First, I have to apologize for the space between this blog and the last. I'm on international time, so I hope you understand! However, it is a must that I share the experiences that I have gone through this past week. We all got up early Monday morning, and strolled over to our Place Monge metro station. We rode the metro all the way to the Gare de l'Est station and went to the regional train ticket counter to buy tickets to visit one of the most awaited places on this trip, at least for me: Epernay! For those of you who don't know where Epernay is, according to Wikipedia (now that we all can access it once more), is located some 130 km northeast of Paris on the main line of the Eastern railway to Strasbourg. The train was to depart at 10:36 so we did a little bit of shopping in the station since we had time to kill. Before the train departed, GP handed out the tickets and we all boarded into the second class section of the train. I couldn't believe it was second class...in India this would be comparable to first class on the national train. I guess we're living the life! Riding through the countryside was an amazing experience as it seemed almost therapeutic compared to the hustle and bustle of living in Paris. Even in this "winter," the country side was green and calm: good conditions for me to play Sudoku and the rest to nap. As we were rolling into Epernay it seemed to be quite a charming little town. This was confirmed as soon as we exited the train station (Gare d'Epernay) and walked towards a magnificent looking church, which we soon discovered was the Notre Dame of Epernay. Epernay inhabits about 24, 000 people, but had a Decorah feel to it-- cars would stop for you to cross the road. It was a beautiful and sunny Monday which gave us all a chance to really see the town. The plan was to find our hotel, check in, then head out champagne tasting. Oh...excuse me, I forgot to mention a very important fact: Epernay is champagne capital of the world. So I guess you can now see why I was excited about visiting this place! What a combination: charming little town and champagne capital...I think I might have to relocate here now! Anyway, after a couple wrong turns, we finally found our hotel (Hotel St. Pierre) which felt more like a very cozy B&B, with two lovely hosts, Pierre and Bernadette. After checking in, we made our way to the first champagne spot: Archille Princier. Here we watched a video on champagne production that educated us on the various grapes used, how the champagne was produced thereof, and storage management. We then got to go into an 18th century cellar and see how they were stored: some horizontally, and others diagonally. Before exiting the building, we tasted two types of champagnes as part of the tour. A group favorite was the blanc de blanc, which is 100% chardonnay. Feeling better educated on the matter, we set off for another place called the Perrier Jouet on Avenue de Champagne. I kid you not, the street's name is Avenue de Champagne! Here we got 3 tastes, so we had the brut, one that had a mix between chardonnay and pinot noir, and some rosé champagne. Fancy! After deciding to try one more place, it was time to head back to the hotel for a dinner served by the hosts. It was a fabulous meal: avocado with seafood as an entree, shepherd's pie as a plate, a salad with 4 cheeses as an intermezzo, then topped off with chocolate mousse. After dinner, some went off to bed and the rest indulged in some interesting conversation. We talked about life abroad and the contrast and similarities between people and cultures within and outside cultures. What a segue to another important meeting-- going to bed! The next day we woke up to a wonderful breakfast, with breads and warm beverages, and walked over to Notre-Dame d'Epernay to try out the 1869 Cavaille-Coll organ. The instrument had just been restored and was in great shape. We all got half an hour on the organ and so the playing began. The sound in the church was amazing, especially with the French repertoire we were playing. Even though some of the pieces didn't have stops present, registrations were altered, but still sounded fantastic in the space! After this GP, Sarah, Emily, Tyler and I decided to go visit Reims which is a city about half an hour north of Epernay. Sam H, Sam L and John decided to spend more time on the organ, playing their recital pieces and just exploring the instrument more. Reims (pronounced "Rents") is a metropolitan city, with commuters coming in from places such as Epernay, and has an impressive downtown area. However, we went to go see Notre-Dame de Reims, which is a huge cathedral tucked about on the outskirt of the downtown area. As we entered the cathedral, its height was quite overwhelming. As we toured the place the sense of size and art captivated our attention. GP brought our attention to a stained glass window by Marc Chagall similar to the ones that inspired a recital he did last year with trumpet professor R. Tirk (a piece by Petr Eben). After that we dashed off to the St. Remi Basilica, which is where St. Remi is reputed to have baptized thousands of warriors during the 5th century. It soon started getting dark, so we made our way back to Epernay for dinner. Reims was quite the experience, with so much history learned and experienced in such a modern place. Dinner was once again another feast: quiche as the starter; veal as main course, salad and 4 cheeses as an intermezzo, and caramelized apple topped for dessert.
After another night of great rest, we went to St-Pierre et St-Paul, which was the church on the opposite side of town. It has an 1897 Cavaille-Coll but was not restored. Therefore, some of the keys were dead and/or not sounding the appropriate pipes. But, we still played on it and enjoyed the wondrous sounds it produced and projected. I especially enjoyed the Cortege et Litanie by Dupre played by John: its melody was quite soothing and memorable, and in a sense sums up my experience in Epernay. We left Epernay at 2:30 and came to settle back into the Paris apartments. Looking back on the past few days has been a great adventure and a spy-glass into the smaller France we don't know too well. I guess c'est la vie!
--Sam Simataa
--Sam Simataa
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