The Beaver on the Verdon

We live about a block form the Verdon River. It's a cool river, and we have swam in it and fished in it.
The coolest thing about it? There is a BEAVER! One night we went fishing, and we see this thing swimming across the river. At first we didn't know what it was... but it turned out to be a beaver!
How cool is that?

Moules Frites at home

So, once back home, we decided to try our hand at Moule Frites. In Champagne, they cooked them with Champagne (duh) so we did just that. It was very good. Mussels are very popular here and readily available. I'll make some for you when you come visit!

Behold... the worlds largest earth worm

So, my sad little veggie garden survived us being gone for 10 days. I was working in it for a little bit, pulling weeds, when something giant moved... I thought it was a snake a jumped back... not a snake... but instead... a HUGE earthworm. There are lots of them in my garden, which is good... but seriously... HUGE.

BrusselsBEERbeerBEERbeerBRUSSELS

Brussels. We someone landed in Brussels during the fantastic flower carpet in the main square. We didn't plan this, it was just a lucky coincidence.
It was beautiful.. Night one in Brussels was spent at the Beer Circus. We had Spaghetti with a Belgian beer meat sauce, and sampled a dozen beers.
Mmmmm.
We explored, went to beer museums, shopped, saw manikin piss, went to the C'est bon Cantillon geuze brewery.


The alley that houses the Delirium tap room, also has a rum bar in addition to several beer bars. We found one that had alesmith beer (from San Diego) which was pretty rad. (yep, I know... RAD!)
Once again... I like Brussels better in the winter... but it was a lovely trip.

In Brugges

... Yep... it is like a friggin fairytale village... except with more beer :-)
I, however, prefer it in winter, as it's far too crowded in Summer. Lots of great beer places, tons of Moules- frites, swans, boats, and a diamond museum!!!

Chimay

Our whole trip got planned around a visit to Chimay. Chimay is a Trappist Beer, and brewed by Trappist Monks at an abbey. They don't give tours, but you can wander the grounds, look at the monks, and smell the beer. It was very peaceful and beautiful. We stayed at the Auberge de Poteaupre, which is owned by Chimay. You can also stay at the Abbey, but you have to live like a monk... no talking, robes, etc. We decided eating meatballs and drinking our weight in Chimay was a better plan. The drive from Champagne to Chimay was interesting. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and the roads are kinda... tiny. At one point we had to pull off into a ditch for some interesting oncoming traffic. The hotel itself is in the middle of lovely fields with lots of cows.
Our rooms was fantastic. Huge soft bed, huge bathroom and the worlds best mini bar. We ate Chimay cheese and drank Chimay beer until we were bursting.
We also visited dowtown, and when to a castle. Learned a little bit about the history of Chimay, and then it was time to drink again. :-)
Slept like rocks, and tomorrow, it's off to Brugges.

Reims

So... we got to Reims, and I found that the hotel I chose has a pool, and a restaurant, and free breakfast... and is in the middle of nowhere. On a map, it looked like out hotel was right around the corner from Pommery... Hrm... not quite. It was around the corner... down a very long and busy block. Re-examining the map... I'm not sure there was a better choice...
See... Reims is not set up quite like Epernay... there is no main street with all the champagne houses lined all in a row for the worlds best champagne pub crawl. Nope. There is one house, then about mile away, there is another... 2 miles the other direction, one more, then the town of Reims, where the food & shops are located... still further away.
So... there was a lot of walking.
In the Champagne houses, the champagne is made underground in very deep very cold chalk mines that were dug by the Romans. There is "tagging" from the 1800's... which is kind of cool.
We hit Pommery,
Tattinger
Vranken
and Veuve Clicquot . :-)
New favorite champagne, however, is Ruinart. Very very good.

Stop 2: Epernay (yay!)

Sooooo giddy. The whole drive to the Champagne region was as difficult as the drive to Disneyland for a sugared up 6 year old. Epernay is wonderful. Very small... very well laid out. All the Champagne houses are on the same street and they are all beautiful. We did 2 houses. Castellane and Moet & Chandon... They pronounce it "Moe-et" not "Moe-aye" which is what I thought was correct. See... it was an educational trip :-)