The chalky rolling
fields of Champagne might have remained unsung
and unvisited, had it not been for an accident of history. Towards
the end of the 17th century, a blind monk, tending the bottles of
mediocre wine in the cellars of his abbey at Hautviliers,
discovered that cork made a fine stopper for ageing his wine. After
the first fermentation, cork kept air, the enemy of ageing wine,
from his brew. But it also trapped the carbon dioxide in the bottle
and when he pulled the cork it ‘popped’. At that moment,
some say, the world changed for the better. ‘I am
drinking the stars,’ he is said to have murmured
as he took the first sip of champagne the world had ever known.
This northeastern slice of France is composed of
the départements of Ardennes, Marne,
Aube and Haute Marne. On these
rolling plains many of the great battles of European history have
been fought, including many in World Wars I and
II.
The Ardennes was once known as the ‘woody
country’ where Charlemagne hunted deer, wild
boar, small birds and game in the now vanished forests. The area
has 3 main waterways, the Seine, the Aube
and the Marne.
The Marne Valley between Ferté-sous-Jouarre
and Epernay is one of the prettiest in France.
Forests of beech, birch, oak and elm cover the high ground, vines
and fruit trees sprawl across the slopes, and corn and sunflowers
wave in the little protected valleys. The valleys form a long, fresh
and green oasis, dotted with red-roofed villages. In 496,
Clovis, the first king of France, was baptised in the cathedral
in Rheims. From Louis VII to Charles
X, the kings of France made it a point of honour to be
crowned in the city where the history of the country really began.
Rheims and its cathedral have been destroyed, razed, and rebuilt
many times over during the centuries. The Church of St-Rémi,
even older than the cathedral, is half Romanesque, half Gothic in
style. One of the most remarkable feature is its great size, comparable
to that of Notre-Dame-de-Paris. Beneath the town
and its suburbs, there are endless caves for the campagne. Epernay
is the real capital of champagne, the drink. Here,
115km (72 miles) of underground galleries in the chalk beneath the
city store the wine for the delicate operations required to make
champagne. These include the blending of vintages, one of the most
important tasks in the creation of champagne. It is left to age
for at least 3 years. Aside from champagne as the world knows it,
there is an excellent blanc de blanc champagne nature, an unbubbly
white wine with a slight bite and many of the characteristics of
champagne.
The perfect Gothic style of the Cathedral of St-Étienne
in Châlons-sur-Marne has preserved the pure
lines of its 12th-century tower. Nearby, the little town of St-Ménéhould,
almost destroyed in 1940, has contributed to the gastronomic world
recipes for pigs’ feet and carp, but historically it is known
for the fact that the postmaster, in 1791, recognised Louis
XVI fleeing from Paris with his family and reported him.
Before the annexation of Franche-Comté and
Lorraine, Langres was a fortified
town. Its Gallo-Roman monuments, its 15th- and 17th-century mansions
and its religious architecture make it well worth a visit. Troyes,
ancient capital of the Champagne area, has a beautifully preserved
city centre with a Gothic cathedral, dozens of churches and 15th-century
houses and a system of boulevards shaped like a champagne cork.
The city also boasts the Musée d’Art Moderne
in the old Bishops’ Palace, a private collection of modern
art, including works by Bonnard, Degas and Gauguin.
Troyes is becoming increasingly popular as a base
for exploring Aube en Champagne, an area that is
less saturated with tourists than the more popular champagne areas
around Rheims and Epernay. There
are many beautiful lakes in the Champagne-Ardenne
region, the largest being Lac du Der-Chantecoq.
The Fôret d’Orient has a famous bird
sanctuary. There is no school of cooking founded on the use of champagne,
but locally there are a few interesting dishes that include the
wine. Châlons-sur-Marne has a dish that involves
cooking chicken in champagne. It goes well in a sauce for the local
trout, kidneys and pike which have also been fried in champagne. |
