Charlie’s Maiden Voyage

We left Cheadle and our first stop was to stay with Angie’s uncle Pete in Essex for a night. We had a good night our with him and set off to Dover in the morning. We got there early so we had time to have a walk around the white cliffs before we boarded the ferry for the short crossing over to France.

Our first ferry crossing went smoothly and we stayed on a campsite about an hour away from Calais, in a small town called Eperleques. We hit the road the next day to go to the region of Champagne and as we got to this area the scenery became very beautiful. We stayed in a town called Epernay, which is just south of Reims. The campsite was really nice and had a big lake with some swans in it. We walked into the town centre for dinner and also to sample the local champagne.

The next morning we had breakfast by the lake and when we were leaving we asked the guy on reception where we could buy a bottle of local champagne. He told us about a small village close by called Cumieres, which was very quaint, and we managed to find a restaurant bar where the friendly owner sold us a few bottles of his family’s champagne and pointed to the field on the hill where he grew his grapes. At 15 euros a bottle it was much cheaper than what you’d pay in the shops.

Our journey this day was even more beautiful than the last as we passed bright yellow fields which looked stunning against the bright blue of the sky and Charlie. We drove through the champagne vineyard fields and recognised some of the famous brands like Mumm and Verve Clicquot. The drive took much longer than expected because we kept stopping to take photos of the picturesque surroundings. At one point when we were driving through a small village a guy stood by the side of the road signalled to us to slow down. We thought something was wrong but he reached into his pocket and took a photo of Charlie and gave us the thumbs up. Sometimes travelling with Charlie is like travelling with a celebrity.