THE LAND OF BUBBLES

This blog commenced 14th May 2009

So sorry for the delay in getting this blog edition out as we have been trying to deal with the french way of handling the internet connections.

Rhonda's Comment: For the crew at Boating NZ

Yesterday, (hic) we regretfully left Sillery after a great week in this beautiful village and its (hic) surroundings among the champagne growers and producers (hic) and set forth on the Canal de l’Aisne a’ la Marne and were soon faced with three locks then a one-way tunnel of 2.3kms in length. If you don’t get the green light for the tunnel, you could face a wait of an hour before you can go through, however, we were lucky and got a straight run in. Rhonda drove us through most of it which was great and after ‘doing’ another 8 locks we turned right and onto the Canal Lateral a la Marne which runs parallel as the name suggests to the river Marne.

This canal was constructed in 1860 to allow river traffic to avoid the worst of turbulent waters of the Marne so it has very long tree lined straights with only 4 locks with most of them being less than a kilometre apart as the drop down off the hills is quite steep so by the time we got to the bottom we were pretty tired I can assure you.

We arrived at another small township with mooring facilities, called Mareuil-sur-Ay. We tied up to the bank right outside the most gorgeous Chateau with magnificent gardens, however, Harry was not all that impressed by the status and proceeded to leak on the wall without a second thought. Our walk through the village showed listings for another 20 odd champagne producers so we will examine a few of those over the next day I am sure.

It would appear as though this is a popular stop-over for motor homes as they filled the local car park overnight and take the opportunity to top up with food at the small supermarket across the road. I hope some of our photos show how beautiful this place is.

During the next morning a frenchman came by to say hi, and as he could speak English, we chatted about our boat and where and why we had come to this area. He turned out to be a local who was having his old boat refurbished just along from us. His occupation is a grape grower who produces juice for others to make champagne from and he also has a beer brewed for him in Belgium for sale to various outlets in France. He said he would call by the next day to say hi which he duly did, bringing with him a large bottle of fine champagne which he insisted on opening and we being kiwis could not let him down so we drank it all with him and his mate so when the rain started to bucket down about 2.0pm we felt no pain at all so after he toddled off it was sleep time aboard Somewhere.

The rain continued for the next two days so we decided we would head off for Epernay on Sunday. It is only about 12 kms away so a nice easy run through two locks to find that the only berths available for boats of our size are against the bank on the river which is quite volumous and fast flowing. There is no way to get the scooter off so it will be walking for the next two days as we want to visit one of the really big champagne producers who are based here.

Mercier Champagne founded in 1858 by Eugene Mercier and as this champagne house offered guided tours through the plant we decided we would take a look. They take you down some 30 meters in special lifts to the caves where some of 6 million bottles of top class champagne are stored, some of it dating back to 1923 we decided that this was the place. There are 47 tunnels which total 18kms in length so is a sight to see so off we went with Grahame and Iris, the Australian couple who have the barge Manatee. They are also doing the tour along with friends of theirs from Redcliff out from Brisbane so we have had a lot of laughs already and surely doing the tour will bring plenty more too.

If you are not interested in more details of the champagne story you may want to skim the next few paragraphs but for those who are interested the story is quite fascinating.

In 1858 a young entrepreneur by the name of Eugene Mercier founded his own champagne house in Epernay which has gone on to become one of France’s leading producers of fine champagnes.

He was a true marketer and saw that there was money to be made if the product was well produced and promoted so he was the first person to have a movie advert made of his produce for the 1900 World Exhibition and had Hot Air Balloons suitably sign written and gave rides over Paris from the same exhibition to promote his product.

He also had built a giant vat holding the equivalent of 200,000 bottles which was placed on display in Paris for a number of years. It was returned to Epernay where it now sits in the showroom and is a delight to view with all the ornate carvings on the end. He had personally travelled to Hungary to select the 150 oak trees it took in construction of this vat.

In order to keep his fine products at the correct temperature which is to be a constant 8 to 10 degrees he had his workers dig these tunnels and so to give some additional idea of the size, the amount of chalk earth removed was 125,000 cubic meters which is 40 times greater than the weight of the Eiffel Tower. All the tunnels are on one level and to assist moving people around to view the operations is a small electric rail way. This was set up and on this train we viewed these fantastic cellars and operations after travelling down the 30 odd meters in a special glass sided lift which allows views of some of the art works and carvings which the family have collected over the many years.

Rhonda's Comment: These chalk carvings were absolutely amazing.

The whole set up is really mind boggling with facts like the bottle rinsing machine washes 120,000 bottles every day, and while the real vintage bottles are turned each day by hand (good riddlers can turn 40,000 bottles per day), just imagine how fast the hands are going, but the general champagnes are now turned by a huge machine which just fronts the huge stacks and the jaws take hold of hundreds of bottles at a time by the neck and turn them gently, every day for 6 weeks. The bottle necks are then immersed in an ice cold bath which freezes and impurities which are trapped in the neck due to the angle the bottles are stored at. The corks are then pulled and the frozen neck quantities are removed and new blended juice and sugar is added to replace that which has been removed, the bottle is re-corked and wired and there it lays until sold. Obviously, the older the bottling, the higher the price, so it was not uncommon to see bottles fetching several hundreds of Euros and we were told some of the really old bottles would fetch hundreds of thousands of Euros.

Rhonda's Comment: These were our empties!!!!

Down in the tunnels there are special banquet rooms which look magical lit by seemingly endless candelabra and is where special events are celebrated like weddings and so on. Goodness only knows how much a function would cost.

In 1950, Eugene’s grandson organised a Champagne Rally in the cellars with Renault to mark the launch of the all new 4 CV model. Imagine these cars racing around the 18kms of cellars and we are told not a single bottle was broken but lots were drunk at the closing ceremony I am sure.

You may be interested to learn that champagne is only made from a blending of the following grapes, Chardonnay which makes up 26% of the grapes grown with another 37% coming from the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. No wonder good champagne is so expensive and it is only doing that tour we had the chance to begin to understand just why this is such a wonderful and revered drop. Hence, it makes me wince when I see the motor racing winners etc squirting large bottles of top quality champagne at each other. Rhonda and I could do so much better at appreciating this wonderful drop. After a fairly serious tasting, we walked back to Somewhere, very satisfied that we had learned and witnessed this great production system and methods.

Just to finish off on this subject, it is important to realise that champagne is limited to 35,000 hectares and it is this particular chalky soil that gives the grapes the particular richness so to be used in this process. The next time you are enjoying this drop of angels water, just give a thought to what has gone into bringing it to you. When you see the word Cru in the label, this means a particular village or tiny plot from where the grapes were harvested.

This will end our visit to this areas wineries even though we have another 20 kms to travel on the river before we clear the growing district. Never mind we still have the Burgundy districts to come next month so something else to look forward to.

Rhonda's Comment: Grahame and Michele Smith, this one is for you.

Now back to more normal things, after shopping at the huge supermarket across the road from where we had Somewhere moored, we set off and travelled through a couple of different type of locks, in so much as the walls are sloping and despite panic attacks from the forward hand prior to getting there, as we found inside the lock there is a floating platform which rises or drops according to the way you are travelling so all you do is step off and hold the boat alongside - great.

We only travelled about 12 kms as we found a great looking village called Port au Binson and with the berths all but empty, we tied up and again Harry had another park to use as his own run area etc. By 5.00 pm the whole village seemed to have gone to sleep or were inside which is crazy as the weather is now delightful again with no breeze and 25 degrees which would have lots of Kiwis outside doing BBQs etc. We were able to sit up on deck until after 8.00 pm as the sun doesn’t set until about then. It was good to take a walk through some of the nearby streets but the shutters were down in most homes so I guess they are early sleepers.

Rhonda's Comment: We found this amazing Tabac (coffee shop) in this little village.

Today dawned with almost perfect conditions so it was off with the scooter and after giving Harry a ride around the local area, Rhonda and I visited some other small villages in a 10 km radius and really took in the country and small town lifestyles. We couldn’t help but notice the many, many small white vans parked in and around the vineyards from which people emerged to trim the young tendrils off the vines. This is done by hand and as the vines are grown so close to the ground many of the “pruners” sit on a 3 or 4 wheel trolley and move along between the rows doing this boring, boring job. It seems as though all pruners have these little white vans so Peugeot and Renault must have made huge sales over the years. It seems as though a white van is the symbol status of these workers.

As I said, the weather today was perfect so it was a case of having dinner and a glass of wine up on the top deck of Somewhere, while watching the local water skiers do their thing on the river. Very relaxing and the very sort of thing we dreamed about, so for all readers, all we can say is eat your heart out. We will keep on pushing on tomorrow and face the many challenges which lie ahead.

Rhonda's Comment: As you can see, Ken cannot do without his garden.

Before closing I am adding the following extract from our barge association magazine which is just so true, so for all of those of you who want to experience real peace and tranquillity, just read on, sit quietly and dream and take on the words of our solicitor Andrew Stokes who said to Rhonda and me. “If you want to do it, get on with it. Remember this life is not just a dress rehearsal” and how true were those words.

“Cruising the canals and waterways of France must be one of the last remaining lifestyles where one can be completely alone deep in the countryside with nothing to break the silence. There is nothing – absolutely nothing (didn’t Ratty say that?) as satisfying as being on a boat in this gentle, welcoming land where, after a day’s cruising through leaning forests of giant trees and verdant river meadows, one can tie up on a bank, sit beneath the shade of a spreading oak on canvas chairs, glass of wine in hand and survey the silent scene across the canal: cattle grazing; fields of yellow rapeseed stretch from edge to edge of one’s eye-span; dark trees embrace a huddle of farm buildings, pale in the lowering sun; a church spire in the distance and sonorous sound of bells as evening descends.”

Some more English to Cockney sayings.

Arm- Chalk Farm
Bank- Iron tank
Barrow- Cock sparrow
Belly- Auntie Nellie
Braces- Air and graces
Butter- Stammer and stutter
Coat- Weasel and stote
Goggle Box- Nervo and knock
Knees- Biscuits and cheese

OK All the very best to each and every one of you.