We took our time, driving along country roads, going through several small villages along the way. But what surprised me most was how many sunflower fields we saw. Judging by what we saw, they grow a lot more sunflowers in France than they do in the U.S., for some reason. I guess they use a lot of sunflower oil.
But there are definitely more acres of grapes than sunflowers.
This area around Epernay is the home of some of the best champagne vineyards. You may notice some of the names on the monuments delineating the vineyard boundaries.
August is a little too early to harvest, but the grapes are on the vines.
All Chapagne is made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and to a lesser extent Pinot Meunier. These are one of the latter, because you can start to see them turning, and Chardonnay grapes are a white grape.
We got to Epernay just after 2 p.m., just in time to learn that in France, all restaurants close from about 2 to 5 p.m. After walking around Epernay a little while, looking for a restaurant to serve us, we found a little place that was more bar than restaurant, where we had a good meal.
Then we headed a couple of miles up through the vineyards to our B&B, Manoir de Montflambert, another Chateau, although smaller than the last.
