Last days in France

On Friday we had a lazy morning. After lunch Don went to the super marche in Epernay for a couple of things then stopped over in the hillside village of Hautvillers on the way back. This village, like the one were we are staying is a Village Fleurie, meaning it has been beautified with lots of flower beds, trees etc. I nearly forgot to say that we managed to catch the traveling Boulanger today , just in time for fresh bread for lunch. The day was clear and by afternoon almost hot. Don explored Hautvillers, where the GPS had got us lost on a couple of occasions. There are a number of Champagne houses there and he dropped into Tattingers but without money, could not even sample the wares! He then went for a walk to the Abbaye, famous for a certain Dom Perignon, who is supposed to have discovered the "Method Champagnoise". Back at the cottage we packed as much as we could for an early start on the morrow. We had been invited by the cottage owners, a delightful couple, Delphine and Cedric, to sample some Champagne before dinner. We had a great time - they started with a dash of homemade blueberry liqueur before adding the champagne - delicious! I am afraid it put the Rose Champagne we had brought in the shade. They also introduced us to a delicacy from Reims, "Biscuits Rose de Reims". We so enjoyed their company and son Estaban and their French bulldog too. We have been so lucky to meet friendly and interesting people at our various stopovers. We had been concerned that our luggage would be overweight, so asked Delphine for the loan of some bathroom scales. They had none, but volunteered to borrow some from a friend. Sure enough in the morning some were available. They revealed that we needed to discard some of our stuff. Some foodstuffs and would you believe a casserole which we bought in France, and even our Lonely Planet were left behind. Saying goodbye in the morning we were presented with a package of the Reims biscuits. We got away right on time for once at 8 30. After a nice drive though undulating country with vineyards and lush fields of cereal crops we eventually joined the Autoroute to Paris, a total distance of about 150 kms. Traffic was quite heavy, for it was day one of another long weekend, but not many trucks were around. The GPS brought us to an older suburb of Paris. Don had discovered a place selling parts for DS Citroens and had to check it out. He managed to buy everything that he dared buy, given the weight restrictions we had. We had trouble setting up the GPS for our hotel at CDG airport as it could not recognize the address. So we set it for a spot on the airport peripherique road, hoping that there would be good signage. There wasn't. It took an hour before we got to the Novotel, which itself was poorly marked. We got the impression that they were trying to keep it a secret! Anyway, our room is good and we had an excellent dinner in their restaurant. We took a trip on the driverless airport shuttle train to the terminal, one of about a dozen, where our flight would be leaving from. Tomorrow our Malaysia Airline flight leaves at mid-day. We aim to be on it.