Getting Oriented

Getting Oriented

Few drinks in the world have such a pull on the imagination as Champagne, yet surprisingly few tourists visit the pretty vineyards south of Reims. Perhaps it's because the Champagne region is a bit of a backwater, halfway between Paris and Luxembourg. The 2007 arrival of the new TGV line serving eastern France and Germany is helping to change all this. Northwest of Laon, the hills of Champagne give way to the plains of Picardy, where only giant cathedrals and giant pyramids of sugar beets in fall break up the skyline.