Cheers for Champagne

After a week in rocky Brittany, my companion, Rosalie, and I were ready for Champagne, anticipating food and lodging commensurate with the birthplace of the wine that’s synonymous with luxury. But we arrived in the hub city of Troyes a day ahead of our reservations, and everything was booked for a huge textile trade show. Which is how we found ourselves sitting down to our first meal in Champagne in a chain hotel coffee shop on a highway outside town. And it was pretty good: salad, omelet, andouillette (tripe sausage, Troyes’ signature dish) and frites, washed down by a local red wine, not Champagne. We fell into our Novotel bed, tired but happy.

Troyes (pronounced trwah) became for us “the other Champagne” in the three days we spent there on our 10-day visit to the region last October. It’s in the part of Champagne least visited by tourists, who gravitate toward Reims for its cathedral and Epernay for its tasting rooms. But Troyes is a gem of a destination and only a 90-minute drive from Paris. It’s an ancient trade and ecclesiastical city dating from Roman times. It has several 13th and 14th century churches with magnificent stained glass windows, and a 16th century old quarter, all untouched by the two World Wars that were fought in this part of France.

With time to kill before our room in the Royal Ho^tel was ready, we set off on a walk through the old town’s winding lanes. A fire in the mid-1500s destroyed thousands of buildings in the medieval town, which was rebuilt in the half-timbered style.

We were still strolling when lunchtime arrived, so we fell into a nameless place that was local to the core, which is to say delicious and unpretentious. Lunch was escargots and a plate of rich meats-- smoked duck, chicken gizzards and foie gras--but no Champagne.

Americans who have raised a glass of bubbly on New Year’s Eve may wonder what’s so special about Champagne. That’s because any other sparkling wine, no matter how fine, is not Champagne. That name is controlled by law to apply only to wine from the Champagne region of France--more specifically from vineyards that lie on a long slope of countryside between two rivers, the Marne and the Seine. To keep it special, the vintners’ governing body, CIVC (Comite Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne) controls the amount produced each year.

After lunch we met up with an Australian friend, James Smith, an internationally known expert on Champagne. (He and I are working on a book about Champagne with another old friend, cartoonist Pat Oliphant.) We made the first stop on our tasting tour at Devaux cellars, in the Aux district south of the city. After sampling a glass--our first in the country--it was time to check into our hotel, the Royal, where we also had reservations for dinner. The Royal is locally admired for its kitchen, and we dined happily on sweetbreads, duck ravioli and foie gras.

Later, unable to sleep, I took a walk around the neighborhood of the hotel, in the center of old Troyes, watching the cafe crowd splitting up and the waiters stacking tables and clacking chairs in the cool late night.

After breakfast we set out with a guide, Jon Bennett, an expatriate Englishman and acquaintance of Jim’s, for a walking tour of the city.

To see Troyes is to see the magnificent stained glass in its old churches spanning the Gothic and Renaissance periods. The prize is the cathedral, with 180 stained-glass windows, some of them from the 13th century.

In a complete turnabout, we left the cathedral and went next door to the Museum of Modern Art and its Impressionist collection, the gift of hosiery magnate Paul Levy. (Troyes is the knitwear capital of France.)

Afterward we treated Jon to a paralyzing, fine lunch at Restaurant Le Bistroquet on the Place Langevin, where foie gras, blood sausage, onion soup and halibut were the day’s specials, accompanied by a Jacquesson Champagne.

Evening found us once more in the dining room of the Royal Ho^tel. Again I had tripe sausage, while Rosalie and Jim had the foie gras ravioli in a marvelous broth. And again I had to have my midnight walk for gastronomic restoration and salvation.

The next day the three of us set off up the spine of Champagne country, heading ultimately for Reims. We meandered on back roads that took us through a gentle wave and trough of glorious vineyard country with villages of stucco and limestone quarried from chalk deposits, one component of the local soil that makes Champagne unique.

Though the 100-mile drive can be done in an afternoon, with a week to spend we drove this way and that, and one day drifted into the next while the meals and bottles consumed punctuated the memorable hours in between.

The grape harvest had been the month before, and the green of the countryside was becoming tinged with yellow, gold and shades of red. Fields were brilliant with marigolds, while dark piles of newly dug sugar beets, a ready cash crop, stood at roadside awaiting collection and processing.

At one village, Avenay-Val d’Or, the houses were distinguished by shuttered windows of a hazy green, peeling from the sun, above window boxes spilling over with red geraniums. We stopped for an espresso and watched the village women shopping for produce at the tiny market of three stalls.

At another hamlet, aptly named Chigny-les-Roses, trellises of climbing roses stood by virtually every house.

We now were in the northern, most productive part of Champagne, where each grower’s production is scrupulously controlled by the CIVC.

We lunched at Les Berceaux in Epernay--lamb shanks, suckling pig and fish, accompanied by two bottles of Champagne J. Robert.

Afterward we drove the short distance to Vinay and the elegant Hostellerie La Briquetterie, where we were booked and would dine after settling in. And a fine dinner it was. After aperitifs of Jacquesson Perfection Rose, we were served escargots on toast, followed by fillets of river fish on a tomato coulis, cheese, and a berry tart with walnut topping, accompanied by a Bollinger Special Cuvee. It was a nice crowd of French and English speakers, and Champagne was the topic of conversation at every table within earshot.

We asked about the “non-vintage” label on the rose, and Jim explained that it’s not a pejorative. “The fun of Champagne,” he said, “is that it’s a creative blend usually involving three kinds of grapes--Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. It just means that wines from different years are mixed to achieve the desired taste of the house.” And there are 250 houses--maisons--buttressed by fact and legend to support each one’s claim to excellence.

After lunch we visited Jacquesson & Fils, run by Jean-Herve Chiquet and his winemaker brother, Laurent Chiquet, in the village of Dizy, near Epernay. The family has lived in the area for four centuries. Wine production slowed during World War II, Jean-Herve told us over samples in the tasting room, but the occupying Germans guarded the cellars, thus respecting a great tradition while preventing thievery.

The next day we lunched at Le Thea^tre in Epernay, enjoying a lentil salad with smoked salmon and chicken magically done with Champagne vinegar over cabbage.

The day after that it was lunch in Epernay’s Le Vigneron, whose walls are covered with antique posters advertising Champagne, a pictorial history of the region’s industry. The walls also carry the work of the chef and owner, Herve Liegent, as famous for his art as for his cuisine and wine list.

The main street into Epernay, Avenue de Champagne, is lined with maisons and caves (tasting rooms). The major houses run tours all day, usually in English or with English-language material. The small admission fee includes a tasting. Many of the other houses can be toured by appointment.

We waited for Reims, and a tour of Maison Taittinger, built above mines that the Romans dug to extract the chalky soil that turned to limestone on being exposed to air.

To descend to these caves by stairway or elevator is a near-surreal experience. The illusion is as if one had entered a vast monochrome nexus of underground cathedrals bereft of stained glass window, icon, altar and font, but with towering vaulted ceilings and archways sanctified by silence and time. The walls are damp, firm, pliable and delicious to the touch, leaving a residue of grayish white on the hand that caresses them.

The cathedral aboveground in the center of Reims was nearly destroyed by German bombs in World War I, but has been beautifully restored. It is revered as the place where the kings of France were crowned, going back to Clovis’ baptism in 496. The restoration was completed just in time for the 1,500th anniversary of Clovis’ reign, in 1996, and features stunning windows by Marc Chagall, their modern lines in brilliantly colored harmony with the vaulted stone arches.

While in Epernay, we visited with Patrice Bruneau of Roederer, known for its Cristal Champagne, so called because it is sold in clear, rather than green, bottles. We asked if he could explain Champagne’s status as the world’s most prestigious drink. “Quite simply, it is magical. Look at a glass of it. It is moving, and its bubbles signify a living being.”

He continued in a less metaphoric vein: “Because where we are now had always been a great trade center of the Romans, so it became a great trade and church center as France evolved. Wine from the region attended the coronation of kings, which attracted visiting royalty from as far away as Russia. Never being cheap, it appealed to the rich and royalty and then descended to lesser social levels. It’s simply the way the world works.”

When our 10-day itinerary was over, we took our leave of Champagne reluctantly. For once, the prospect of a few days in Paris--noisy, crowded, overbooked Paris--was less enthralling. The comfortable elegance of Champagne had spoiled us.

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GUIDEBOOK

A Taste of Champagne

Getting there: Round-trip air fare from L.A. to Paris starts at $1,052 on American, United and Air France, $800 on AOM French Airlines. The Champagne region is a 90-minute drive east of Paris on express highways 1A-4E (to Reims) or E-511 (to Troyes).

Where to stay: Royal Ho^tel, 22 Blvd. Carnot, 10000 Troyes; telephone 011-33-325-73-1999, fax 011-33-325-73-47-85, Internet https://www.royal-hotel-troyes.com. Doubles $62-$76, dinner $20-$40 per person without wine.

Hostellerie La Briquetterie, 4 Route de Sezanne, 51530 Vinay; tel. 011-33-326-59-9999, fax 011-33-326-59-9210. Doubles about $147.

Where to eat: Le Bistroquet, Place Langevin, Troyes, local tel. 325-73-6565. Dinner $17-$26.

Brasserie Le Thea^tre, 35 Rue Jules Lebocey, Troyes; tel. 325-73-1847. Dinner $11-$25.

In Epernay: Le Vigneron, on the main place, tel. 326-52-8800, dinner $20-$44; and Les Berceaux, 13 Rue des Berceaux, tel. 326-55-2884, dinner $25-$56.

Where to sip: Taittinger, 9 Place St.-Nicaise, Reims; tel. 011-33-326-85-8433, Internet https://www.taittinger.fr.

Moet et Chandon, 18 Ave. de Champagne, Epernay; tel. 011-33-326-51-2020, Internet https://www.moet.com.

Castellane, 57 Rue de Verdun, Epernay; tel. 011-33-326-51-1911, Internet https://www.castellane.com.

For more information: Epernay Tourism Office, 7 Ave. de Champagne; tel. 011-33-326-53-3300, fax 011-33-326-51-9522.

Troyes Tourism, 16 Blvd. Carnot; tel. 011-33-325-82-6270, fax 011-33-325-73-0681.

Reims Tourism, 12 Blvd. General Leclerc, tel. 011-33-326-77-4525, fax 011-33-326-77-4527.

French Government Tourist Office, 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Beverly Hills, CA 90212; tel. (310) 271-6665, fax (310) 276-2835, Internet https://www.francetourism.com.