The Mosel Valley

The final few days of our trip, other than an overnight stay at Frankfurt airport, were spent in the Mosel Valley in one of my favourite villages there:  Cochem.  We had rented an apartment there.  As it turned out, it was way up a hill and actually a bit outside of the town.  The views from it of  the castle and the town were spectacular.  They would have been even more perfect if the weather had been better.  However, we still made the most of our visit.

For our first day there, we walked into the town along the river.  The road along the river has changed quite a lot since my last visit here.  There used to be a row of lovely trees with lots of free parking alongside or in between them.  However, they have been cut down and replaced with cycling and walking paths.  It is probably an improvement but I miss the trees.

Cochem itself is good place to visit.  There are enough shops to poke around in and they are independent - no chain stores here.  There are also lots of bars, cafes and restaurants so we had no problem lazing the day away.  At one point, later in the afternoon, we ducked into a bar/restaurant to get out of the rain and we ended up having both our 'happy hour' and dinner there.  Thankfully, when we were finished, it was a short walk to the taxi stand to get a ride home and up that very steep hill!  The 9 Euros were well spent!

Being in areas with lots of vineyards at this time of the year makes for some lovely scenery as the leaves on the grape vines are turning to red, yellow and orange.  

We had intended to drive further up river on our second day to the very touristy village of Bernkastel.  However, the weather was really disgusting so we spent the day in the apartment venturing out only for dinner in the evening.  Thankfully, there was a restaurant at the bottom of the hill where we had eaten on our first evening here and the rain had stopped long enough for us to walk there and enjoy the night time view of the castle and the town.  The food was good and reasonably priced plus the owner was friendly.  He was more than happy to call a taxi for us at the end of both evenings.  

The last day the weather was better so we drove to Bernkastel before driving to the airport to return the car.  I used the think Bernkastel was my favourite but it is now even more touristy than it used to be and, as there was a Viking cruise boat docked there, it was over run with tourists.  Cochem has replaced it as my favourite Mosel village.  The latter is a bit bigger and seems to offer more to see.

So, with that, the trip is over.  Actually, I returned home a week ago and am finally getting around to finishing off this blog.  I have one more to write and then I am done until the next time.

Another Grim Reminder

When we left Reims and were driving to Cochem in the Mosel valley, the autoroute we were on took us by Verdun.  As it is another of those very well known places where there was horrible fighting and trench warfare during WWI, we thought we should stop.  Actually, I have been there twice before and, believe me, it does not get any easier.  

Verdun's battlefields are marked by museums and memorials, such as the Douaumont Ossuary, with the remains of more than 100,000 soldiers. As you drive through the woods and winding road to the imposing Ossuary or Ossuaire with an immense cemetery in front of it, you can still see trenches, bomb craters, and "abris" (shelters) as you go along the road.  There are also two "villages destruits" you can visit - villages that were destroyed in the battles.  I have not visited them.  Along the base of the Ossuary, there are small windows and you can still see some of the bones that were collected from the battleground and stored there.  It is awful!

The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was the most murderous frontal assault in history. This struggle for annihilation through an artillery duel, without precedent, symbolizes and summarizes the whole war.  The battle lasted for 303 days, the longest and one of the most costly in history.  It has been calculated that the French suffered 377,231 casualties and the Germans 337,000 for a total loss of 714,231 lives, an average of 70,000 a month.  Some estimates are higher estimating 976,000 casualties in 1916 and 1,250,000 suffered around the city during the war.  In France, the battle came to symbolize the determination of the French Army and the destructiveness of the war.

This battlefield constitutes a heritage unique in the world. This vast area situated in the "Red Zone", proposed for UNESCO listing, bears the striking scars of the bitter combats of 1916.  More details of the battle can be found online and it sickens me to try to write about them here.  

I found this photo on the Internet,  It is Abri 320.  It is about 8 meters deep into a hill
close to the Ossuary.  The Abri could house up to 300 men.

We also stopped at the Trench of Bayonets.  The history of this is tragic.  In June, 1916, this part of the battlefield was a location the Germans desperately wanted. On June 12, Germans unleashed a hailstorm of iron and lead upon French positions. The attack caught the French by surprise.  The French regiment there was annihilated almost to a man.  Years after the war, French teams exploring the battle field uncovered the clues to the horrific fate of this regiment.  One of the trenches was discovered completely filled in with only a neat line of bayonets sticking out of the ground.  The bayonets were still fixed to the rifles.  A bout was found next to each one.  The regiment had been buried alive when the ground beneath them collapsed due to all the rain and underground tunnels.  At the entrance to the memorial there, The sign basically says "they died with their rifles in their hands".  It doesn't get much more grim than that!

Following the visit to the memorial, we continued heading east with the Mosel Valley being our destination, the last one for our trip.  More about that - and a much more upbeat topic - next.

Bubbles - Lots of Them!

While I had been to Epernay quite a few years ago, this trip involved my first visit to Reims.  While it is very famous for its cathedral, of course, it is also famous for the champagne houses that are here including some of the big names:  Vranken Pommery, Taittinger, Veuve Cliquot, Mumm's, Lanson, and Krug to name a few.  With only one full day here, we were clearly only going to be able to visit one or two.  The evening we arrived, we wandered into the pedestrian area of the old town, saw a lovely fountain, stopped for a Kir Royale (for me as I had to have some champagne to celebrate being here) and then we had a lovely dinner at a restaurant called L'Apostrophe.

The following morning, after breakfast, we walked to the Franken Pommery Cellars which took about 40 minutes.  We had booked a one hour tour for 11:30.  It cost 25 Euros but, because we booked it through our hotel, we received a 5 Euro discount.  

It started with a walk down 116 steps (and what goes down has to come back up).  I was surprised that there was no handicap access for this cellar; however, because it is in an old building, they probably cannot retrofit it with an elevator.  The cellars were interesting, much like the Mercier ones in Epernay although this was on foot whereas at Mercier we were taken on a little train through a lot  more tunnels.  At Pommery, the tunnels stored several million bottles including many of the multi-litre ones. 

  

The 116 stairs

A artistically lit tunnel

One of the "art installations"

We learned how, as Pommery, expanded its markets around the world, some of the tunnels were named after places where the champagne was being sold.  Some examples below:

The guide was okay but not great – and she didn’t seem to know as much about champagne making as she maybe should have.  When I asked her if the riddling time for the 4 litre bottles takes longer than the normal .75l bottles, she said "that is a good question and I don't know".  Hmmm!  The cellars, in addition to storing all the Pommery champagne, also have some art exhibits.  Much of the tour was focussed on talking about some of the old sculptures in the tunnels and commenting about the art installations rather than on the champagne.  At least, after we climbed the 116 stairs back up, there was a glass of champagne waiting for us.

After the tour, we set off walking back into the town centre (about 1/2 hour) to visit the cathedral.  It is known by the names Reims Cathedral and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame at Reims.  Reims was the site of 25 coronations of the kings of France, from Louis VIII in 1223 to Charles X in 1825, including the crowning of Charles VII in 1429 in the presence of Joan of Arc. The cathedral, which was begun in 1211 under the auspices of Archbishop Aubry de Humbert and designer Jean d’Orbais, was modeled on Chartres Cathedral (begun about 1194) and was intended to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. The main construction was overseen by four different architects and lasted some 80 years; expansions and decorative work continued on the church for centuries.

The cathedral’s historic site, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991, includes the former Abbey of Saint-Rémi and the archiepiscopal Tau Palace (reconstructed in the 17th century).  Restoration was undertaken in the 20th century after the cathedral was seriously damaged by shelling during World War I.

One famous feature of the cathedral is The Smiling Angel, also known as The Smile of Reims. It is a stone sculpture which was carved between 1236 and 1245. This figure is in the north portal of the west facade of the cathedral.  It looked to me that she was a bit of a sassy angel and sort of giving the finger to someone - who knows?

Following the visit to the cathedral and a very light lunch that, admittedly for me, included a glass of bubbly, we walked back to where the part of town where the champagne houses are.  We got a bit lost and, because of the kindness of a stranger, we managed to get to our tour at Taittinger on time.  More about the stranger in another blog.

Our tour here was cheaper if you only wanted to sample one glass (21 Euros).  However, I wanted to sample two so I paid 33 Euros.  Taittinger is one of Champagne's most famous houses. It is known for its Chardonnay-dominant cuvées, the pinnacle of which is the blanc de blancs prestige cuvée, Comtes de Champagne. Its flagship is considered as one of the most consistent blanc de blancs from the region.  The business is still run by the Taittingers and is very much a family-based business.  It is housed in a rather non-descript building but what is fascinating is that the cellars are actually from an abbey that was destroyed during the French Revolution.   And, further down, below the cellars of the abbey is a chapel dating from the 4th century.  

 

During the wars, residents of Reims hid in the tunnels from the Germans.  There are places where you can see drawings on the walls that were carved by them.

 The following two carvings date back much further to at least medieval times if not before.

During the tour, we found out that the Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars have been added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  From the UNESCO website:  the property encompasses sites where the method of producing sparkling wines was developed on the principle of secondary fermentation in the bottle since the early 17th century to its early industrialization in the 19th century. The property is made up of three distinct ensembles: the historic vineyards of Hautvillers, Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Saint-Nicaise Hill in Reims, and the Avenue de Champagne and Fort Chabrol in Epernay. These three components – the supply basin formed by the historic hillsides, the production sites (with their underground cellars) and the sales and distribution centres (the Champagne Houses) - illustrate the entire champagne production process. The property bears clear testimony to the development of a very specialized artisan activity that has become an agro-industrial enterprise.

So, with that, our visit to Champagne was done.  Next up, we were heading to the Mosel River valley where we would finish our journey.