The Big 30 in Paris Day 5: Mumm's the Word
How did we get here already? It feels like just yesterday I was sitting aboard a plane writing about the start of this magical surprise trip to Paris. Well now five days later I’m sitting on an airplane flying back to Los Angeles at the end of what has been a dream week. But before we get to the end, lets talk about our last full day in Paris.
As in previous days, Jenn had a full plan ready to go for the day. Gosh do I love her. We woke up at around 8AM, I went for a run, and Jenn got us ready for the day ahead. Todays plan was to take a train trip to the city of Reims, the home of the famous Champagne maker, Mumms. We left our hotel room close to 10AM and took the subway to the train station.
There we had a decision to make, we could either take a regional train that would make some stops and take two hours to get to Reims at 1PM or take a direct train to Reims that left at 1PM and get in at 1:50 PM. We went with the second option, for multiple reasons. First we had so much trouble trying to get the train ticket machine to work that we missed the regional train, and the direct route was far cheaper.
We got our first class train tickets, walked around the nearby area of Paris and had breakfast at Starbucks in the station. Jenn had their pancakes and I had some granola with a cappuccino. It was a really nice area to just relax as we waited for our train.
The train ride to Reims was uneventful in the best way possible. We had two comfy huge seats that we could only dream about having on a plane. We took in the French country-side as we pulled into Reims. The only part of taking the direct train that worried us was our winery tour started at 2PM. We took this as an opportunity to play in our own little mini version of The Amazing Race and ran for a taxi and made it to Mumms right before our tour was about to start.
The tour at Mumms was incredible, by far the best winery tour we’ve been on. We were able to go down into the cellars and see bottles of champagne that date back pre-1900’s that they still use to make sure the taste of Mumms stays consistent. It was a really interesting tour that ended with of course the best part, champagne tasting. We got to try some Mumms champagne along with a cheeses. I’ve had my fair share of Champagne in my “almost” 30 years and this was out of this world. It was so good I for the first time ever at a winery actually bought a bottle of Champagne to bring back.
The tour plus tasting was a little under two hours and our train didn’t leave until a little after 5PM so we walked around the gorgeous quaint city of Reims and made our way back to the train station to grab our train back to Paris. After another very relaxing and enjoyable train ride back we hopped off the train and made our way back into the heart of Paris.
We had one more item on Jenn’s to-do list before the end of the trip and that was to go to a highly reviewed wine bar called O’ Chateau. Jenn navigated the subway in only the way she knows how and we made our way to the Wine bar. We got there at 6:30 and it was pretty empty so we got a great little table to enjoy some wine and relax as the trip was beginning to wind down. Jenn got an out of this world glass of Bordeaux and I had a nice champagne that paired nicely with a cheese and potato dish we got as an appetizer. I think we both would have liked to spend hours at O’ Chateau but knowing the trip was coming to an end and the exhaustion that only comes from international travel was finally catching up to us. We instead grabbed the check, got an Uber and made our way back to our hotel, not before noting that this is a place we are absolutely going back to when we are back in Paris.
Back at our hotel we dropped off our purchased Mumms champagne and went back out to a nearby café for our last dinner in Paris. It’s a restaurant we enjoyed on our trip to Paris in 2014 and it once again did not disappoint. Jenn however did disappoint by ordering pasta for a third straight time, Spaghetti Carbonara, while I went with a chicken dish that I wish I would have written the name of. But it was a really well marinated chicken with fries and a side salad. It was a very casual dinner and a perfect way to end our last night in Paris.
We made it back to our hotel from dinner a little after 9PM, packed up our stuff, and called it a night. We did manage to get some time to actually relax and watch Netflix (BoJack Horsemen to be exact) and relax before our big flight back home. It was a bittersweet evening. On one-hand it was a great day, but on the other I won’t deny a tear or two being shed thinking of leaving Paris in the morning.
