Paris - Day 11

Well we didn't get much sleep last night as we were worried we wouldn't get up and miss our tour today. The plan is to at least sleep on the bus.

We made it to the tour operator's office in good time and waited to board our bus. The bus had a tour in 3 languages, English, Spanish and Japanese. I was impressed on each translator how great they spoke their languages and was more impressed by a white person speaking Japanese.

Our tour began in the city of Reims where we stopped off for a tour of the "caves" of one of Marylin Manroe's favourite champagne - Piper Heidsnick. Supposedly one of the many champagnes used in the motion pictures as well. The tour of the caves felt like we were in a Dysney ride. We boarded a little card and were whisked away through the underground of the complex and were given the sites and sounds through a pre-recorded audio. Alittle shlacky, but the champagne tasted great after the end!

We were then taken to the Cathedral Reims. This is were many of France's Kings have been crowned. The Cathedral was going through some very extensive renovations in and around the site that it was hard to hear our tour guide at times. Inside the Catherdral you can see where the Germans had bombed this during World War I. The architeture was amazing as it is in the gothic style. Walking around you can feel the history that was there. At one point our tour guide pointed out a chair where Joan of Arc sat during one crowning. She then pointed out a statue of Joan of Arc made out of Ivory. Now the eery thing is that the face is always clean while the rest of the statue shows it's age.

We then proceeded on our tour of the Champagne region to Moet and Chandon's estate. This is the champagne that Nepolean loved. It was also interesting to note, during our guided tour, that is also where Dom Perignon is made. I even got to hold a bottle of it during out tour, a bottle that still was being aged :)

This tour was more personal as we had a person tour guide take us through the underground caves and learn more of the history behind Moet and Chandon champagne. Truely delicious in my books!

We then headed back to Paris where I crashed of pure exhaustion.

Tomorrow will be another grand adventure as it will be our last official day here in Paris!