A Champagne buzz to Troyes, Troy, Twah?

Zagan the motorhome is tucked up next to the wall of the police station in Troyes (N48.28973, E4.07207). Behind him is a huge and packed car park, and to his right is another huge empty car park belonging to the local exhibition centre where we’d originally parked, but thought we’d join the masses instead.

Last night was super dark at the abbey with no lights around us. If it wasn’t for the cloud cover we’d have had an excellent view of the meteor shower that’s building up at the moment, that said the cloud did help keep the temperature around freezing point, so it did have some benefits.

We were up earlier than usual this morning as Charlie decided he wanted out at 7am. It was still pitch dark and I was so thankful it was Jay’s turn on pooch duty. We hit the road earlier than usual with Troyes programmed into satnav. There’s been some debate in team Zagan has to how to pronounce this place, I’ve been corrected from Troys (rhyming with toys) to Troy (as in the wooden horse), only now it seems it’s pronounced more like the number three in French, Twah; it’s just a good job we don’t have to call it by its name.

Our first stop was to fill up with fuel at €1.059, convinced it was the cheapest we’d see all day. How wrong we were as we headed north the price dropped, finally reaching €1.019 at a supermarket station, yet the Total station half a mile up the road was still managing to flog its stuff for €1.129!

Christmas is coming – although pretty sure these small trees would disappear if in the UK!

Our next stop was a Lidl (yes it’s all glamour for us today) for a quick stock up and to compare the prices of the wine with those in Spain. There was only one bottle of Spanish wine in there which was €0.50 more in France that it was in Spain, not much, but as it only cost €2.49 in the first place it was quite a mark up. While in there we also purchased the ultimate taste test – a Lidl Brik of wine versus a bottle St Emillion Grand Cru. After our olive oil taste test the other week, I think I’ll be backing the Brik!

A now heavily laden Zagan trundled his way north into Champagne country. As soon as we crossed an unseen boundary marker signs, huge bottles, oversized corks and large holed boards filled with bottles lined the road. As neither of us really like Champagne, we’ve yet to decide on if we should visit a Champagne producer. The big ones charge around €18 for a tour and a glass of the fizzy stuff and while I’m sure it would be fascinating, if I’m honest, I’m not all that fussed. Seeing all the signs got me thinking about the smaller producers, perhaps we could pop into one of those instead. Our Park4Night app showed one near us that welcomed motorhomes, offering free wifi and electricity – winner!

It sometimes gets a bit tight in towns!

Zagan is tempted to stop the night – free electricity and wifi!

A quick detour and we were parked up outside the least French-sounding Champagne house there is.

We were greeted by a young woman who worked there and told us all about her Charlie-like pooch who is called Eclipse. She headed off while we gave Charlie a quick leg stretch and shut up Zagan. We stood by the locked front door waiting for it to be opened. As the young woman was now serving someone else, an older lady (Madame Champagne) finally approached the door opened it and said “bonjour”. We said bonjour back, then after what seemed like an eternity she invited us in (I wouldn’t mind but we both had showers this morning, so we’re actually looking and smelling our best right now!).

The awkwardness continued from there on. Madame Champagne spoke no English and we had no clue what we were supposed to do – what questions do we ask? do we get a tour of the factory? how many do we ask to taste? how much is this stuff? I made myself busy looking at leaflets, leaving Jay to work his best French on her. ‘This is our first tasting’ he explained hoping for some guidance, ‘OK’ she replied, no help forthcoming.

As neither of us really like the stuff, asking what type do we want to taste left us both with blank looks. ‘Brut ou Demi-Sec?’ Madame asked, ah ha, Demi-Sec I was able to reply as I know from my cidre drinking it’s the sweeter stuff. ‘Blanc or Rose?’,  I’d spotted that the two open bottles on the table were both white, so opted for that. Madame Champagne then disappeared out the back giving me time to have a quick glance at the price list – I know my stuff, I’d managed to bag us a tasting of the cheapest one they do!

Reappearing with a new bottle Madame popped the cork like a professional as the guilt welled up inside me. ‘She’s just opened a bottle especially for us’, I whispered to Jay, oh well here we go. We sat in the tasting seats and sniffing it first (that’s what they do with wine on the telly) we made positive noises as we sipped. Do we glugg the lot or would that be bad form? No idea, so Jay quaffed all of his while I left a bit. We said how impressed we were with the taste and Madame Champagne seemed non-plussed.

‘How much is it?’ Jay asked. A price list was produced, and Madame pointed to the €15.20 box, it was then that I spotted that the price was for 6 – 18 bottles. I nudged Jay, but it was OK, we could just buy one bottle – so we did. Madame Champagne went to fetch our bottle; I’d like to think from a dusty underground cellar, but more likely it was from a pallet out the back and that was it – Champagne tasting done.

Giggling like school children (could be Champers related) we set off in Zagan, reliving what had just happened. It’s one of those moments that I’ll always remember as I was way out of my comfort zone, but I actually quite like the fact that it was like that and not part of an English-speaking tour for the masses. Now we just need to decide if we’ll drink it at Christmas, New Year or tonight!

A hour later we reached the outskirts of Troyes and after a car park shuffle and a spot of lunch we set off to explore the town. Charlie opted to stay in Zagan as he was still tired from yesterday’s walking and he’s heard it was 800m to the tourist office. As we entered the town it dawned on me, this is the second to last Friday before Christmas, that explained the sheer volume of people shopping. The sound of Bananarama, Stereophonics and techno tunes being pumped through a speakers across the whole town helped put people in the shopping mood; Jay nearly bought an iPhone 6 – not!

Our tasting session could have been so much more expensive!

Some of the timber houses off the main drag need a little support

Christmas is coming – quick shop!!

There are loads of old timber houses here, I guess that’s the town’s main touristy thing. Walking down the main shopping drag you don’t see them unless you look up, so we found a very narrow alleyway with a timber house leaning over it and escaped to a quieter part of town. It’s quite a large place, and we’d arrived as it was starting to get dark, so we opted for a whistle-stop tour down to the Cathedral and back. You could spend a good few hours here seeing the sights and reading all the information boards, but we didn’t fancy that. It was nice just to soak up the pre-Christmas spirit.

To clean or not is a tough decision, but you can’t leave it half done.

Look closely – Jesus is missing!

We could see our breath in the Cathedral and there was so little daylight by the time we got there the stain-glass windows were tricky to make out, so after a quick walk around we headed back to the main square where we treated ourselves to a pack of roasted chestnuts to warm us and fuel us back to Zagan.

Get yer Christmas Oysters??!

Looks like we went for the smallest version!

When we got back Jay rustled up large hot chocolates, with a tot of faux-Baileys and topped with cream. The heating is on and we’re set for a cozy night in, now where did I put that Champagne?

Ju x