Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Spring Fever 2008
The Tour de France continues
I
once again had breakfast at the Maison de Rhodes and spent the
morning taking a short walk, relaxing and packing for the move to my
next destination, Reims. So, I was going from the ancient capital to
the modern capital of Champagne and, more importantly, I was about
to join the FlyerTalk Champagne Do, the latest in the series known
as the Tour de France. The principal Do organiser,
chrissxb, had very kindly offered me a lift between Troyes and
Reims, which proved to be very useful as there is no direct rail
service. I was picked up shortly after 1pm and chrissxb,
flysurfer and I made our way to Reims, calling first at the
Pierre Paillard Champagne house in Bouzy, to finalise arrangements
for Saturday afternoon and to collect a few half-bottle cases, as
there was to be a surprise of the bubbly liquid variety included in
everybody's Do welcome pack!
In good time, I was checking into
my latest hotel, the Holiday Inn Garden Court in central Reims. The
weather had quite suddenly taken a dramatic turn for the better and
I was keen to fit in an introductory walk before the first Do event
later in the evening. I had a most enjoyable walk around the compact
city centre in the late afternoon sun, managing to see a quite
creditable number of the main sights. (Well, I thought so anyway!
) Incidentally, if Troyes Cathedral was fairly
impressive, Reims Cathedral was absolutely stunning in the early
evening sun, but let's leave a closer look at that until tomorrow.
After a shower and change of clothes, it was time to set out for our Michelin-starred restaurant for the first Do dinner. This proved to be a quite exceptional experience, fine food and wines combining with excellent company to give a superbly enjoyable evening.
Introductory walk in Reims
Gourmet Dinner
