Our previous experience of Champagne was of a drink that is usually served at weddings and that it is the long, thin sweet in a packet of Maynard’s wine gums! Having come to live in the heart of the Champagne region in Reims, how has our view of Champagne changed?

We live in a suburb of the city and can see the neon lights of the commercial centre from our window, yet we are only 3 minutes drive away from our closest vineyards. In fact if I step our into the street, I can see vineyards in the distance. In the other direction our journey into town takes us past some of the most famous Champagne houses in the world, Pommery, Moet et Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Mumm . Sometimes you can even smell the yeasty, sweet, alcoholic  aroma in the air.

Daily life is not often affected by being  so close to the vineyards, only in September when the migrant workers descend on the region to begin the harvest and spare plots of land around the city become temporary caravan sites. All the grapes are picked by hand, so as to keep the precious juice inside the skins until the moment of pressing. The normally empty hillsides and valleys of green vines become speckled with the multi-colours of the shirts and tops of the pickers and the white vans and lorries that are there to take the crop to the presses. At that time it defies belief that every row will be cleared in just 3 weeks. Anyone and everyone goes to help with the harvest, the money is good and tax free, so students, mothers, and professionals can all be found working alongside each other.

Working as  English teachers has brought both my husband and me into contact with several of the Champagne houses. I regularly have a lesson in the Veuve Clicquot headquarters  in the town centre. The lesson takes place in one of the beautifully decorated reception rooms  where honoured guests and rich clients are usually welcomed. From a huge oil painting the widow Clicquot herself keeps an eye on me. Another of my pupils is the packaging manager, so we have interesting conversations about new box designs, the mushroom shaped corks and the distinctive yellow labels.

Living in the Champagne region affects our children too.  Here the collecting of capsules, the little metal lid on top of the cork, is more common than stamp collecting. Shops sell indented trays in mock velour in which to display capsule collections. Champagne houses will bring out  special editions printed with motifs such as “French Presidents” or the “Rugby World Cup”.  Common capsules may change hands at 10 for 1 euro, but lesser known brands may be on sale for 10 euros each at the local brocante! My daughter’s collection reads like an edition of Hachette’s Guide to Champagne, Bollinger, Jacquart, Lanson, Krug, Pommery, Ruinart and Roederer. Then there are the names that only the few who are Champagne buffs would know from some of the 15,000  small producers, Diebolt Vallois, Beaumont des Crayeres, Rene Prevot and Larnaudie Hirault, G.Lagache et Fils, Veuve Forny et Fils, which makes me  wonder if there is an ”et fille” among the producers?  Our daughter will soon need a sixth capsule tray, we are collecting so many.

Do we ever drink Champagne? The answer is, “Very frequently” . It is quite hard to avoid doing so! If we are invited by friends and neighbours for aperitifs, it is not sherry that is offered but Champagne that is served, of course, in a flute and not the wide shallow glass I remember from the Babycham commercials.

Everyone has their favourite small producer and will travel out to visit him to keep their  cellar  stocked up. I went out on a visit to the vineyards with a student and we were told that we could not buy Champagne from one small producer unless we were on his existing customer list. His policy was to reserve his Champagne only for his regular clients! Fortunately my student was a buyer and we were able to purchase a bottle, after the obligatory sampling.

There cannot be many jobs outside of the Champagne industry that require the drinking of Champagne.  But that honour exists from time to time for my boss. He has a student who is a Champagne blender and who wants to learn the English vocabulary of his profession. So it was that on two consecutive afternoons just as I was leaving the office I was hailed  by my boss and invited to join in the tasting session and help with the vocabulary. The next day was our last working day before Christmas and all our teachers were treated to an end of term office party at which Champagne was of course the drink on offer.

At the end of our first six months in Reims we returned to the UK for Christmas. I felt a degree of one-upmanship  when I was able to slip into conversations, “ Last week I drank Champagne three  days in a row!”