Charmes by train to Epernay

Breakfast was a little disappointing this morning, one piece of baguette and a croissant with two types of jam and tea (Earl Grey). In the end I thought I better eat the croissant even though there was a risk of indigestion. Of course once I'd eaten everything and finished the tea she offered me more :) So I had another piece of baguette and another pot of tea. So not so disappointing afterall :)


I paid and then checked out the local stores for the Michelin maps I need for Epernay to Paris. No luck, it is Monday morning. I went to the station and did SuDuKo's and read until my train. The trip to Nancy was quite quick, only 30 minutes or so. I got a seat just across from the bike which was lucky because on one of the corners it actually fell over. It was so slow and graceful, I almost caught it :) I adjusted the bike and there were no more problems.

At Nancy I had an hour and a half to fill in so I decided to get lunch, just a plat du jour. Unfortunately there was a bit of inattention on my part and I didn't get a fillet of beef I got a foie of beef, as in Liver :( Oh well, it was smothered in a wine sauce and came with copious amounts of mashed potato's so you could hardly taste it.


The train to Epernay, which I forgot to photograph, is an older one. This turned out to be good because it had a hanging area for up to 3 bikes. With a bit of effort I got the bike up into the train and up onto the hook. Both times someone helped me with the lifting :) I took the seat next to the bike to help try and reduce its swinging during the trip. Then I settled into my Ruth Rendell mystery (Inspector Wexford). It was a two hour trip and it went by reasonably quickly. I was beginning to wonder when we were going to finally see vineyards, we were almost into Epernay itself before they became visible. I managed to get the bike down out of the train, down and up the flight of stairs and eventually to find the Tourist Info in order to get to the camping. Unfortunately the camping is 2K's out of town but I decided I may as well, plenty of time to walk in this afternoon.

The camp site isn't bad actually, green grassy sites, plenty of trees, reasonably clean, free email terminal. I don't know what it costs yet, I forgot to ask, 16 Euro I'd guess. I set up and then walked into town, only 30 minutes or so.

The town itself is a bit odd. Sections of it are quite nice and other bits are just typical run down France. There isn't a distinctive centre to it. The Champagne houses are mainly on a long street a few blocks from everything else. I can't tell if the houses are new or have just been maintained extremely well. I won't go into any this time, I'll save that for when Paul is here at the end of the trip. There is a big Church near the train station, I skipped that too. I had a nice walk around got the two maps I need then sat in a big square and had a Kir while I studied the maps. Then I bought some food for dinner, demi-baguette, ham quiche, Flan and a coke. The Flan slice is absolutely enormous, I don't remember them being this large?

I put the Thermarest outside with the maps, food and l'Equip and had a nice read in the shade as it is still quite hot in the sun (which make a nice change). After that I read in the tent until bed time.