As you noticed from the pictures, the weather has finally turned around. After 5 1/2 weeks of cold, rainy weather the sun is shining, and the temperature is in the 70s. We’ve had a couple of partly cloudy days but for the most part it’s been beautiful. We haven’t used our scarfs or gloves for almost 10 days.
So, let’s go back to catching up on what we’ve been doing this week.
April 17 Tuesday
We thought about going back to Reims but decided to hang around Epernay and visit the champagne caves. Turns out that Epernay is the center of the champagne region and has more houses than any other town. The caves, or cellars, are tunnels that run 10km (6 miles) under the city. So, as we walked on the street, we were actually walking above the champagne caves.
We visited the Castellane house. We walked around the museum before taking the tour. Since the only other people needed a tour in French, we had a private tour with Stephanie, a woman from the Netherlands who now lives in France. It was a fascinating tour, but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. It’s a working house so in addition to see thousands of bottles laying around aging, we got to see the assembly line where the bottles were labeled, boxed, etc. The best part was the tasting at the end. Lynn likes a sweeter wine but their Brut was actually quite nice. Her favorite, though, was the Demi Sec, or semi-sweet. She bought a bottle to enjoy while we’re in Paris. As you probably know, the only wine that can be called champagne is wine from that region of France. Everything else is sparkling wine. Unfortunately, Castellane doesn’t sell in the U.S., so we’ll have to find something else when we get home.
We thought about going to a few other houses that offer tastings but after 2 glasses at Castellane, we’d had enough champagne. Peter gets silly and Lynn gets sleepy. So, we headed home for lunch and a little nap. Later in the afternoon we went out for a walk around town. There’s not too much there but we enjoyed being in the sunshine. We stopped in one of the local churches and it was very nice.
April 18 Wednesday
We were actually 3 days ahead of where we thought we’d be, so we took a look at the map to see where we wanted to go next. We thought about the Bordeaux region in the southwest, but it was a 7-hour drive, and we didn’t want to go that far. So, we decided to head northwest back to Normandy. When we left Caen a couple of weeks ago, we planned to visit the northern coast before heading to Rouen, but the weather was so bad there wasn’t much point. But now that’s it’s gotten better, we decided to visit. It was about 3 1/2 hours from Epernay, but we were settled into the house by 1pm. We’re staying 10 minutes from Dieppe so in no time we were walking around that beautiful resort town. We had lunch in an outdoor café across the street from the harbor. After lunch we took a 45-minute boat ride up the coast. This is known as the Alabaster Coast because of the white cliffs. It was a beautifully relaxing ride. Next, we headed to the beach which was quite crowded. There wasn’t anyone in the water as the English Channel is still very cold but there were people lying on the beach. Not sure if you can call it a beach, though, as there is no sand, only rocks….and pretty big rocks. We sat in a café on the beach for about 20 minutes waiting for someone to ask us for our drink order but left when that didn’t happen.
After strolling the pedestrian areas, we headed back for the car and a simple dinner of tomato soup and sandwiches with the most delicious bread on the planet.
April 19 Thursday
Okay, so now you’re caught up. Today we decided to drive west along the coast and visit a few of the villages. Our first stop was Varengeville-sur-Mer where we visited the English Gardens and park at Bois des Moutiers. This is the private residence of the Guillaume (William) Mallet family, but they have opened their gardens (at a cost of course) for the public. We had a very enjoyable one-hour stroll through the beautiful gardens and park.
Then we walked about 15 minutes to a small chapel on the cliffs. It was in the center of a local cemetery and had a beautiful view of the Channel.
Once back in the car, we headed to the village of Veules Les Roses, which according to tourist information, is the most beautiful village in France. We haven’t seen all the villages in France, but this one sure is the prettiest one we’ve seen. There is a tourist walk about a kilometer long that took us through the prettiest parts of the village. After lunch we walked to the beach where we enjoyed some delicious glaces (ice cream) for dessert. By the time we walked back to our car, it was already 3:30 so we decided to head back home. Originally, we thought we’d go all the way to Etratat to see the Elephant Rock but decided we didn’t want to drive that far. It had been such a relaxing day we didn’t want to spend any more time in the car.
So, it was an early day. We’ve got a load of laundry in the washer and because it’s sunny, it should all dry before we leave tomorrow. We’re heading to Fountainebleau for one night before taking the car back and spending 6 days in Paris. It should be a lot of fun.