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Living Le Rêve!



Living the Dream!

Here we are back in Villers Allerand.  We are 10 minutes from Reims, 15 minutes from Epernay. This is where our magical friends, Claude and Laurence, make champagne.  We are happily ensconced in the old house at the Cave (cellar), living the dream.

We are surrounded by champagne vines.  Our morning walks involve a wander through the vines and village, and heading to the local new bakery for our fresh bread and pastries.  We have been eating at Claude and Laurence's (Laurence is the best cook on earth) since we arrived, but they are now in full-on babysitting mode (and Claude of course is attending the vines), so we are on our own for a few days.  We had lunch today in Epernay.  

It's so hard to capture what it's like here in photos, nothing really does it justice, but I'll give it a go. Here are some pics of life here in this glorious place where every moment feels like we're living in a movie...

The view from our living room in the new digs - champagne vines

Walking to dinner after settling in to our new digs - that's vines on the left and right

Pre-dinner drinks - champagne and nibbles

The fabulous Laurence

Flowers from the garden as centrepiece for dinner


The Food
Luncha and dinner at Claude and Laurence's is always a 5 course affair - and sadly, I always forget to take pics of some courses because I'm so busy enjoying it, so you'll have to make do with only three courses...




Local white and green asparagus - the white asparagus stays fully underground, while the green becomes green because it's left in the ground a few days longer and the tips grow up out of the soil into the sun and become green.  These were boiled in salted water and were DIVING.  You can see Laurence's home made mayonnaise....mmmmmmm.

Second course was pork in mustard sauce with mash potato.  NO WORDS.

Salad came next, followed by the cheese plate (with local bread).  No joke, this is the cheese plate at every meal.

I'M DEVASTATED THAT I DIDN'T TAKE A PIC OF LAST NIGHT'S CHOCOLATE MOUSSE.  It was even better than mine.  And mine is totes amazeballs.

Ah...yes I did! Here's the chocolate mousse with Roses enjoying the food gala.



Our morning walk to the boulangerie for bread and pastries for breaky.  So great.



The pastries at the local boulangerie





Breakfast this morning back at our digs...


And just so you know we care about more than good food, we did a cultural excursion yesterday and saw the famous Reims Cathedral where all royalty is crowned in France, then a drive through Epernay to see the Grandes Maisons of champagne

Reims Cathedral















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