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Reims – Champagne Weekend in France

Cathedral in Reims

Cathedral in Reims

 

Everyone has a different version of how to say it and the one we went with sounded like ‘Rance’ as if choked from the back of the throat. I went on a coach ride, with a bunch of people I didn’t know and lets just say alcohol does wonderful things to bond strangers.

The ferry took just over an hour to get to France. I had it in my head that it was three hours, so this was bonus number one . Getting to Reims only takes another few hours. Bonus number two.

 

There's a lot to be fermenting and drinking in these.

There’s a lot to be fermenting and drinking in these.

 

 

I went to visit Pomeroy which had auspicious cellars but that was about it. But then over a couple of days we saw three other independent and smaller champagne producers and that’s much more fun. They talk away about how they make it and everyone nods politely, whilst downing the first glass quickly to get the six more. No one was pausing to comment on any aromas of pear. Within the hour I and my motley crew were smashed and buying enough champagne to fill our imaginary cellars at home.

 

 

I don't know why this is in a champagne house but maybe it represents how you feel after one too many bubbles.

I don’t know why this is in a champagne house but maybe it represents how you feel after one too many bubbles.

 
You get drunk, buy champagne, store it in the coach and take it home. Some champagne did not make the coach journey back. Some places put on a lunch.  Reims is also a great place to stay in.  There’s not a lot to do there bar see the cathedral and drink, but apparently there’s a great Xmas Market too. This champagne weekend is the ultimate hen do waiting to happen.

Here’s a couple of places
http://www.champagne-lacourte-godbillon.com/content.asp?IDR=114273
http://www.champagne-dauby.fr/welcome_172.htm

Here’s some info.

Click to access Group-tours-in-the-Champagne,-the-Marne-BD2.pdf

 

 

 

New York – Days 24 to 35

Dinosaur

I had a good friend in Town so we decided to do what I should do and don’t and that was go to the Museums.  So we made arrangements and toddled over to the to Met Museum to find it closed.  The Met is closed on a Monday to the Public should you need this info.  So we went to the Natural History Museum to see the Whale Exhibition which was actually pretty good.

We had to go through the dinosaur exhibition to get anywhere and being a City girl I was immediately annoyed that I couldn’t just get direct to where I was going.  Past childhood why on earth would you want to see a bunch of dinosaurs? But no I take it back.  It’s pretty amazing and worth the walk. The only thing the museum could have done with is a good dusting.  Some of the exhibits are behind glass and look like no one has cleaned the filth accumulating inside for as long as the items have existed.  Get a duster Natural History.

Dinosaur 2

We made it to the Met a few days later to the see the Punk Couture exhibition which would be great if you didn’t know anything about punk but I thought it was pretty lame in general.  It’s  a lot of clothes in rows and quite dull.  But I’m from London and a musician so I know all about punk so I’m probably just being over picky.  It didn’t stop me buying a CBGB t shirt at the end though.  I once played there so I figured I had the right.

And in this amount of time there had been a ridiculous amount of food in amazing places. I do like a munch on the crumbs of life. Stanton Social on the Lower East Side, The Tangled Vine wine bar on the Upper West, Del Frisco’s amazing steak house in the Mid West, The Magnolia Bakery and their ridiculous Banana Pudding.  And the cocktail bar of the hotel which killed it with their amazing mixology at The Crosby Hotel.   I will name and shame the waiter in Sara Beth’s on the upper West Side for purposefully not trying to bring back change for a bill which meant he would have taken a 40% tip.  And he was not making an error.  When I complained he couldn’t even look me in the eye as he brought the change back. I am no tourist here now sir, so take the shame.

magnolia

I also got stuck in a rainstorm.  As it was warm and rainy I waited inside a toy store not looking suspicious in the slightest as I played on my phone.  In the end my time of dawdling had run out and I  decided to make a dash.  Sure I might get a little wet but how much worse could it get?  Well it gets much worse in New York as the sheets of rain hit.  This is rain unlike any other I have experienced .  I felt like I had been caught in a monsoon yet I was in the centre of New York.  So if in doubt in the rain over here, just don’t.

And to top it off I l have been learning that the measurements of alcohol in drinks here is nothing like the paltry measures back home.  I’m a practicing lush and I’m having to learn to take it slow on the consumption.  Well I’m trying.  After on a Monday night downing a few Espresso Martinis at the Crosby Hotel I went onto a friends bar where I ended up being the only proprietor.  This ended with me getting over excited by the DJ playing a random selection of 80’s and running up to the booth like a fan and making him put on Don’t you Want me Baby by the Human League at full volume and making him sing it with me.  Alone in the bar with my friend and two other co workers watching.  The dangers of mixing the drinks is a lesson learned here.  Maybe not adhered to but learned all the same.  I felt very quiet the next day.  Never have I willed a natural fruit juice to heal me more;  It didn’t.

tequila

New York Day 16 – Lower East Side

Mary Poppins Comes to the Lower East Side for one night only.

Mary Poppins Comes to the Lower East Side for one night only.

I’ve discovered the app HopStop. This is amazing in NYC for someone like myself who gets lost turning around. The only problem is that it tells you at the end of a subway stop to go in a compass direction which is an immediate fail for someone like me. Luckily on day 16 the friend who called me to do coat check called me as I got out of Canal Street and asked what way the traffic was going and told me it was the wrong way and to turn around, This was repeated on Day 17 too. Day 18 someone showed me that there was a compass on the iphone. Life is complete.

Day 16 was a Saturday and I was out in Soho wandering around with a friend trying out various vessels of white wine in various bars, which is always going to create a more than drunk night. You never know which way it will go but becoming utterly wasted is always a certainity. I get a call from my friend who has the direction of a magnet asking me to do coat check in his bar. I was drunk so it seemed like a fab idea.

I didn’t really want to do coat check but I had blabbed on about how i would do any job the week before if someone asked me just to try it once and of course when you brag it comes back and hits you in the face. So off I went. A thirty something in a twenty somethi ng lower eastside bar. It was like a drunk Mary Poppins had come to town. ‘Oh do have a fabulous time tonight’ I crowed in a posher than normal voice as I tried to contain my OCD with arranging the tickets as they came back. I thought people would be really rude to me but they weren’t and it was fun until the hangover kicked in at 3am The rail behind me, of course, fell down.

One particular individual eyed me up suspiciously and said ‘What’s going on here?
What do you mean ? I relplied . ‘Your’re far too cute to be running coat check’ I went up to his face and said ‘ you are right – I am too cute to be doing coat check. I’m filling in for a friend.What do you do when you are not running coat check?’ he enquired.
‘Run An Empire’. I deadpan replied.

Thank you Pinot Grigio you served me well.