Ch-update

I promised to update you on the hugh bottle of champagne at Chalons en Champagne. So we popped along this weekend.

The bottle

The town was having a week of celebrations and the road past the bottle was blocked. Still we had intended to go to the market first so we worked our way round the closed roads and ended up in the town centre. It was a nice walk, but the veg was poor quality and we bought nothing. We navigated back to the bottle choosing another road to enter the supermarket car park next door.
Or we would have. But there were long traffic queues to get in and it had become a pay car park - unheard of! Although the first 2 hours were free, the traffic queue was so long we found a space in the smaller parks round about. All these were full with people parking on the grass, but we happened on someone coming out so we had the space. The large pay park was, by contrast, more than half empty.

A gun

Bottle cafe

We shopped and then walked to the expo next door. We did not have time for a full visit so we did not pay to go in. The champagne bottle was serving meals, with a pig roast just outside. The "land army"* was out giving tours, and there were exhibits all round. I understand that the ticket includes an evening concert, but like I said we did not have that sort of time (or inclination).

So now we know. Food and drink - of course!
More pictures below:

Tank visits

Pig roast

The bottle advert

* In France there is the "land Army", the "Sea Army", and the "Air Army". This one here was the "mechanised devision" which has a large local presence.