Champagne and a monoculture extraordinaire

We have just been in France for a quick visit to the Champagne region to buy some of the golden liquor and afterwards for a long weekend of Twinning ending on the French national holiday of Bastille Day. A great time was had with the Twinning, but first photos of the acres of green vines that cover every square inch of the Champagne area landscape.

The vines are to be found in every field without interruption, down people's driveways in rows, in small clumps on unexpectedly tiny triangles of land at the side of the road and even occasionally in growers' gardens. The occasional brown areas that are to be seen do not grow other crops; they are areas of replanting for the future. It is an amazing monoculture, rivalled only perhaps by the rice paddies of China and all contained within the small region of France mostly to the south of Reims. Extraordinary!

We visited the village of Cramant to buy Champagne from producer Eric Isselée - a pleasure discovered several years ago on a more prolonged visit to the region. 

The golden liquor itself comes in several manifestations but we bought the Grand Cru which we will be enjoying on special occasions for some time to come.

This post or something similar was supposed to appear on my blog a few days ago but I seemed unable to upload the photos to my iPad so we are now home with our precious load and with fond memories of France and the Twinning - of which much more later.