Our first introduction to classic French cuisine was on our second day in Reims, the centre of the Champagne-Ardenne region. Reims is not one of those jaw-dropping, architecturally inspiring European cities - the region's second city Epernay claims that title, especially with the city's re-developed Avenue de Champagne that is home to buildings displaying names of all the top champagne houses.
But I digress - back to the food!
Our hosts at Cattier Champagne took us to a rather chic, busy restaurant in the heart of Riems. We began with a bottle of of Cattier's Blanc de Blanc, and then I attempted to read the menu. Luckily we had our two local hosts, or else I would have been dusting off the sixth form French and ordering ham and potatoes with hot chocolate. Not exactly your classic French cuisine.
With a bit of translating, we ordered lunch - a rustic chicken dish for me and steak for the other half. But not your ordinary steak, he decided to try steak tartare - raw minced steak. Now I like my steak on the rare side of medium but completely raw was a bit much for me. I had a small taste and have to admit it was tasty but eating cold meat was a bit strange. He seemed to enjoy it though, based on the empty plate at the end of the course!
Perhaps it was the champagne that helped wash it down?
Later in the week, we visited Laurent Perrier, which began as a tour and turned into a six-hour odyssey of champagne and food.
We started off with a private cellar tour with Laurent Perrier's company rep, Frederique, and even though theirs were the third lot of cellars we had been through by this stage, just the sheer amount of bottles waiting patiently for Mother Nature to do her thing didn't fail to amaze me once again.
Frederique was a fantastic tour guide. In between telling us all about the history of Laurent Perrier, we chatted about accents, the trials of drinking champagne all the time (have to say I'm a wee way off thinking that drinking champagne is a trial!) and telling her about life in New Zealand.
After our tour we headed back with Frederique to Laurent Perrier's offices where we were met by Guillaume, our personal sommelier complete with pristine white apron and white gloves. I have to say I felt a tad scruffy in (albeit tidy) jeans sitting in a rather sumptuous room with our very own sommelier serving champagne. For some reason the thought of having an audience with the Queen flashed through my head…With Guillaume's help, we nibbled crackers and sampled Laurent Perrier's Ultra Brut champagne, a non-dosage champagne made up of chardonnay and pinot noir grapes. We also tried their 1999 vintage and their top end champagne - Grand Siècle. The former was divine and latter, in its distinctive long-necked bottle was just superb.
Grand Siècle literally means 'great century' and is known as a prestige cuvee. Made up of a 50:50 blend of chardonnay and pinot noir grapes, the grapes used to make this champagne are the crème de la crème of grapes, being classified as 100 percent. At around 150 euros a bottle, you really want to savour this one - and trust me, we did!
After sampling the Grand Siècle (and luckily being given the remainder of the bottle by the lovely Frederique to take home) we moved on to lunch at a local restaurant run by some locals who reminded me of aunts and uncles. One even took me out the back to show me her flowers that had just come into bloom - getting all botanical was quite testing for my rusty French.
By this stage both of us were floating along on a soft cloud of champagne, and settled down for a leisurely two-and-a-half hour lunch with Frederique.
We started with a mixture of entrees - including French favourites such as foie gras and slices of 'wild animal' game loaf, accompanied of course by more champagne (by this stage I think we were both contemplating emigrating to the Champagne region), and a mini French lesson by Frederique as we attempted to interpret the menu.
The food was fabulous - incredible flavours that went well with the champagne.
Just when I thought, well that was a lovely lunch, the hugest range of cheeses I've ever seen rolled up on the cheese trolley.
We ate cheeses I'd heard of (although these were in the minority by far), cheeses I could barely pronounce, cheeses that looked rather unpleasant but were surprisingly tasty - and some that didn't taste too great either.
By the time we rolled out of the restaurant it was about four o'clock. Frederique chauffeured us back to Laurent Perrier's offices, where we drifted back to the car, quite glad we had 'Carmen', our faithful GPS, hooked up to guide us - and the Grand Siècle - safely home.
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