Lovely bubbly in the Champagne region of France

CHAMPAGNE. The word needs little explanation to any adult and is almost guaranteed to conjure up a memory or two.

Since my early 20s I have opened a bottle of Champagne at most major events in my life (not to mention many minor ones). There was the bottle we passed around outside the Registry Office on my wedding day, the toast to my mother in law at her wake, the picnic beside a lake in Roscommon earlier this summer, and of course the bottle of Bollinger I opened a half-hour after the birth of my son — I even rubbed a little on his lips so that his second taste in this life after mother’s milk would be Champagne.

The Champagne Ardenne region of France is probably the most accessible of the world’s major wine regions given its proximity to Paris (45 minutes by TGV train). Similarly if you arrive in Cherbourg or Calais by early morning ferry you can be in the region in time for a late lunch.