but we're getting better with reading french menus! The usual French service applied though. We had to walk inside to find someone to pay the bill. Remember, in France a 15% service charge is part of the cost.   ;-)

Lana ordered a salad comprised of shrimp, chicken, grapefruit and sesame seeds. It was a good size and the various ingredients really came together. Everything was fresh and tasty.

 My entrecôte (sirloin steak cooked in a frying pan) with mashed potato balls and a salad. While the steak was perfectly cooked (we need to figure out how to say 'medium rare' in French) it sure wasn't a prime cut of beef. The potato balls were delicious though and so was the shallot sauce.

Tomorrow our plan is to drive two hours south into the Burgundy wine area. It will be a different experience to Champagne.