Spontaneous Road Trip to France

We spent a whole 10 days in Amsterdam before deciding that we needed to leave for another trip! 10 days filled with readjusting to our time zone and catching up with our friends over dinners, playdates, jamfests, facials, the Pride parade and home-brewing. During one of our get togethers, Audra was shocked to hear that our next trip was not scheduled until Pete's October break. She said that we had to go somewhere before the school year started and I agreed! All summer long I saw friends posting pictures of their amazing vacations across France and I was longing to go. After all, it had been a whole 9 months since we'd been to France (Gawd, we are obnoxious). We didn't have any plans for the weekend and our house was a disaster with the window project, so we decided to get out of town! 

Looking at a map of France and deciding what was doable for a long weekend, we honed in on the Champagne region, because, Champagne. While the drive home Sunday night was an easy 4.5 hours, the drive there Friday was a journey as we joined the masses of Dutch heading to France to start their summer vacays (the Dutch school year doesn't line up with the US). With 4 stops (diaper change at McDonalds, lunch, gas, giving car sick Maeve some fresh air), we made it to Epernay in 7 hours. 

We came upon lunch time as we drove through Belgium so I asked Pete if he had any beer places on his list to visit. We pulled off the highway South of Brussels in Beersel and went to the 3 Fonteinen cafe, which serves local Belgian food and the namesake beer. 

Happy Daddy

Lucky for Pete, I don't like lambic beers, so he could taste away while I took the keys for the next leg of the trip. 

The cafe was in an adorable little village. When we pulled off the highway, we passed right by a gorgeous castle! If the kids hadn't passed out after lunch, we would have toured it,

Church in front of the cafe

Beersel Castle

Sweet relief to finally have made it to our (last minute booked) AirBnB. Pete went out to pick up pizza with Maeve while Jude played off all his pent-up-in-the-car energy.

After bedtime, needing some fresh air of our own, Pete and I took turns going out to explore town. I wandered through the main town squares to the Avenue of Champagne (it is literally called that), the Rodeo drive of Champagne cellars and home to Moet and Chandon, Perrier Jouet and dozens more I hadn't heard of and couldn't pronounce.

Hotel de Ville

We learned on this trip that Dom Perignon was a monk who spent 27 years creating and perfection Champagne. Good on you! 

The avenue at sunset

Feeling refreshed and excited to explore more in the daytime, I headed home and Pete headed out for a run, snapping this shot of the Champagne de Castellane as seen from the Marne river.