On our last day in Paris we wandered around our local area between the Louvre and Marais and escaped from the 32 degree heat by doing some shopping.

Then on Sunday (4th September) we drove to Reims, the biggest city in Champagne, and even managed a tasting at a local family producer south of Reims. That night we also attended a fantastic light show at the Reims Notre Dame Cathedral to celebrate its 800th anniversary. We weren't expecting much but were really surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the show that used different coloured lights and projectors to highlight the features of the Cathedral's facade.

Yesterday morning we returned to see inside the Cathedral which is actually very important in French history as French Kings were crowned here between the 11th century and 1825. It was nearly destroyed in WWI by German shells that set the building alight. Repair and maintenance has continued ever since and the facade in stunning.

In the afternoon we drove to Epernay to visit Möet and Chandon. As the number one champagne producer in the world it is indeed very flashy and we had a great afternoon touring their underground cellars, learning about the champagne making process and sampling champagne. Möet has 34,000 hectares of vineyard in champagne and that only covers 30% of what they need! The rest they get from small producers - at the end of harvest and first fermentation after pressing they have 3000 different wines from different areas and producers. Their aim is to make the brut (which is 80% of all the champagne they produce) taste the same every year so some lucky workers have the lucky job of tasting all 3000 to work out which combination to make in order to achieve that same taste. We also found out that Australia is in the top 10 for countries they export to.

Today after a little more shopping we went to Pommery for another tour and tasting. They're not as big but they do seem to make a bigger range of different types of champagne which made for a more interesting tasting. They make a set of champagne that they only sell in France: four different ones, one for each season which was really nice and a nice idea. Unfortunately they couldn't ship to Australia for us!

We had a lovely final dinner in Reims that was recommended to us as the place where the locals eat. They had a huge wine list and delicious food - the perfect way to finish our time in Reims as well as the steak and chips they seem to sell everywhere in France!