Reims & Champagne Tour

When living in the hustle and bustle city of Paris, you need to get away every so often. Our little Christmas get away was a two day trip to Reims: the heart of the Champagne region. Email marketing at it's finest (yes even the French have figured this out): a couple of weeks ago I got the typical email from SNCF advertising super low ticket prices for the next couple of weeks. As usual I was skeptical because as with most travel 'deals' they are never at the times that you want to go, or the one way price is fine, but the get you on the return ticket. Not this time though, 2 round trip tickets to Reims, €66 (and the outbound trip is in 1st class). Tickets booked: now time for a hotel. I found a good deal for Hôtel la Paix, a nice modern hotel with a pool and hot tub; perfect to recharging ourselves. A couple of weeks ago at a Chamber of Commerce function I met someone from Reims, so he emailed me a list of restaurants and places to go. So we were all set!

We arrived in Reims at 8am (yes we were on the 7am train from Paris). I knew we could at least drop off our bag at the hotel, so I figured it we might as well ask if we could actually check in. Ask and you shall receive! Yes, we could have our room right away, so we were able to get a bit more shut eye before exploring the town. It's still quite dark and cold here, even at 8 in the morning so this was excellent news.

After our power nap we hit the town, with cameras in tow. First up was the beautiful Notre Dame de Reims cathedral. If you have been to Notre Dame in Paris, the Reims cathedral is very similar, a bit smaller and not quite as detailed on the sides and in the back. However the great thing is that it is nearly empty, especially at this time of year.

A quick stop in at the centre de tourisme de see which Champagne houses were open, a great light little lunch in the center of town and we were on our way again.
On our way to the southern part of Reims where 5 of the champagne houses are, we walked passed the Saint Rémi museum. We noted it for the next day, but unfortunately didn't make it (next time I suppose). Next to the Saint Rémi museum is the Basilique de St. Rémi: another large church, but this time even quieter and more empty than Notre Dame de Reims. A truly amazing feeling to be nearly alone in such an amazing place.

With time to kill before the champagne tour and tasting that we had reserved at Taittinger we head over to a couple of other Champagne estates just to see what is going on. A few were open so we wondered in. For anyone who doesn't know (don't worry, we didn't really know either), the champagne estates are positioned on top of old Roman clay mines, which are now used as the caves to store and age the champagne from 2-10 years. Apparently there are all sorts of caves and tunnels leading all the way into the center of Reims. There isn't really a need to see more than one Champagne cave; one you've seen one you've seen them all. You are better off spending your time and money doing tastings at multiple estates and learning about the different types of Champagne. Due to our limited time we didn't really get to do this, but we do plan on returning to the region in a different season. There are also hundreds of champagne houses outside of Reims accessible by car so spending time in the Champagne region countryside will have to wait for another trip.

Note to everyone going to any Champagne tours: phone ahead and reserve your place. The tours only accept groups of a limited size, and times are not always consistent as they run as needed. Also, in typical French fashion, information on the web sites might not be up to date.

{- 72,000 bottles of Champagne

Dinner list in hand we head out after a fantastic first day in Reims. We had a list of 5 places to try all recommended by a local. L'Apostrophe was right near the hotel on the main drag, so it's the back up plan if everything else fails. Le Millenaire was on the top of the list, but they were closed on this Monday, merde. The menu looked amazing, so if we make it back to Reims we will definitely go there. Two other places around the corner (Le Bistrot du Forum and Edgar Bistro) look decent enough but we decide to try one more place, Le Boulingrin, a typical old school brasserie. Since the town was quite quiet all day and into the evening we didn't think it would be a problem getting in around 8:30 for dinner. We ask the bar lady if she has room for 2 and she says they are all full until the next seating at 10pm. I've eaten in enough restaurants to know that it isn't always that simple, so we hang around for a few more minutes. The manager walks up and says can I help you. I said we were two but that you were all full so we were just trying to decide what to do. He said, "Pour deux ? Pas de probème." So, in another typically French fashion, you have to ask multiple times until you get what you want. These old school brasseries, for the most part, don't disappoint and neither does Le Boulingrin. A dozen oysters to start? Why not! It had been a while since we had oysters, even though you see them everywhere in Paris. Entrées, main courses and wine were good, although I was expecting something a bit different for my 7 hour roasted lamb. A pair of excellent deserts to finish off a great day in Reims. €75 all in, and were were stuffed.

We took advantage of the nice quiet hotel room to sleep in right until check out time so we were a bit pressed for time, or so we thought, for our second day. First up: Musée de Beaux Arts. We saw some posters displaying a retro, art nouveau and art moderne exhibit so we decided to head there. Nope, it was Tuesday and it was closed. So this brings us to Rule #3 when travelling in France: always check when the museums are open, so you can plan your trip around them! (Rule #1 was book your champagne tour ahead of time, Rule #2 was ask multiple times to get into a restaurant, and ask the manager, not the bar staff). Having wondered around town the night before checking out the various restaurants, we had seen some places to come back to during the day, include Le Forum; a 1st century Gallo-Roman ruin (not open in the winter), as well as some nice buildings and courtyard to shoot. The Gallo-Roman Cryptoportique would definitely be worth seeing during hte high season of June to mid October.

We soon found ourselves back at Le Boulingrin and noticed that right across the street was a huge hall, called Les Halles. It was built in the 1920's and was setup as the market for the town. It was very modern for it's time and even though it has been out of commission since 1988, it was named a historic site in 1990. Now there is a plan to recondition it but it is going to be an immense amount of work since this building is in terrible condition, however it provides for some great photos to contrast with the (near) mint condition of the the rest of the 17th and 18th century buildings that you find in most French towns.

Just north of Les Halles is another Roman ruin, this time in the center of a round-about, and across from that another champagne house. Lunch time, and we are just on the outskirts of Reims, so we decide to take a look around and see what we find. A stones throw from the Roman ruin, at the start of the road that leads to a chapel that Kim wanted to see, we find a modern little bistro called: 2 F (2 frères). It looks good, it has starting to rain and we are hungry. This was a truly excellent little find on our trip. We shared the starter of paté, then had the daily special which was pork shoulder with paprika sauce, potatoes and long beans: fantastic, and better than my main dish at Le Boulingrin the night before. Desert was a nice slice of pear tart and then a post dinner drink of their house specialty alcohol which was a mixture of vodka, apple something, and some other stuff. They mix it in house and won't give you the recipe, but damn it was good. A double coffee for Kim to finish up, and all for €28 euros. If you go to Reims we definitely recommend this place.

A 10 minute walk, passed another two champagne houses and we arrived at the little Chapelle Notre Dame de la Paix, but unfortunately it was closed for the winder. Apparently it is worth seeing as the entire 200m2 interior is covered with frescoes by Léonard Foujita. We walk back to town and detour through the cemetery where are greeted by two black cats. Spooky! We spend the rest of the evening wandering the little streets of Reims, did a bit of shopping before heading to the train station for the return trip to Paris, only 45 minute away. You could even go to Reims for the day from Paris, but it's worth spending 2 days if you can hit one of two of the museums or want to spend more time learning and tasting champagne.

More pictures posted here:
picasaweb.google.com/DKSPENCE76/200912Reims
and
picasaweb.google.com/DKSPENCE76/200912ReimsChampagneTour

We ate at:
- Le Boulingrin, 48 Rue du Champ de Mars, 51100 Reims, 03 26 40 96 22
www.boulingrin.fr
- 2F Café & Restaurant, 2 boulevard Jules César, 5110 Reims, 03 26 07 4 60
www.deuxf.com

We stayed at Hôtel la Paix: www.hotel-lapaix.fr

Other restaurants that were recommended to us were:
- Le Millenaire: 4 Rue Bertin, 51100 Reims, 03 26 08 26 62

www.lemillenaire.com
- Bistro du Forum: 6, place du Forum, 51100 Reims, 03 26 47 56 58

www.bistrot-du-forum.com
-Edgar Bistrot: 4 Place du Forum, 51100 Reims,03 26 09 70 70

Merry Christmas - Joyeux Noël

Kim and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2010

More pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/DKSPENCE76

Restaurant Review - Le Relais de l'Entrecôte

OK, time for another restaurant review. In August we were very kindly treated by Kirsten Grant, along with Kirsten's sister-in-law Alex, to dinner at Le Relais de L'Entrecôte. Kirsten used to live in Paris so we trusted her judgement. Usually when people recommend a restaurant for a certain type of food or cuisine it's because they do that dish or cuisine particularly well, along with some other things on the menu. Well not l'Entrecôte. They only have one thing on the menu, actually there isn't a menu, just a wine list. When you first enter you immediately notice the black and white traditional waitress uniforms, and a flury of 50 something year old waitresses whipping around the restaurant at full speed. They sit you down, give you a wine menu and a few minutes later they come back to take your order. Choosing the wine is the hardest part so we just went with the house wine. The next question is how do you like your steak cooked. That's it! There is no menu, no choice other than rare, medium or well done. A truly ingenious business model: a salad to start, steak, fries. Vegetarians and vegans need not apply! Needless to say the steak and their special sauce was fantastic. Then just when you think, well, that was good but...... back comes the waitress with your second course of.........you guessed it, more steak frites.

Apparently there is a bit of a battle between Le Relais de l'Entrecôte and L'Entrecôte as to which one is the original, the best etc, but I'm not going to try and solve it here. I'm sure L'Entrecôte is just as good.

After dinner it was desert time the famous Ladurée on the Champs Elysées.

Le Relais de l'Entrecôte

15 rue Marbeuf

75008 Paris

01 49 52 07 17

plus other locations: www.relaisentrecote.fr

Ladurée

75, Avenue des Champs Elysées

75008 Paris

Restaurant Review - l'Ourcine

I know I know, I can hear the protests already: you're in Paris and all you write about are Asian restaurants!

So, here is a fantastic find: l'Ourcine. When my mum and Erik were visiting in August we wanted to try and new little restaurant around the corner from Le Foyer Vietnamien that I just wrote about. We don't know the name of it, we just call it the red restaurant since they didn't have a sign up, but the front was painted bright red. So off we went, only to find out it was closed for the month of August. Yes, it does still happen in our modern times, as hard as it is to believe. The fish store just down the street closes for July AND August each year if you can believe it. I guess they have the rental rate locked in and grandfathered from generations ago!

After finding out that the red restaurant was closed I jumped onto timeout.com/paris and looked for something close by. The good thing about timeout.com/paris is that they only have about 200 restaurants listed for Paris. Given the number of restaurants in the tourist capital of the world, you can pretty much bet that the 200 or so they have listed will be good. The down side that there is a chance that a restaurant that you want to try isn't very close by, or may be closed, so best to plan ahead.

So following my trusty Google maps on my iPhone, 20 or so minutes later we arrived at l'Oursine. "Vous avez de la place pour quatre" I ask. "Vous avez une réservation?" Merde, I thought of course the good little local place is going to be full, but alas the manager came our and said, sure no problem we can fit you in. We enjoyed a fantastic meal, €32 fixed price, 3 courses. I would highly recommend it and will go again, after we've exhausted the other 199 places on the list!

We'll get to the red restaurant sooner or later!

l'Ourcine

92 rue Broca

75013 Paris

01 47 07 13 65

Restaurant Review - Le Foyer Vietnamien

Well, it's been a while since we posted anything, but don't despair I'll post a few more in the coming days as there are no shortage of things to write about in Paris in December.

But, I thought I would add to the one restaurant review that I did in the spring. We don't eat out that often (the life of working for a start-up and married to a post-doc), but alas, we'll endeavor to write about the good restaurants we do go to, and we have been to a few.

So we'll officially kick it off with our favorite little restaurant in our 'hood: Le Foyer Vietnamien. Since you all know me so well, I don't need to tell you that we love asian food . Even our first post was about Mondol Kiri a Cambodian place, but don't worry there are some good french restaurants that I'll blog about also so stay tuned.

The great thing about Le Foyer Vietnamien is, well, everything: it's cheap, fantastic and just what you need on a cold winter night. I never had much luck with Vietnamese food in Vancouver; I kept trying but it just wasn't doing it for me, so I was a bit skeptical, but at €5.50 for a big bowl of Pho you can't go wrong. This Pho doesn't disappoint. I tried a stir fry dish the second time we went there, but now I just stick to the Pho, and we share an entrée (that's appetizer for you Canadians and Americans), the bamboo salad is our favorite. Beer! They have asian beer and it's cheap! So all in, a good meal for 2 people will be €15-20. For those of you from Vancouver, this is like a mini Hon's for Vietnamese food.

We've been there ~5 times already, so if you come to visit us, we'll probably take you there!

Le Foyer Vietnamien

80 rue Monge

75005 Paris

01 45 35 32 54