DAY 261 - REIMS TO EPERNAY: 19.5 MILES (39,000 STEPS)

Sunday 8 January, 2012

19.5 miles (Total: 2469 miles)– 39,000 steps (Total: 5,282,401 steps)

The next major stop between Reims and Paris was to be Chateau Thierry, but I was unable to locate any accommodation on the most direct route and so opted for safety with a 20km detour via Epernay. Without a phone and with the bad weather, I tend to be more cautious about getting stuck without shelter for the night – I know, ‘what a wimp’.

My departure from Reims did not go as smoothly as I had hoped it would because, in a move unsympathetic to sufferers of mild dyslexia, town planners had placed Rue Epernay next to Rue Esperney and I fell for the trap. The rest of the walk was actually quite pleasant and took me through the National Park of Montagne. France closes on a Sunday and heading out into the forest seemed to be quite a popular activity, although the presence of many groups of hunters would appear to make it a biz hazardous. It wasn’t immediately clear how they had designated which parts of the forest were for hunting and shooting and which were for walking and cycling.

A few times shots seemed to get a little close for comfort as groups of orange jacket clad hunters would emerge from the woods and shout something, which I presume was ‘have you seen a deer crossing here?’. I would plead ignorance and simply shout back ‘Anglais’, which just seemed to be greeted by a ‘boff, what would he know?’. Actually, although I have never been hunting or shooting, I am not enraged by it because I see it as part of the culture and history of the rural communities and as such, it is to be respected. I represented a partially rural constituency in Parliament and came to hold the farming and rural communities in very high regard for the way they carefully preserved a way of life and a countryside so that ‘Townies’ could flee the ugly urban sprawl and then write to their MP to complain about the cow muck on the roads. In the main, those who are enraged by hunting do not love the fox as much as they hate the middle class who hunts them.

Emerging from the forest, there was a spectacular site of endless vineyards belonging to Champagne producers. The vineyards are not fenced off and the ground is firm and chalky so I was able to pick my way down the hillside towards my destination of Epernay. As you emerge from the vineyards you come onto a road with more Champagne bars per square inch than Sloane Square. I guess that travelling from one end of the street to the other would be the ultimate posh pub crawl, but because it was a Sunday, it was naturally all closed. Perhaps with a hint of irony is this suburb of Epernay called Dizy. It remained a fact that I had not had a drop of Champagne having walked the entire length of the region. This is not being abstemious; it is just that, even in Champagne, the ‘local brew’ is still very expensive relative to the Cote du Rhone.

En passant as Del Boy says in ‘Only Fools and Horses’. In Ste Menehould, I came across a statue to Dom Pierre Perignon, who was the monk that discovered Champagne in the seventeenth century with the memorable phrase “see I am drinking the stars”. Now, could someone please explain to me why someone who has given so much to human happiness is not yet ‘St. Pierre’ – must mention that idea to Pope Benedict when I next see him, Pierre was a Benedictine monk after all. The beautification could lead to the naming of hundreds of churches in his honour, whilst church attendance in Chelsea & Kensington could double, or, at least bubble!

I arrive in Epernay in the final minutes of daylight and so was able to enjoy a whole evening in Hotel Ibis writing emails and blog entries, whilst drinking Diet Coke – it’s fun all the way out here …