Catching the train across to Reims made life easy, the hour and half journey flew by with the four of us falling asleep pretty quickly in the warmth of the sunshine. Picking up a rental car gave us free range of the city and surround areas, so after finding our hotel we headed straight back into the centre of town to find a restaurant for tea. Sitting outside, some of us tried the local delights of escargot (snails!). They are just as bad as I remember, but it could be just the thought of them that makes them circle around and around and around in my mouth.

Next day we drove down to Epernay to check our some vineyards and cellars. It turns out the champagne companies don’t grow their own grapes - they buy them from the surrounding vineyards and mix and treat them to their own specifications. Was all pretty interesting. We went to Champagne Castellane first, which was very old and impressive. This was a tour of the actual working cellar, mixing, bottling, ageing and labeling. There are close to 70km of cellars under the small town of Epernay.

After lunch we picked up some lunch from the supermarket and had a picnic out in the vineyards. Followed by driving through small towns and vineyards in the country side. On the way back we stopped at another cellar - Piper Heisieck. This one was much more geared for the tourist. A little buggy taking us through a pre-defined very cheesy tour of some little tunnel I doubt was ever used as a cellar.

Next day, we had time to hit up the last two touristy things in the area, dwarf mutant trees and a snail farm.

It has been a few years, and because I am to lazy and tight to go home, my Mum has taken the initiative and jumped on a plane to come visit me for a few weeks. I can't help but get the feeling it is a bit of a check up to make sure I am brushing my teeth and eating all my vegetables!

So mum knocked around London with a friend of hers (Gail) and her daughter (Nicola) for a few days doing the local touristy items before the four of them headed over Paris. After a few days I joined them, hoping back on my beloved Eurostar to join them for Moulin Rouge.

Before the show we had a pretty average dinner at a little cafe that we found near the Moulin Rouge. On the whole Moulin Rouge is a little pricey (€90), I guess it is since the movie came out, but it was a lot of fun and includes a bottle of champagne.

It is a bit of a camp classic I guess. But you go in, get seated at cosy table, served your bubble and wait for the show to start. It is a great extravaganza of dancing, singing, comedy and all manner of entertainment. With lots of dancing, fantastic costumes and numerous gorgeous topless girls its hard to take your eyes off the stage for more then a moment or two. The odd intermittent comedy, acrobatic etc acts add to the show - they must give the dancers a breather and a chance to change.

For a one off show, that you really have to do to complete the Paris experience I think it is worth it. Finishing up at about 1:30am we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before heading across to Reims (champagne district) the next day.

With one of Abby’s friends (Nancy) going to Sweden to catch up with her mother, we thought we would take advantage of a bit of local knowledge and use some Ryan Air flights to get away for the weekend. In typical Ryan Air fashion, there was no leg room, but I survived.

We were staying just out of the city in the country side at a little B&B. It was simple, clean and very well priced. By the time we got in it was tea time so we settled into the little cafe for a bite to eat. As we were nearing the end of our meal - the cafe started filling up, next thing we knew a one man band was setting up a stage with a guitar and keyboard. It was sing-a-long night for the country folk, all in Swedish. It was a tad odd, so we made for the side door to take a walk through the nearby farms / forest areas.

Spent most of Saturday walking around the streets of the old town area, along the river and window shopping. It is a quiet, pretty little city. Although it was great to go, I wouldn't rush back - its just a simple nice city very much like Christchurch.

Sunday was a nice sunny day, just perfect for a boat trip down the river with the history being explained, I don’t remember the history so when the photos get uploaded they will have to do the talking.

House Update...
Searches, Survey, Mortgage are all sorted..so I am just waiting to get in. Simply can not wait, I am really excited!

James managed to get the four of us, James, Helen, Abby and myself centre court tickets for Saturday. It was great to wake up to a bright sunny day after the weeks of overcast, rainy weather. Because of the previous bad weather, we were going to get to see both the Womans final between Venus Williams and Marion Bartoli as well as the mens semi final of Roger Federer vs Richard Gasquet on centre court.

Wimbledon really is a great venue, modern, spacious, well set out. This is the last year that the centre court will not have a retractable roof, so it was good to see it before that got placed ontop.

I was pretty amped to see the two matches as Federer and V.Williams are two of the top players in the world at the moment. So we trucked on up about 10:30 to see the mens semi - the first set was very close and a really good game, but Federer still managed to take it out. But with a little momentum he simple rolled over the French kid in straight sets after that. Final score: 7:5, 6:3, 6:4. I was starting to get a little sun burnt at this point, yes sun burn in the UK - it is possible! So we went down for some pimms in the sun and a bite to eat.

The womans final was always geared up to be a one horse race with Venus vs an unknown challenger. Venus really did have Bartolis measure from the go and the final score was 6:4, 6:1