Day 39 Épernay to Reims
In some ways the shortest rides can be the hardest…. Not physically but mentally!
Today was that day for me!
We were up at about 6.00 am and packed ready for breakfast by about 6.30 am. Breakfast was at the hotel and it was a good hotel breakfast of juice, muesli with yogurt, baguette and a cappuccino.
We agreed that it would be a good idea to look at the champagne houses in Épernay before proceeding on the formal ride navigated to Reims.
… and we made our way to the Avenue de Champagne in Apernay… wow what a road! As you can see from the photos most of the big champagne names are situated along this very impressive road.
After proceeding down this road we made our way to Reims through the lovely countryside out of Apernay. The surrounding hills were covered with vineyards which have sign posts indicating which champagne label owns them….. such a wonderful sight.
We passed through many small villages which had champagne houses of lesser known names …. It is such a wonderful experience to see all of this and makes you appreciate why there was such an effort to preserve and protect the heritage of “Champagne “ from being used in other countries such as Australia.
There was one bigger climb for the day of about 4.5 km of about 150 metres which was quite gentle really but the heat and humidity was starting to build.
For morning tea/ early lunch we manyto stop at a local cafe/ bakery for a baguette and cool drink and enjoy the air conditioning of the cafe as it was now well over 30 degrees and very humid.
The rest of the ride into Reims was along a canal again. This time it was the Aisne Marne canal which had a lot of bigger barges on it. Several of the barges are working barges which carry goods along the canal … quite a few of the big barges seem also to be used as homes and are resplendent with very upmarket accommodations.
On reaching Reims we stopped at the Veuve Clicquot Champagne hose in Reims which was also very impressive… it looked open so we went in to the cafe and Steve and I enjoyed a glass of pink champagne…. Very good to enjoy on the hot day.
After making a stop in the centre of you we made our way to the accommodation for the night at the F1 hotel… we are a bit out of Reims not in the “Paris end of town “ but the rooms are comfortable and cheap!
It was good to get the ride over as I was pretty tired and the heat and humidity were getting to me a bit. After unpacking at the hotel I had an hour of sleep which was somewhat refreshing and sitting here now outside the laundry there is now a cooler breeze which is very nice.
As I said at the start today’s ride of 52 kms and an ascent of about 400 metres was not our biggest but in some ways it was the hardest due to the heat and humidity.
The photos today are:
The route
Enjoy the photos along Avenue de Champagne in Épernay and the surrounding vineyards and us enjoying a glass of Champagne at Veuve Cliquot!
