While the Missus was enjoying our stay in Reims, She was already itching to do some additional exploring the following morning. Even though we had a private tour of the area the next day (so I could actually sample some champagne), She convinced me to rent a car to do some impromptu exploring.
But first, we decided to walk around a bit, and grab some breakfast. I also wanted to find the location of the restaurant we had reservations for that evening. So we headed down Rue Chanzy and almost right next to AnnaS our dinner destination was a bakery named Le Four à Bois. And the Missus was really excited to see that in addition to our typical Croissant au Buerre, they sold gougeres!
So we got a croissant and a half dozen gougeres. The gougeres were too bready and dense, not light and airy like we enjoy them. The flavor was decent though.
The croissant was a bit too chewy, didn't have enough butteriness, and wasn't flakey enough for our taste.
Le Four à Bois
100 Rue Chanzy
51100 Reims, France
From here we walked across town to the train station and found that Enterprise Rent-A-Car had a nice compact available, which we rented for the day.
And so we headed off through the beautiful countryside.
We stopped at few towns on the way and eventually stopped and walked around the most appropriately named Bouzy. Where we stopped and stretched our legs a bit.
There were a few Champagne houses along the way, but I think many of them are by appointment only. And since I was driving anyway, we thought we'd just wander around a bit.
From Bouzy it was Bisseuil, Ay, and another wonderfully named town, Dizy, before we made our way to the city that is home to what is considered to be the "real" capital of Champange, Epernay. We decided to park at the southern side of town and walk in.
Basically across the street we passed a really nice looking church…
Turns out that this is the chapel of the Auban-Moet Hospital…….if you recognize the name; it's "that" Moet. Apparently, one of the conditions of financing the hospital was that a Catholic chapel would have to be built. Another being that the care was to be provided by Nuns.
We enjoyed the walk into town….the houses were wonderful; each different and original.
As we got to the first major roundabout before getting to the heart of the city we came across this very distinctive structure.
This is the Chateau de la Lune ("House of the Moon"), built in the Art Nouveau style, designed by Architect Henri Clouet.
Near the center of town is the Portail Saint-Martin which dates back to 1540 and is all that remains of the Abbey of Saint Martin.
We did a bit of window shopping, but since we'd be coming back the next day, decided to not visit Avenue de Champagne, where all the Champagne Houses are located.
After doing a bit of shopping we decided to stop for lunch. We just wanted something easy and not fancy and this place seemed to fit the bill.
We enjoyed the al fresco sitting arrangement; Le Progres is what I'd basically describe as a "diner". We just wanted something simple and got the charcuterie and an order of frites.
The baguette was pretty good, crusty and yeasty. The Pate de Campagne was pretty good; the rest rather routine, but really, not bad for the price.
The Missus enjoyed the frites which were nicely fried, crisp on the outside, moist and light inside.
And pretty much what we wanted….
Café le Progrès
5 Place de la République
51200 Épernay, France
What was kind of interesting about this place was that it is located on Place de la Republique, which is the roundabout that I would consider to be the center of the city is.
After resting for a bit, we headed back to the car. We took a different route back. This one along Avenue Paul Chandon. Which we really enjoyed.
The street ended at Église Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul…..
A soon enough we were back at the car. It was time to head back to Reims……
We'd had a fun, yet relaxing time exploring Champagne on our own.
Thanks for stopping by!