Today we took the train to Epernay where we toured the cellars of the famed winemakers Moët & Chandon. They have something like 100 miles of underground caverns reaching well over 100 feet deep. The tour was excellent, the wine was great, and they were nice enough to stow our rolling luggage behind the reception desk so we could descend into the depths unencumbered.

In all, we rode seven trains today to get to Böblingen, Germany, which is where we’ll be based for much of the remainder of this trip. Remarkably, we never missed a train, and our complicated schedule of transfers actually worked. I would have to say we had some divine favor, as several of our trains were the last run of the day, so if we had missed one we’d have been stuck overnight. On the down side for the day, I’ve been having stomach cramps which I attribute to something I ate in Paris (the cheap Turkish doner perhaps?). In fact our most harrowing near-miss of the day occured when I made it back from the train station bathroom with only moments to spare for the departing train. Thankfully, most of the trains had restrooms (WC’s) too!

Apart from my little problem, the journey was fun and we saw some amazing scenery. I loved the endless stretch of tiny French villages tucked among the hilly vinyards. Around every bend is another village, and every village has a church with a steeple and a cluster of ancient whitewashed stucco homes with clay tile roofs. Definitely most definitely some places I will need to explore on a closer level some day.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 30th, 2005 at 11:56 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.