An Overnight Stop In France

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest post from the blogging Méribel ski instructor. This post is long overdue, and has been promised a couple of times, so apologies for the delay! As regular readers will know, I'll often report on where I stay overnight whilst driving to and from Méribel in the middle of France. I realise this has nothing to do with skiing or the mountains whatsoever, but I also know that many of your drive to and from resort and may have an interest in where others stay. At the end of this ski season at the end of April, I decided to have an overnight somewhere new to me. So where did I choose?

The answer is in a (small) city called Châlons-En-Champagne in the Grand Est region of France. It's situated north of Dijon and south of Reims if that helps you visualise it's location. The closest city in fact is the well known Troyes, more on this later. Why did I choose Châlons-En-Champagne? It was positioned in a convenient spot to break up the big drive, and I'd seen the road signs for it countless times and had never visited.

Châlons-En-Champagne is the capital of the Marne department, even though it is only a quarter of the size of nearby Troyes, so packs a punch in that way. After doing a little bit of digging before I left Méribel to see if it would be of any interest, I decided to take a punt and give it a go. In simple terms, all I needed was a bed in a respectable hotel to help my recovery before the next day of driving, and if the chosen hotel in a town or city is interesting then that's a bonus. So what was it like?

Well, just like many other towns and cities found across France!  There's a Town Hall over looking a square, a big gothic church or two, several nice medieval buildings, some yummy looking boulangeries, and market stalls popping up all over the place. I arrived early evening, had a beer on the square in the sunshine, and relaxed after the long drive and contemplated about the forthcoming summer. All rather nice.

So would I recommend Châlons-En-Champagne to others? For an overnighter it's nice, and if you struggle to get booked elsewhere then yes why not. Would I return again myself? Probably not. Especially because it is in the same area as Troyes, which is one of my new favourites. I've stayed in Troyes a couple of times in the last 15 months, and really like it there. Here's a link to a blog post I wrote about Troyes last year. But I hope I'm not sounding negative about Châlons. I've stayed in many many villages, towns and cities in France during the journey through France, and although I wouldn't return for a second time to many of them, I still enjoyed taking the plunge in going somewhere new..

So there you go, another 'overnighter' blog post for you, I hope you found it interesting? I'll be heading back to France soon and haven't yet booked a hotel, I'd better get cracking, because leaving it last minute often ends in tears. I hope you are all having a fabulous summer, and surviving any nasty heatwaves!?! Do come back soon, you never know, I might be reporting from Méribel again. As ever, let's all Live With Passion. Martin.