Champagne Tasting in Reims

We took a bus to Reims on April 5th and went to the Mumm champagne museum and store. There was a video and tour of the museum. It was really cool to learn about the Mumm family who owns 540 acres of vineyards in the Champagne region. They have three grapes: Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, black grapes, and Chardonnay, a white grape, and the taste of champagne comes from the combination of them. Isn't that interesting? The champagne was really good--we tasted their classic Cordon Rouge. "You can get a whole bunch of Mumm's."

We also had a lovely lunch and then saw the Notre-Dame de Reims was very similar to the one in Paris--same style of architecture, built in the 1200's and our tour guide said they did some of the French kings' coronations here. The tour guide and my French prof, Lucie got into this sarcastic argument because the tour guide was making fun of Lucie's Parisian accent.

Sunday, my friend Jon came to town. Poor guy got in a fight at the Duplex and had a huge gash across his nose. We decided he should photoshop it out of his pics of Paris before showing his mom... He, Brendan and I went to the Eiffel Tour with some bread and cheese and sat on a park bench. It just happened to be the coldest weekend in Paris yet and began snowing on us and making our baguette soggy BUT the view made up for it! In the fountains near the tour there appeared to be some sort of a protest--the water was dyed red and fake human bodies were floating in it.

On Monday I played tour guide for Jon and as we were walking down the Champs-Elysées, we were blocked from the Arc de Triomphe by Chinese Nationalists and pro-Tibet supporters who lined the street in anticipation of the Olympic torch run! We got to see both the carrier of the torch--a Chinese fencer in a wheelchair and the demonstrators! There was chanting, Chinese and Tibetan flags, huge banners hung from the windows with the Olympic rings composed up of handcuffs, and a fight even broke out! What's going on with the Olympics is so interesting to me and I am really glad there are so many defending Tibet. I can't understand the Chinese nationalists view, though.