Rainy touring.

It very overcast this morning and after a quick coffee we are off to have a look at a couple of nearby villages. Hautvillers was the first stop. A very picturesque village only a few ks away. So many champagne houses there as well. Lots of names I’ve never heard of, guess they don’t have to export to Australia. There are grapes vines everywhere, no grapes on them yet and it must be pruning time because they are all regulation back and sides.

On then to Ay-Champagne, a bigger city, with lots of nice old buildings It had started to rain by the time we got there so we found a coffee shop and a chocolate eclair. The couple at the next table started talking to us, he could speak a few words in English, not much but we managed to understand most of what he was saying with google translate.
He was fascinated we’d come all the way from Australia, gave us some of their biscuits they’d just bought at the bakery, and recommended a nice restaurant for dinner.
Turns out he works for Moët, said he was in the labelling department. He insisted on taking Graham to show him where the restaurant was, probably thought we were hopeless and would never find it. He had a flash Moët company car so don’t think he was on the production line. Wish we had hit him up for a tour.

The rain wasn’t letting up so we headed home, stopping at Hautvillers again to pick up some things from a cute little bakery we’d seen.

After a lazy afternoon we headed out again for dinner. Stopped at a little bar for a drink on the way, there were a group of kids playing darts, 3 guys and 1 girls, the girl was killing it. The restaurant was quite busy and well worth the recommendation . Chef came out to double check how Graham wanted his steak, the waitress was always checking if everything was ok. The head lady came out to help us interpret the menu. Lovely evening.Read more