Vive la France!!

We are in France!

The flight was uneventful and smooth (pretty much; Karen has a more detailed report on actual turbulence, wind speed, altitude and weather generally - I usually limit my inquiries to, "may I have a vodka?" - the vodka on this flight was smooth, therefore, no events).

We collected our bags and looked for someone to whom we could present our passport. There were no takers, so we went to the Hertz counter.

After getting our keys, we went to the car, upon which Karen noted, "This is not a Mercedes." I replied, "It is a Renault, it's French - they said we had a class of car within this type, but it might be a different make and model." However, she was correct, it was not a Mercedes. On the plus side, it was small, tinny and made a lot of noise on acceleration, all the things you look for in a French car. On the negative side, it was not a Mercedes. We are plugging along in our "Not-a-Mercedes" car, revving up South of any speed limits which are posted above 100 km/hour more. The car is game for anything, with a lot of spirit, and we have only been passed by all wheeled vehicles and half of the people on foot. Next time, we'll stick with German engineering.

Having just left Iceland, we marvelled at the scenery in France as we drove towards the Champagne region. There was grass, trees, a few flowers, and colors other than gray and brown. We felt like Dorothy, freshly arrived from Kansas to colorized Oz.

We made it to our destination and checked in at the l’Hôtel Jean Moët in Epernay, France.

This place is seriously wonderful!!!

It is central, the bed is amazingly comfortable and they pour champagne like water, only more often!!!

For me, however, the topper was the shower.

For a lot of people who travel, it is the bed, the temperature, the room service, the toilets, the location. For me, it is the shower. I will forgive a host of sins if the shower is acceptable, all other problems wash away. Europe takes "shower issues" to a new level, including small wall-mounted heaters (some of which you need to plug coins), bathtubs with a shower head attachment and bathtubs with nothing like a shower head attachment, sometime with only lukewarm water. All these are possible.

This hotel has a shower that does more than suffice, it is just possibly one of the best showers in my life!!!! The temperature is perfect and can get even hotter than perfect if I want. The water pressure is intense, just short of drowning. The main shower head is huge, which sprays a waterfall over you within which you can barely breathe. On top of that, there are multiple side water jets so that you get water from every direction. Had I not been in the champagne-capital of the world, I might not have ever left the shower! I have taken several.