Stopovers

Hi everyone and welcome to another blog. A few weeks ago I posted the final article from this year's summer trip to Méribel. I hope you all enjoyed it, and appreciate that Méribel isn't only beautiful in the winter, it's also stunning in the summer months as well. Harriet and I left with a smile on our faces, also knowing that we were going to break up the big drive back by having a couple of stopovers along the way. I know that many of you drive to and from the French Alps with an overnight stay. It's always nice sharing these experiences as to where people stop, so this post is about where we chose this time.

One of my favoured areas when stopping on the drive down is Burgundy. It's a decent chunk of the way down from Leamington Spa, and certainly has some interesting towns and villages to stay as well. I've stayed in Beaune many times before, and probably will again. Plus I've also stopped at Nuits-Saint-Georges, and Gevrey-Chambertin. This time I fancied a change so we selected Dijon.

I'm a keen cyclist and listen to several different road racing podcasts throughout the year. The Tour de France bike race had a stage finish in Dijon this year, and both podcasts I follow mentioned how nice a place it was. Over the years I had thought about visiting, but never got round to it. So these podcasts acted like a gentle prod for me to give it a go.

One reason why I had never stopped in Dijon is its distance from the autoroute. To be fair, now I've done it I realise it wasn't too far. Often, when making the big drive through France, every second counts - but we were in less of a rush this time. We arrived in Dijon late afternoon, and left late morning the following day to aim for..... Épernay.

Épernay, located just south of Reims, is in the Marne departement. Reims is much larger and very close to the autoroute, and Épernay (just like Dijon) is several kilometres away from the motorway. It is best known as the champagne capital of the world. Many of the champagne houses are based along the picturesque Avenue de Champagne. There are over a hundred kilometres of caves underneath the town, all storing the champagne bottles.

We arrived late afternoon, sadly not in time to take a tour of these caves. A shame, because it was a roasting hot day, and the cool caves would've been ideal. Having said that, we did pop into the 'Musée du vin de Champagne et d'Archéologie régionale'. Not only was it a very interesting museum, it had lovely air conditioning as well!?!

It was a shame to miss seeing the champagne caves, one of the main attractions, but I'm glad we had this stopover anyway.

There you go with our two stopovers, and Dijon being a new one to us. As much as I love the mountains, it's really nice seeing other parts of France. I've just worked out  that it will be about eight weeks until I drive back for the start of the winter. I'm starting to get bookings coming in for this coming winter. So if you are planning a trip to Méribel or Courchevel, and fancy having a ski lesson or two, please do get in touch. Live With Passion. Martin.