The little village of Hautvillers can be said to be a place of pilgrimage: it is the town where Dom Perignon lived much of his life and was buried, and is a must-see tourist destination for this reason.
As well as inventing the drink Champagne, Dom Pierre Perignon is credited with making various improvements to its manufacture. Before he investigated the problem, about 2/3rds of the bottles holding the fizzy wine would explode during the fermentation process. I know the problem. My youthful experiments with ginger beer had the same result - it makes a complete mess of the bathroom and wastes all that effort. So he replaced the French glass bottles with Belgian glass to good effect. He also replaced the corks with Spanish cork, another good move.
Since the town is a bit thin on attractions other than Dom Perignon's tomb, they make a thing of their metal house signs. They're not bad; they claim to have (if I remember rightly) 140 of them. Here's a few.
Loving this mini-series.
ReplyDeleteThese signs are also seen a lot in the Alsace wine area, all very attractive and a French speciality.
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