Exploring Historic Troyes, France, Troyes, France

Having packed up the car as best we could for our family road trip, the husband quickly ushered me into the car, panicking that we would miss the Eurotunnel train (we were an hour and a half early)! In the process some of my essential clothing items were forgotten BUT we were on the road and there was no turning back. Our first overnight stay on our trip from London to Bologna (and back) was at the historic French city, Troyes, around 90 miles from Paris.

On previous occasions when we have driven to the French Alps, we have stopped slap-bang in the middle of the champagne region enjoying some time in Reims and Epernay. Champagne is my favourite tipple so normally I’d be all for this stop-off but being pregnant it didn’t appeal. Watching my hubby devour the fizz instead of me didn’t sound like much fun! Instead, we headed further south to Troyes (pronounced ‘tois’) which was just over half-way to our first destination.

The small city of 60,000 inhabitants lies on the outskirts of the famous sparkling wine region close to Burgundy and it is the ancient capital of Champagne. Although it is one hour away from the heartland and has no champagne cellars, there were a number of champagne bars which I looked at longingly. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).