Our poor little hound detests spending time in the van, it stresses her right out.  And while she has improved remarkably when we’re parked, she freaking hates it when we’re driving.  So, our compromise was to maybe do two hours or so each day…  Yesterday we drove six, and although we stopped for toilet breaks (which technically makes three journeys of two-hours) we can all agree she was let down. Turns out that France is really quite large.

We left Dunkirk with zero objective in mind but the lure of Champagne proved too great and that’s why we ended our day just outside of Épernay, sitting under the branches of a cherry tree, in the softest of rain showers, washing the days journey away with a beautiful bubbly bought from the guy who let us stay on his farm.  The French might go on about terroir but there’s something special about sitting on the land that produced the wine that was bubbling through your brain.  We literally camped beside the shed that housed the tractors and tools that helped grow and harvest the grapes.

On a disappointing note, my first French baguette was bought from Lidl, as was the cheese that accompanied it, so I let myself down too.  Although the next day we found a wonderful patisserie.

The Champagne region is beautiful but it didn’t seem worth getting the big camera out so the bulk of these images are phone shots, although I did throw the drone up for a bit.  We’re early in the season and while sometime around Autumn the hills are surely festooned with vines, grapes and colour, we saw a whole bunch of neatly rowed sticks on wires patiently waiting on the warmer weather. Not that it matters much because we really only travelled a few kilometres down the road to the aptly named Bouzy where you can’t turn a corner without tripping over some of the most famous names in the Champagne market.  We did our bit, we sampled, we swilled, we did not spit and we bought a few bottles. 

From the patisserie, with optional dog snoot