After waking up to the stunning, yet personally exciting, news that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I set off on Friday for yet another weekend adventure. The latest installment in my travels around Europe took me to the Champagne region of Northeast France, notably the city of Reims. Recognizing that study abroad is above all a cultural experience (who ever said anything about academics?), Penn funded (through our tuition dollars, yes, but it still felt free) this trip for the 23 of us and our program director, the first of two such excursions this semester. So, on a gray afternoon in Lyon, we all piled onto the bus for the long ride up to Reims. The six hour journey was briefly interrupted for a stop for a buffet dinner at a French highway rest stop that put its American counterparts to shame. Once in Reims, it was confirmed that we actually were staying in a hostel (I guess Penn could not spring for that hotel), a first for me which actually turned out to be survivable. Despite the fact that the bathroom was basically one large shower, in the sense that the door was replaced by a curtain and the sink and toilet were in said shower, the five of us in our room found it to be perfectly fine for a weekend.
Saturday morning brought a too early wakeup call for our voyage out to the wineries of the Reims countryside. While winding through narrow roads, we looked out over the perfectly ordered rows of grapes that stretched nearly as far as the eye could see. There were a few little towns that our tour guide walked us through, always marked by a historic cathedral at the center holding the body of some famous Frenchman, but each time we would come out on the otherside of a town, there would be more vast landscapes of grapes. Our first stop on the wine tour was a smallish champagne brand, with a simple looking factory standing out among the scenery. We were promised a tasting at the end, and thus were a bit distracted throughout his whole history of the winery and process, as each room was filled with more bottles (or vats) of champagne that only made us want it more. One tidbit I did pick up was with regards to the regulation of the process, as I naturally focused once the owner mentioned politics. Apparently the French government has strict regulations as to how you must produce the champagne (ie the grapes cannot travel more than 25 kilometers from field to factory), as well as how much is produced this year, in order to guarantee the price stability no matter the economic climate. But, what I had never realized before the owner casually mentioned it, was that all the champagne in the world is created in this small region of France. An international symbol of celebration, from New Year’s Eve to weddings to World Series celebrations, all of it is produced in small villages in this region of France. Despite globalization and all of its effects, champagne is one product that truly has not strayed from its down-home country roots, a fact that this economics major found striking.
Round two of our “degustation” tour took us to a much more corporate champagne headquarters of the Veuve Cliquot brand of champagne. This was actually located inside the city limits of Reims, and was highlighted by a seemingly endless cavern of, to date, unmarked bottles of champagne waiting (and aging) until the perfect year for consumption. Similar to the first tour, we did get some tasting in at the end, and despite the huge price tag on these bottle compared to the first winery, it tasted pretty similar. Clearly, we do not have refined taste buds, but still a success all the way.
We were able to explore downtown Reims (pronounced like “rinse” with a heavy French accent) on Saturday night and Sunday, further confirming our collective desire to at the very least frequently vacation in Europe after this semester is over. Definitely not a tourist town, there were a few spots not to be missed in the city, notably the Reims Cathedral, which was for centuries the home of the coronation of the French King. An enormous structure dating from the 12th Century (I think), it, like many others, made me wonder how on earth in the middle ages anyone was able to construct a building that large yet adorn it with so many rich, intricate details and sculptures. Yet, in my mind this was completely overshadowed by the goings on in the center square of Reims: a Canadian fair! Someone thought it was a good idea to invite the Canadians to Reims for the week, and set up all along the walk were small tents of Canadian merchants selling everything from maple syrup to Caribou beef to lumberjack flannel shirts. No hint of an explanation as to why this was going on or why Reims was the chosen city for this spectacle, but with teepees at each end filled with stuffed bears and raccoons, I liked it.
So, another weekend, another journey, although this one a distinctly classier affair than the previous weekend in Munich. The ride back was once again six hours, which we undertook in the afternoon and thus thought we would head straight back sans interruption. But, of course, we had to visit another rest stop because of a French law requiring bus drivers to take a 45 minute break every so many hours behind the wheel (have I mentioned I love the French?). However, after walking inside and finding not only a food section of the convenience store, but also a legitimate fashion clothing section in the rest stop, I was content. The French never cease to impress.
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