France Just For You is constantly looking to offer the best experience to our travelers. One element of this includes adding new regions to our tours. To that end, Emilie and I hit the roads in October to visit two areas of France that we will shortly be including in our tours: the Champagne region and Verdun.

Emilie went to university in Reims, the capital of Champagne, and I visited both areas some years ago. But we both felt we needed to update and expand our knowledge of the history, architecture, gastronomy, etc. of these regions. Plus, it is important to us to know all the B&B and boutique hotel owners we work with and to see each room. We also spend time with the guides we work with, visit the places we suggest to our travelers, and eat in the restaurants we recommend.

 

Reims & The Champagne Region

 

The City of Reims

The journey began early Monday morning as we headed across France. Our destination was Reims and the surrounding vineyards for two days of intense prospecting. We visited and slept in several B&Bs and boutique hotels.

We like to give our travelers the experience of staying in charming and quaint old-stone buildings. However, this is a challenge in this region, as much was destroyed during the fighting in the successive world wars. Thus, the old-world atmosphere we find in other parts of France does not exist here. Most importantly though, the warm welcomes we received at the accommodations we stayed in more than made up for the lack of aged stones, and we picked some great places that we are excited to share with our travelers.

 

Hautvillers churche dom perignon

 

Which famous person associated with Champagne is buried here?

Hint: it starts with Dom. - 
© Laura Crotet

 

Champagne Wine Tasting

We also tested some wine guides and brushed up on our Champagne knowledge. From the famous houses that line the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay, to the small family-run winery, we allowed ourselves to indulge in the bubbly and tour the installations. And now we have a nice list of addresses that we can recommend to our travelers that have an interest in champagne. And like, who doesn’t have an interest in champagne, am I right?!

 

Emilie tasting Champagne

 

Emilie hard at work in Champagne - © Laura Crotet

 

We also scouted out some lesser-known and unique sites, some even related to when the whole Champagne area was under the sea! But we will keep these under wraps for our travelers.

 

The Verdun Area - World War I

On Wednesday, we pushed further east to the Verdun region, in the department of the Meuse. This area is the site of some major WWI battles, especially the American sites of the Argonne offensive at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon and the Saint Mihiel Salient south of Verdun, and of course the devastating Battle of Verdun for the French.

 

douaumont ossuary

 

The Ossuaire at Douaumont, near Verdun - ©Emilie Thyebaut

Guided Tour to the World War 1 Sites near Verdun

We had a great guide that took us to the sites and explained how everything happened, bringing this part of history alive for us. We were even lucky enough to meet the current superintendent of the Argonne sites, Bruce Malone. The day was a moving and humbling experience, and it has inspired us to develop a new Memory Tour that will cover the WWI and WWII sites in this area, as well as the North of France and of course Normandy. You will be able to discover this new tour soon on our website.

 

Laura at Romagne Sous Montfaucon

 

Bruce Malone, Laura and our guide at Montfaucon - © Emilie Thyebaut

 Vedun town deserves a visit

The town of Verdun itself is a lively town, with a beautiful cathedral and the people there were so kind and sharing – a nice balance to the heavy historical context of the area.

wine tasting

 

Who knew about wine from the Meuse valley? - © Emilie Thyebaut

Lots of history in Verdun-Meuse-Lorraine region

Because I am a history buff, I was also very excited to see the places where the royal family, a.k.a Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, tried to flee from France in 1791 during the Revolution, but were stopped and bought back to Paris to face their sorry destiny.

Joan of Arc also came from these parts and was fully armored by the town of Vaucouleurs before heading to Chinon to meet her future king.

This stuff is like geeky history Comicon to me! So of course I will soon be writing a blog piece, tracing Joan of Arc from her start in the Lorraine region, to the Loire Valley, and then *spoiler alert* her demise in Rouen.

 

Back to the Loire Valley

On Friday afternoon, we headed back home, pleased with our week of prospecting and very excited to begin planning great trips for our travelers in these two rich and interesting areas.

So check back soon - we will be happy to plan a self-drive itinerary that includes Champagne and Verdun. Contact us to start planning!

France Just For You

Experts in self-drive tours in France

Travelers Reviews

5.0
Dan
An experience OF France, not just a trip TO France. For over 30 years my wife has dreamed of visiting the Loire region of France. Emilie and Laura not only made this a reality, they made it truly a dream trip. The multi-hundred page guidebook not only guided our daily itinerary, it prepared us for what we needed to know for a successful self-guided …
Donna & Jim from Canada
This was our second trip arranged by France Just for You. That says a lot. What says more is we would do another trip with them without any concern. They are pros from the time the trip is planned to the very last minute of the journey. Every detail is provided through the travel book, app and communication, if needed, during the trip. We would …
Kim, Eric & Family
We had a great vacation thanks to you. Your arrangements and attention to detail were unsurpassed. We got to enjoy such a wonderful experience of France because of your little details and suggestions; things we did and saw we would never had been aware of or done if we traveled on our own itinerary or had a canned tour. Thanks so much for all of …
Gabriele
This trip was such an awesome cultural adventure and we can not say enough about Emilie and France Just for You. This service was outstanding, well planned according to our interests and the B&B's were all wonderful. Each B&B was different but all fantastic in their own way. The suggestions Emilie made all worked amazingly well and so did the …
Jackie & Joe
Our trip to Paris, Normandy and the Lore Valley could not have been more enjoyable thanks to all the personalized attention that Emilie gave our requests! She even delivered on the perfect weather we asked for! All of the accommodations were very comfortable and the hosts were so friendly, helpful, and fluent in English. Although I am not usually a …
Debbi
We worked with Emilie to craft a 10 day trip that customized one of the trips on their website and were wonderfully pleased with our whole experience. The b&b hosts and various guided events we participated in all treated us wonderfully and were clear that Emilie had visited & vetted each property (and even rooms!) The personal tour book we …

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