Reims cathedral |
Getting there and Ghent
We had booked our airbnb in a small village of Champagne, called ‘Chateau Porcien’. The drive till there takes about 4.5 hours, with the Netherlands part mostly being through motorways, the Belgium part took us through some small towns (and honestly not great roads), while the French part was also through the highways. Though the roads in France were mostly 2 lanes, going up and down and constantly turning. It’s when you drive at places like these that you realise how flat the whole of Netherlands is.
Ghent city centre |
Ghent riverside |
While there, we spent most of our time walking and eating. To eat, we tried all the famous Belgian offerings – Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolates and Belgian chips. The chocolates were definitely my favourites – they are heavenly.
We reached our village quite late that night, and driving on the small roads through fields and unlit villages felt a bit spooky but it also had its own rustic charm to it. On the way, I also had to stop and charge my Tesla. It was the first time I had tried a Tesla supercharger and I was super impressed – a 40 mins break and you are ready to take off. At one point, the Tesla supercharger charged 200kms in only 13 minutes! Hats off to Elon.
We reached our village quite late that night, and driving on the small roads through fields and unlit villages felt a bit spooky but it also had its own rustic charm to it. On the way, I also had to stop and charge my Tesla. It was the first time I had tried a Tesla supercharger and I was super impressed – a 40 mins break and you are ready to take off. At one point, the Tesla supercharger charged 200kms in only 13 minutes! Hats off to Elon.
View of Chateau Porcien |
Running through the fields |
Exploring the Champagne region
During our two days in the area, we visited one vineyard every day. The first was Louis Brochet. The drive there was so cute, through small French villages with brown stone houses, churches and bakeries. The Louis Brochet was a small vineyard, with a gorgeous green garden. And even some tulips there😊. We took a tour where they showed us the process of how champagne is made. And then we sat outside in the garden for a bit. It was so green and turned sunny too, it was perfect. We were also quite surprised to see lot of visitors from Netherlands.
Inside Reims cathedral |
Gargoyles |
The countryside |
The village of Fleury La Rivière was such an old village, it was lovely to drive through it. We were visiting the vineyard of Francis Philipe Arnoult champagne here. The guide gave us quite a detailed tour of the facilities there, and was quite friendly with us.
Francis Philipe vineyard |
Art at the vineyard |
After the visit we drove to Epernay and walked through the city centre. It was cute but our experience wasn’t too great. First, none of the electric chargers in the city were working. Second, most of the restaurants we walked to were closed or served only French food or fully booked out!
We walked a lot and finally found a Turkish place which was nice and we finally were able to eat dinner! After all the searching, we were already tired, and couldn’t explore Epernay much but apparently the Avenue de Champagne in town is quite a nice street to spend time in.
Dinant and back to Amsterdam
The last day we drove through Belgium and decided to stop at the town of Dinant. Driving through Belgium was gorgeous – it was so green, such a fresh shade of green. And there were cherry blossoms all along the road. The roads were smaller though and less maintained but worth the view.
Dinant |
Then we came down and after struggling to park for a while, finally got out and walked along the picture perfect river. There were colourful houses all along. The river was full of boats. The town is also where the founder of the saxophone was from, so there were lot of statues of the saxophone everywhere. And there were lot of Indians everywhere – it was clearly a popular tourist spot though I had never heard of it before.
We had lunch right next to the water at Pizzeria Taormina which was a picturesque location. There was someone playing the music along the river, in multiple languages. And I loved his Italian songs especially. It was quite an idyllic spot. And we wanted to stay longer but couldn’t as we had a long drive back. So we left soon for a rainy drive back to Amsterdam. But I am sure I will be back. To Dinant, as well as Champagne.