We sleep soundly and are woken only by the first of the workmen's trucks arriving at 08:00. Ali pulls down a blind and discovers all of Champagne has been stolen in the night, but gradually over breakfast the mist lifts and we start to see the scenery that was there when darkness fell last night.

It's clear and sunny when we leave at 11:00 but the temperature is an autumnal 14C.

Today we are going to follow part of the Champagne Route Touristique, mostly on the D26 towards Reims. This picturesque drive meanders through the vineyards, and villages where the growers, makers and sellers ply their craft. All about there are tasting houses and cellars and all of the villages have 'ville-fleuries' signs, confirmed by fabulous displays of flowers. If it was June they'd be fabulous but unbelievable in October.

Acres and acres of vines paint stripes across the rolling land, all starting to turn brown, their work done for this year. In places there are large piles of what looks like fine compost, but is in fact the remnants of pulped skins and vines. We noted this back at the passion where generous amounts of this mulch were on the flower beds.

We leave the D26 and head a few miles towards Gueux on the main road away from Reims. On a long, straight section of road sits an historic temple of motorsport, the pits and grandstand of the old Riems Grand Prix road circuit, last used in 1966. The recently formed Amis de Circuit du Gueux [friends of the circuit] are working to preserve this monument which had become dilapidated over the years. They have cleared the junk and undergrowth and whitewashed the entire pit lane complex. Period advertising is being repainted and there is a simple memorial for the drivers who raced and died here between 1927 and 1966. The small concrete boxes used to service the cars then are a far cry from the engineering surgeries we saw at Monza a few weeks ago.

We pull out of the pits in front of the great grandstand in the direction of tonight's passion at Jaulzy, a farm and farm shop. Although the shop-stall is right on the roadside, the passion parking is way around the back in a field bordering onto the River Aisne. We open up in the sunshine and watch a couple of large barges cruise down the river, one with a car on its deck. Ali goes to the stall and buys some veg and cidre.

Beautiful, peaceful setting and beautiful pink sunset again, how luck are we for this time of year.