Epernay: Day 2

We decided to try out a cycle route from the Lonely Planet Cycling guide to France loaned to us by the new friends we’d made in Lille. It was rated “Easy-Moderate” but without any real reference this was not terribly meaningful. The book was written by experienced cyclists and probably not aimed at almost complete beginners like ourselves but the only way to find out was to give it a try.

The first part was smooth sailing, a mild incline past long stretches of sunny, open vineyards including some owned by the famous Veuve Clicquot. Then the first hill nearly killed us. It was the steepest we’d ever encountered. Granted, that’s not saying much having just come from the Netherlands but it was a rude shock to find that even on unloaded bikes we couldn’t make it up the first hill, a hill that didn’t even rate a mention in the guidebook. We took a break mid-way up in the old village and as we caught our breath we wondered what exactly constituted a ‘steep climb’.

It took quite a bit of convincing to get going again but after some dallying about and peeking into the former abbey of Dom Perignon we decided to give the ride another go. Thankfully the remainder of the ride was no worse and we passed through some rather pretty villages and gathered some frightening speeds back down towards the main town.

We made it just in the nick of time for a guided tour and tasting of 3 vintage cuvees (P2’s choice) chez Mercier. Not the most prestigious producteurs but word had it they put on a pretty good show and had one of the largest chalk caves in town. I’d never heard of them but apparently this was nothing to be embarrassed about because, like the vast majority of French wine, this stuff doesn’t reach the export market as it’s all consumed domestically.

Our tour began with the giant vat at the entrance which took 16 years to build and which the founder, Eugene Mercier, transported all the way to the World Exhibition of Paris in 1889 only to be upstaged by the Eiffel Tower.


Our elegant guide with the cutest French/Oxford accent then escorted us down to the enormous chalk caves 30 metres underground where we boarded a laser guided automatic train. All the key stages in the champagne making process were explained including the gruelling manual process of ‘riddling’ i.e. turning the bottles around at regular intervals to aid the settling of sediments before being extracted but thankfully that’s all been automated now.


After our tour we returned to the surface to appreciate the subtle differences of three different vintages and I was deeply impressed at how polite they were about herding us out of the tasting area and into the store so they could pack up and go home.

Our own journey home was that much more pleasant for having exerted ourselves earlier but I suspect the bubbles affected me more than I realised. P2 looked on in horror as I weaved through the traffic, faintly aware but not at all concerned about the cars swerving to avoid me. What a pleasant day for a ride!