L’Excellence en Champagne : Entre cathédrales de craie et palais de bulles | Trésors du Patrimoine

L’Excellence en Champagne : Entre cathédrales de craie et palais de bulles | Trésors du Patrimoine

We are in the Champagne vineyards. We’re going to get ready to take a short flight,
we’re near Epernay. I’m just doing a quick setup
of the wing to make sure there’s nothing tangled in it for flight. I fly to take pictures. So, when the weather permits,
I try to fly every week. So, it’s a passion. And when you can combine two passions,
photography and flying, I can tell you it’s the best. We’re going to be able to take off. Pascal Bourguignon is an
internationally renowned photographer from Champagne. This November,
he flies over the historic hillsides of Champagne, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. We are flying over
the vineyards on the Marne Valley side. And right in front of me, there,
I have a little patchwork of yellow, red, ochre colors. Plus, this morning we’re lucky
because there’s a little mist. And just the light on the vines,
in fact, on the ochre colors. And so, really,
we have this gold coming out of the ground. There, it really is as if the sun is rising
from the ground to illuminate all these hillsides. It’s really super beautiful. These legendary hillsides stretch along the Marne, a few kilometers from Épernay. I head towards Clos des Aigouas,
just on the edge of the Marne. Clos d’Aigouas is one of the oldest and steepest vineyards in Champagne. So there you have it, it’s pretty unique. In fact, there are very,
very few clos in Champagne. It is a plot that is completely
protected from the weather by small walls. And the particularity is that in fact,
a champagne that comes from Clos must be made exclusively with
the grapes harvested on this plot. And that’s what makes it an exceptional champagne. From the vineyards emerge imposing châteaux, witnesses to the rich history of the champagne houses. There, I arrive at the Château de Bourseau. It almost looks like he’s coming out of the mist. It’s surprising because it’s
actually located on a small hill. There are some vines in front of him.
It’s quite surprising. So, this castle, in fact, was
built in 1843 by the widow Clicot. Back then, you had to impress
prestigious clients, in fact. And so, there you have it, we have to go and
build extraordinary homes. So she built this castle and lived there until the end of her days. It’s really absolutely amazing. We are incredibly lucky. By discovering the paramotor 15 years ago,
Pascal changed his photography practice. For
me, the paramotor for taking aerial photos is really the ideal machine
because I am completely autonomous. Like this morning, I can… I can take off without depending on
someone at sunrise. And that’s what allows us
to have these beautiful lights. And then this feeling of freedom. For taking pictures,
it’s great because you have all the time you need to frame, to look for
a small detail, unusual shapes. Like there, it’s interesting because I
see a tree in the middle of the vines. I love trees,
so I try to work with them. It allows you to give a scale,
to give a dimension to the image. You can see me, if you want. Pascal now approaches
the Château de la Marqueterie. Built in the 18th century,
it is one of the oldest in the vineyard. Since the 1930s,
this stately home has been owned by the Tétinjé family. Pierre-Charles Tétinjé really fell in
love with this beautiful building. So he bought the castle. It is truly typical
of the Champagne estates. We can therefore see all the buildings
which will be used to make champagne, such as the presses. And opposite, the house,
in its little setting, there are some very beautiful trees behind. It is really right in the middle of
the vineyards, at the bottom of the valley. It’s beautiful. Each great Champagne house has
left its mark on the region. By building homes,
each more impressive than the last. The photographer arrives at the Château
de Sarrans, a former hunting lodge transformed
by another big name in the region: the Mouette family.
This castle was built by Victor Mouette in 1846. It is truly beautiful. It has been recently restored. It’s actually a mix of
classic buildings with large glass roofs that give it a modern feel, actually. And so there, nearby,
I fly over the Montaigu lodge. So in fact,
these small dwellings were used and still are used
to store equipment, but also to provide shelter in case
of bad weather, or even to be able to eat or rest. It’s really good,
well integrated into the city. It doesn’t spoil the landscape for me,
it’s very pretty. There, I say to myself, I am flying over
the most highly rated peaks. And so, I must say that here,
in Champagne, we are spoiled. We will meet Pascal Bourguignon
in another region of Champagne, for a grandiose spectacle that
attracts nature photographers from all over the world. A few kilometers from these historic hillsides, the town of Épernay. The Avenue de Champagne, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a showcase for the world’s most prestigious trading houses. Bernard Ducouret, curator in the
inventory department, knows this heritage well, having
recorded it for several years. At the beginning, there was the route
of the Grande Route Royale from Paris to Strasbourg, which was completed in the crossing past Pernets in 1744, 1745. Under the Second Empire,
the production of champagne exploded, the turnover became
colossal and we really had to deal with an upper middle class who wanted to affirm their
success with very spectacular hotels. For less than a kilometer, the avenue is adorned
with breathtaking buildings and gardens. The architectures are varied. A neoclassical style
for the Auban Mouette hotel. Neo-medieval turrets
for Beijing Castle. But the most astonishing symbol of the avenue’s splendor remains the Château Perrier. It was built in 1854 by Charles Perrier, director of the Champagne House, Perrier-Jouet. To impress visitors,
he drew inspiration from the most beautiful Parisian monuments of the time. Much of the architecture is inspired
by what is called the Second Renaissance, in particular. Paris needed tile factories,
with these ringed columns which strongly mark the central avant-corps. The slightly arched windows
on the upper floor, also taken directly from the Louvre. There
are also fun details like the mascaron on the
central forepart, which actually represents a face sticking out its tongue. A little touch of humor. Such ornate buildings. You’re not
used to seeing that at all back then. Owned by the city, the building is
currently undergoing restoration. From agriculture.
Stop. Let’s go, Romain.
A little, Romain. This morning, a delicate operation takes place:
the installation of the main gate. At the helm is
a Champagne ironwork company renowned throughout France. Should we put it on maximum? A big day for Régis Chesneau,
its director. A gate of honor,
as the name suggests, is the only thing you see
on a property, it’s the gate and the gate of honor. So, automatically,
we want to impress the gallery, we want to show,
through this storefront, who we are. And especially on the Avenue de Champagne,
we still have majestic gates and portals of honor. We’ll take it down lower
like that, go ahead, Romain. This unique
Renaissance-inspired piece was removed at the start of the work and fully
restored in the workshop. There has been a lack of maintenance on this
gate for decades. So there was a lot of missing stuff. There are flowers,
there are embossed metal foliage. All of that had gone badly. There were some
who had fallen, etc. So, it’s true that there has already been a
lot of work to reproduce it exactly. But be careful, all this is
done surgically because in a historic monument, we want to
preserve as many original elements as possible. Oh, okay, are you in there? At the top of the scaffolding, an unpleasant
surprise awaits the ironworkers. Well no, because here we are,
and then here we also touch the windows. The part no longer fits
in its original location. There, we are missing about 2 cm
for the pediment to fit between the two pilasters. So there, it doesn’t fit within 2 cm, you know.
Well no, we miss him a little, yeah. These are the hazards of the job. There were maybe a few hours
with delivery trucks and so on. So, anyway,
there is no secret. The pediment must be put back in its place. The two leaves must be
put back in place. And we spend the time we need. Well, that’s what
historical monuments are all about, right? Inside,
the restoration work on the reception rooms is almost complete. Here we enter the great hall,
which is the main room of the castle, the large reception room. It is an entirely gilded salon,
which is inspired mainly by 17th century decor, from the era
of Louis XIV in particular. With these angels in high relief,
the musical instruments which are on the boussure, because it is
a place where music is made. One
detail I would have liked to draw attention to
is the quality of the woodwork in the galleries that have been restored. And above all,
what we call espagnolettes, that is to say these round rods which are
in front of the windows with a hook to close them. All of this is made of bronze, finally,
the espagnolette hook. You see the quality of this work
and the finish, in fact, down to the smallest details. Everything is extremely neat. To decorate his home,
Charles Perrier called upon the best craftsmen of the time. We are then in the
golden age of champagne. The explosion of champagne activity
brought this provincial petty bourgeoisie to the upper middle class which had
international links, and in particular with Paris, which was
quite close to Épernay despite everything. And so, we adopt a Parisian way of life
in Épernay by creating decors that are sumptuous enough to entertain and hold
brilliant receptions. Outside,
after two hours of effort, the ironworkers decided to use
the saw to unblock the situation. Romain, are we sending him? The gate rises. This is the last attempt at posing. And this time, the work
fits perfectly. Hop! A pickup. The baby is delivered. It’s not nine months of gestation,
it’s a little over two years. But… It means that a page is
turning in our workshops. There is not a single one missing. It started again
decades ago. This is the culmination. A little further on, another Champagne house has just been restored. This is the Hotel Galice, built at the end of the 19th century. The building is owned
by the Champagne house of Venoges. The façade is inspired by the 18th
century, with its rocaille motifs on the avant-corps, and
the dragons supporting the balcony, which are
taken directly from the 18th century. And you see that this very
rich, well-composed avant-corps contrasts with a facade which is very, very sober. Inside, the
original decor has been restored. Like this stained glass window from 1921,
with its vine leaves, which recall the house’s links
with the world of Champagne. At the back of the hotel lies another treasure: an English garden, restored to its original state. We arrive at the magnificent garden
which is laid out on the slope which descends towards the Marne valley. I really like this garden because it is
one of the rare gardens to have preserved Pernets, almost in its entirety,
with its decorations which frame the small artificial waterfall with the fake
spring, the small bridge which is made of cement with
the railings imitating wood which was very, very fashionable at the time. And then, the rare tree species
that border this central clearing. And a wonderful set, indeed. What makes the garden beautiful
is that it integrates with the surrounding landscape. So,
the hills that border the Marne Valley, these rolling hills,
full of vineyards and the tower of the Maison Castellane,
which was designed as a water tower. But it was also made into a sign,
an advertising sign with the symbols of the house,
the lion and the brand written in large letters on the four faces of the tower. The water tower did not last long,
but the emblem remained. It is certainly the
most emblematic building in the city. We now leave the Marne to go to the Aube department. Another region of excellence where,
since the Middle Ages, lines of artisans have succeeded one another
to promote the local heritage. Heiress to the great Trojan schools,
Flavie Serrières is a master glassmaker. She is one of the most
renowned of her generation. After starting out abroad, she decided to return to her native region a few years ago. I chose to move back
to Troyes because we are the… AUP is the French department with
the most square meters of old stained glass. We have 9,000 square meters
of old stained glass. This is just a number on a piece of paper,
but you have to imagine that in every little church, in every village,
we really have wonders. And that, I find, is the joy
of everyday life, with all this heritage to protect. The precious heritage of the churches
of Aube bears witness to the fame of the Champagne fairs and the
wealth of the Troyes merchants. A heritage that is still very much alive. There has always been a
three-person glass painting workshop, so we have always been restoring stained glass windows since the 19th century. And then like that,
from master glassmaker to apprentice. We have a transmission that was made
to really take care of the heritage. And then, little by little,
to make people aware that they had an exceptional heritage. The
largest set of stained glass windows from the dawn is located at the Cathedral of
Saints Peter and Paul in Troy. Its construction, which began in the 13th century, lasted more than 400 years. A pure marvel of Gothic art,
the building has 1,700 square meters of stained glass. A
unique example of stained glass art through the ages, with windows dating from the 13th to the 19th century. When you enter the cathedral,
you have this truly extraordinary balance, which I have never
experienced in any other cathedral. It’s very clean and at the same time,
it’s quite bright. So, it’s this contrast
between pure architecture, a rather overwhelming elevation,
and then these stained glass windows like that which come to sparkle and dialogue
with the architecture. Stained glass windows damaged by time are now in great danger. Flavie came to study
this unique collection more closely with a view to an upcoming restoration. We are heading towards the south arm
of the transept, since we are doing a preliminary study of the cathedral’s stained glass windows
for the chief architect. And so, we need to see the stained glass windows from both the inside and the outside. Flavie begins her study on the heights of the cathedral. A gallery around the transept offers a unique view of these immense bays. Like this 19th century rose window, or these stained glass windows from the beginning of the 16th century which announce the Renaissance
with their flamboyant colors. One of the special features of
Troy Cathedral is that it also contains 17th-century stained glass windows. The stained glass windows from the 17th and 11th centuries
are very special, they are rather rare. And we have, for example,
a very beautiful virgin, an Assumption, who is carried by angels. She has a crown of stars,
she has the moon under her feet. You see, we are in
extremely symbolic and very constructed things. Flavie continues her study outside,
on the roofs of the cathedral. For 800 years, rain has trickled down the
surface of these thin, fragile stained-glass windows. They are all in a
rather alarming state of emergency. There has been no
fundamental restoration for decades. The double-glazed windows do not exist,
so here we are really dealing with ancient, very fragile works,
which make the building watertight. It is truly extremely urgent
to intervene to ensure the preservation of ancient works. It’s always a joy to be
like a squirrel in a tree and to be able to see what we do
n’t see every day. We can really see all this
Gothic architecture which unfolds around the choir. There, the Gothic style
is really about the wide opening of the windows, with a kind of lacework
of stones where the glass will come to sparkle and bring its light. Flavie is now taking to the road
to restore a 16th century stained glass window that is unique in the world. South of Aube, it arrives at Hervy-le-Châtel. We are really in a small village which is small today, but which was really a real
stronghold in the 16th century. Hervy has kept a fairly medieval plan,
a circular plan with a surrounding wall and one could
see the landscape from afar, since it is on a promontory. Here, we are really in the heart of the village,
so around the circle. And even the Halle, the place where
the market was actually established, is circular. Among the witnesses of this golden age is
the village church. Undergoing restoration for 20 years,
the monument should soon reopen its doors. The choir has regained all its splendor. For three years, Flavie worked on
the restoration of these stained glass windows. This
morning, she comes to make the final touches to the painting of
Petrarch’s triumphs, the treasure of the collection. A stained glass window inspired by the famous
love poem by the Italian humanist composed in the 14th century. Its theme, surprising in a church, has always
aroused curiosity and wonder. It is truly an extraordinary stained glass window,
as there is only one of it in the world. We have few elements. We only know who the donor was. So it is a woman who orders it
for the death of her husband. Here, we are really in a woman
who takes the initiative of a very original work and in addition
a diverted secular work. A secular theme, like this, taken up
by the Church, is really rare. We
have this freshness of rebuses with love which is blind and deaf,
so it has a crown of flowers over its eyes. The
fame that is truly extraordinarily
beautiful with its clouds. And fame is spread
by word of mouth. So, we really have
little scales with eyes, mouths and ears on her blouse. Chastity has a pitcher of water with
which she extinguishes the fires of love and she has a small green tie to tie up
love once she has crushed it. We are really in a very
rich iconography to illustrate, in fact, the path to salvation. Flavie is also a glass painter. To fill the gap to the right
of Petrarch’s triumphs, she still has to create a contemporary stained-glass window
of her own design. Go ahead. Back in her studio,
she set to work on this immense stained glass window, more than seven meters high. So. His idea: to reinterpret an ancient work
from the 16th century in the form of decorations made entirely of flowers and foliage. Flavie chose to use
traditional glass paint colors. Like silver yellow,
invented in the 14th century, from red ochre and silver salt, and which is revealed when cooked. Or again, the grisaille technique. So, I’m preparing for the grayness. Grisaille is a paint
that has been used to paint on glass since the 5th century. So, it was used throughout
the Middle Ages and up to today. It is a paint that is matte and opaque,
which is made to block light and be seen against the light. That is to say, we put a flat
paint on glass and then we come and scrape it off. We come to scratch with feathers
You see, the feather will tear off a little grayness and create a small network
of parallel, very fine removals, which will allow the light to vibrate. There is always a risk in creation,
because we don’t know exactly what the result will be. There we are on the light table. Afterwards, it will be in an architecture,
with another light. So, there is always a risk
that is quite big and it is always a little scary. We will meet Flavie in Hervy-le-Châtel in 15 days for the installation of her creation. Champagne is a land of gastronomic tradition. At the gates of Reims, you will
find the most prestigious restaurant in the
region: L’Assiette Champenoise. At its head, chef Arnaud L’Allemand. Following his father, he became
the standard-bearer of this rich land. It works, five covers, five emotions. Curie scallops, caviar, lobster,
scallop, barbu, beef ravioli and chicken. Yeah. In 2014, he won his third
star thanks to cuisine that highlights his region. In his hands,
a traditional dish becomes a refined plate in homage to its origins. It’s the welcome dish,
in fact, in the house. This is the beauty of Champagne and we have
extracted all the beauty to the maximum. At the beginning, we have a black casserole dish
containing the bacon, carrots, turnips, and cabbage. It cooks on low heat, like this,
for several hours, to really get maximum
concentration of flavor. Once cooled, we kept
all our ingredients separately. And then we put them back together like that,
to really have a millefeuille of champagne beauty. And we kept the broth we had
in the casserole dish and put it in a small pitcher like this. And in the dining room, we’ll
serve it to you like this. There you go, that’s champagne. It’s not even that it’s important to have
a champagne kiss, it’s that it’s logical. Champagne has
given me everything for 46 years. So it’s up to me to play the champagne card too
and it’s great. Is it important? Yeah. Don’t worry. My parents have owned a restaurant since I was one year old. And we always had our
apartment above the kitchen. And we go with five a day. I heard my father announcing
the maids sending the dishes. The floors are wooden,
all the smells went through the wood. And it was something that I was
already passionate about at that time. So, it’s not even an education,
it’s really a passion, a love of what I’ve experienced since I was little.
It’s good ? Chief. Since then, Arnaud has devoted himself
exclusively to his restaurant Raymois. This is where he works with
exceptional products in sophisticated combinations: caviar and smoked herring,
brill, candied onions and vermouth, green curry and celery. His signature dish is blue lobster and
potato, in homage to his father. There you have it, it’s all about indulgence. That was when Dad was there, they were
open every day, all year round. They only had December 24th,
the evening when they were not working. And so, during the day,
they would prepare a cast iron casserole with two or three pieces of lobster, four or
five potatoes and paprika sauce. And it all cooked together. And when Dad passed away at the age of 50,
in 2002, I wanted to put one of his dishes back on the menu, but not a dish he had
made in the restaurant, a dish that told us a family story. And it is this family story that I
will tell my guests day by day. Several times during the season,
Arnaud renews his menu. At the beginning of autumn, he is
looking for different flavors. He goes to one of his
producers, 25 km from Reims. The colors of the vineyard already stimulate his imagination. There, what I just shared. Where we are right in the middle of it
is the vineyard, the vines. And what I feel in my
everyday landscape, moving around my region and everything,
I want to find it in my kitchen. This is the most important thing. You can’t wake up in the morning and look at
your vines in autumn, then go into your kitchen and make a summer dish.
It’s inconceivable. It’s October,
the first kale we cook in butter, it’s super good.
It’s… Yeah, you have to experience
the product when it’s there. So we’re going to start working
a little bit on the braised lettuce, the beetroot. It’s exciting, right? Are we going to see a bit of Ypané?
Come on. Arnaud L’Allemand has been working for 10 years
with Benoît Deloffre, a specialist in mini-vegetables and a
partner of numerous Michelin-starred chefs. You have to taste this. Well, especially me, celery
is my favorite vegetable. This year, the market gardener took a risk
by growing celery in a very surprising way. It has been in the ground since the end of May. And then summer came, and
despite the heatwave, we left them in the grass, without water. A taste of that, you see. Oh, the smell it has though. It’s a thing…
Look at the texture. Often it’s foamy inside.
There, it is not at all. And in fact, the more the product at the bottom suffers
a little, the more it will be a concentrate of taste, in fact. Celery salt took more than four months
to mature, like normal-sized vegetables. And there we have a result, it’s… I’ve never tasted that yet. We are dealing with an exceptional product
because in a very small portion like that of celery, we can get ten times more
flavor than in large celery balls. I mean, it’s crazy stuff. And we feel that the vegetable has suffered
to get out of the ground. He suffered to get to
where he is today. But from this suffering,
he sought the best of himself and the best of the earth. Dad, are you okay? The Deloffres have been market gardeners
for several generations. They are beautiful, the cabbages. Will you cut us one? With his father, Benoît also grows
classic-sized vegetables according to the rules of the art.
Look at me how handsome he is. It’s yellow inside.
That’s the best of it. You can cut it in half,
cut it in half, you’ll see. Look at this. But that is exceptional because it
is tender and firm at the same time. Even the marrow is good.
It’s great. Ah, that’s great. With a good bit of gold. That, with a scallop. Ah.
You know ? Lightly sliced ​​like that,
at the last moment. In fact,
he and I are looking for the same thing. The idea is to work
to get the best. And it’s super motivating to have someone
like Arnaud who tells us: Look, here, maybe we could have
more texture or maybe more acidity. And how
could we work on it? And in fact, we move forward every time. At the end of the day, Benoît
goes to the heart of his village. Behind a discreet door, he cultivates what is the little vegetable treasure wine. Sheltered from the light,
in this former champagne cellar, endives of rare quality grow
using a traditional technique: in sand. So here I plant my endive roots. We put good sand,
we press the endives well, we press them well against each other. And then, from there, afterwards,
you see, I go like that. So. The sand must have gotten inside
so that we could no longer see the roots. And then I’m going to drown my endives. I drown them.
To water glottis. And from there, it’s over. They will never have
a bit of water again until the end. So. We are the exact opposite of the
endive crops currently being grown. Because in fact, at least
98 percent of our production in France
is pushed into water. The other secret of endives from the
tender family is the growing time. Without water, they
mature in five weeks. Concretely, in endive farming, it takes 19
days, or a little over two weeks. There, those who are two weeks old,
they are over there. You see? And if we had planted them
in water, they would already be at that size. Well, here we are. Mmm, a first of the year. It’s very good. So what does that taste like? It’s very fresh, very sweet. It has a nice length in the mouth
with a nutty taste. Honestly, zero bitterness. No, it’s great.
This is exactly what I wanted. For Michelin-starred chefs,
the fantastic thing is that unless your grandmother
grows it at home, achieving such quality is almost impossible. Meanwhile, in his restaurant,
Arnaud L’Allemand continues his research into new autumn flavors. He leaves, we taste, we taste.
Hi Christophe. Hello Arnaud, how are you? He asked Christophe Plus Unique,
his baker and companion, to invent a bread
with unexpected flavors. It is flavored with algae and plankton. Oh that color, that smell. There, we really have the iodized acidity there. I’m also discovering it because it’s
the first time I’ve seen him cut. We’re doing it tonight. It’s still a heavy responsibility
not to disappoint Arnaud and to be consistent every day. Do you smell seaweed? Yes, you can smell the algae and plankton that
really comes in at the end. Do you know what that’s called? You eat oysters and you take
your bread which is always with the oysters and you put a little of it
in the oyster juice. There you go, you take it a little bit
in the oyster juice. We really have this result. We’re on three-star bread, right?
Breads of excellence. Bread is an integral part
of the quality of a house, an integral part of our service. It’s the first thing you eat when
you sit down at the table, it’s the last thing you taste and everything. And if tomorrow his bread doesn’t deserve three
stars, I’ll also jeopardize my third star. Arnaud wants to test this new
bread with two sauces. One with shellfish, the other
with Noilly Prat, a traditional aperitif. Traditional. I’m hesitating between the two here. It’s not easy, eh? There we have iodine, there we have bitterness, and
in both cases, it works really well. There you go, now we’ll
see with a finished dish. This bread could well accompany
the new recipe that Arnaud has come up with at the market gardener’s:
cabbage and scallops. We’ve been working
like crazy on it for 15 days since the scallop fishing. And now, today,
we’re making one last attempt. This is the last time I taste. And tonight, we’re trying it out
full-size. And my first tester is my wife. Do you taste? She’s not in the business,
she’s not going to analyze, see if the scallop
is crispy, if it’s firm, if it
‘s this, if it’s that and everything. She’ll just say: Oh yeah, it’s
really good, or: Oh no, it doesn’t work. She is delicious. Delicious. As the boys would say,
it’s a killer. The scallop passed the test. Arnaud also has to taste new wines. In a week,
he will visit one of the most renowned champagne houses
for an exceptional tasting. South of Aube, we find Flavie Serrières, a three-person master glassmaker. She has an appointment at the church in Hervy-le-Châtel to install her contemporary stained-glass window, which she has
just completed. What I really like, in fact, in these landscapes are the very gentle mountains, the fairly gentle curves, sometimes
with forest, sometimes with fields. There is an agriculture like that which is
still very, very present and very alive. And then, when you arrive in the small
villages, you have this exceptional heritage, a little hidden in the hollow of the valley. This, I think, is what makes
the Champagne promenade so enjoyable. Before heading to her construction site,
Flavie wants to show us one of the jewels of the beautiful 16th century Champagne. A golden age for the region
where all the arts were at their peak. For her, these visits are often
linked to childhood memories. We arrive at Chaours,
which is a village still in southern Champagne, not far from Ervier. We came there on Sundays to go
mushroom picking or lily of the valley picking in the forest. And then, on the way back,
we would visit the church. And particularly, in fact,
there is an extremely important statue. This is truly the magnificence of the Champagne renaissance in the 16th century. This
famous sculpture is located in a semi-buried crypt
of the church of Chahours. It represents a burial of
Christ, executed by an unknown artist known later to be called
the Master of Chaours. It’s truly a masterwork
that’s a little more than scale one. So everything is a little bigger than us. And when we arrive, we really feel like we’re
disturbing a death scene. I find that there is an intimacy that
emerges from the scene which is truly incredible,
with the play of light, the Virgin with Saint John looking at the dead Christ. The idea was to make
people experience devotion. It was so that they would feel
the full weight of death and sadness. And we see all these saddened faces,
this restraint at the same time. So there is a very
realistic side which was one of the hallmarks of the master of Chat-Ours. And the light will play like this
on this three-dimensional work. And that’s what seems to me to be the real link
with stained glass, since in both cases, it’s a dramatization
of architecture with the link, it’s really light. Flavie now arrives in Hervy-le-Châtel
to complete her mission. For her, this is the end of a
project that has lasted almost three years. With her team, she begins by installing
the last panels of the 16th century stained glass window that she has restored. Are you holding me?
Yes, I want to see that. Okay.
I’m calming my hand. Very focused, the 10-year-olds pass
the glasses one by one across the scaffolding floor. Do I give up? Yes. It’s always a bit stressful to put up
the panels on scaffolding. These are still quite fragile works,
fairly large panels from the 16th century, with very fine glass and
a fairly remarkable layer of paint. So you really have to be very
careful when passing them from floor to floor. We’re refocusing it. Actually, it’s the points that are getting to
him, I think. It’s good.
It’s good ? Are you holding the whole thing? The old lancet is placed. So there is no longer any
danger of it falling. So everything is fine. There, we really restored
readability to the work. It was a work that was already very
dirty, so we had lost the very transparent side. So, when cleaning,
we find the transparencies, the 16th century glass, which is still in very good condition. And then there were
a lot of heist plans. So, a breakage plan
is a plan that was put in place to repair two pieces of glass. So, to avoid this,
we pour a filling resin which we will then touch up. And so, here, this room, for example,
her whole dress was striped with scrap plans. So, the general idea
is really that the viewer at the bottom will be able to reread the work
and be able to enjoy it and delight in its beauty. Flavie must now install the
contemporary glasswork panels she has just completed, next to the triumphs
of Petrarch, the church’s masterpiece. So. It’s good, it’s perfect. There, it is the first time that I see
the abbot who unfolds in his window in his place. And it’s always a little stressful
because you have to make sure the light knows. It lives perfectly with
the lancet on the other side. The silver yellows must be
the right shade, and the grays must filter the light in the same way. So, it’s really
quite a perilous game. Afterwards, you have to look from the bottom. Flavie created several
other dazzling contemporary fairground works for the church , such as this
heavenly manna in grisaille and silver yellow. We have very transparent places
that let the light through where the glass is exposed. And then more opaque places
where we have black circles which really block the light. And so that creates this
vibration like that, shimmering. Given the extraordinary works
in this church, a modest creation was necessary. It is not the ego of an artist,
it is truly a global accompaniment of the Church. Thanks to Flavie’s talent,
after 20 years of work, the residents will finally be able to rediscover
their church and all of its restored masterpieces. I,
like everyone else, had always known the church with props and no floor,
with real earth. So we go from a building that was almost
in ruins to a building that has regained its scale and all its
architectural wonder. In the heart of the vineyard,
chef Arnaud L’Allemand hit the road for a rare moment. He will taste the latest vintage of one
of the most sought-after wines of Champagne: Clos du Ménil, from Maison Croûgue. For the occasion, he brings his son,
Brice, also a cook. Well, you see, the first time I went to Clos du Ménil was in 1998. So, I was 24 years old. Well, you’re going there for the first time,
you’re 21 years old. I love it. And what’s more, it makes me
discover Champagne. He shows me… So, in this case,
it’s a big house. Then, Dad, he always educated us,
my brother and I, in the sense of: We are from Champagne. Champagne is
internationally known. So, you need to know what’s
in a bottle of champagne, how it’s made,
and the people behind it. When you’re a chef in a
wine region, it’s always about looking at the life of the
restaurant I’m in. Where is she? What wine do we make? What could I
do with this wine? Do I make dishes with wine
or do I make dishes that go with wine? Do I do both? There is a whole questioning
of the wine-growing region where we are. Le Clos du Ménil, in the heart of the village,
is one of the most renowned plots of land in the Champagne vineyard. Since the end of the 17th century,
vines have grown on this exceptional vine to produce a wine
coveted by wine lovers around the world. Look there, you have some grapes. You may have a grain
that wasn’t ripe a month ago. This is one of the
oldest parts of Clos du Ménil. Okay. Olivier Krug is the
sixth generation of the famous family. Here we are on a kind of
chalk mound in the middle of the village. And then, we are exposed to the South-East,
so we benefit from the best sun. We are protected from the prevailing winds
by the hill and the village, so there is a microclimate effect. It ticks all the boxes. So here is the original hideout which says
that in the year 1698, the vine was planted and surrounded by walls here. Three centuries later,
the Clos du Ménil vintage is one of the most highly rated in the region. It comes exclusively from this
plot, unlike most champagnes made from blends.
THANKS. This wine was harvested in 2006,
as these precious vintages are aged for at least 14
years before being served. Do you realize, 14 years ago,
we harvested this vine. We isolated the grapes,
we isolated the wines. For me, it is one of the most beautiful
illustrations of my great-great-great-grandfather’s vision. We must remember that he said that we could not make a great champagne every year if we were
not obsessed with the precision of the terroir. And here, we are typically in what we
can call the precision of the terroir, since we have a champagne which is made from a
single grape, the chardonnay, from a single plot and a single year. Any place filled with stories
like that is an emotion. There is something that invades us,
it cannot be explained, it is like that. Just being there,
you hear the bells, you see the vineyard, there is a ray of sunshine.
It’s extraordinary. Already just that. It was in 1843,
in the golden age of champagne, that Joseph Krug created his house with
an innovative idea: to produce only prestigious vintages
according to rigorous criteria. A few years later, his son built a complex in the heart of Reims,
where homes and wine-growing buildings were combined
according to the custom of the time. Even today,
this remarkable wine is still produced here. It was in this house that I grew up,
surrounded by my grandparents and my uncles, aunts and cousins. So, it was a place of family life,
right next to the cellars of the house. In the original saddlery,
Olivier meets Julie Caville, the cellar master, one of the celebrities of Champagne. You It’s better. A former advertising executive, she converted
to oenology in 2002 out of passion. Her extraordinary talent propelled her,
in just a few years, to the top of one of the most demanding houses. They are already very clear.
Small citrus fruits. A little ripe, but… A little honeyed touch. Today,
he discovers wines harvested only a few weeks ago. Bitten into citrus. Here, you see, we are surrounded by these 270 to 280 different wines which are in more than 4,000 small individual oak barrels
to preserve the typicity, the character of each of our plots. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve. We seek to cultivate these differences
precisely to have this very contrasting palette of textures,
colors, flavors. And so, we’re going to taste 15
samples a day, every day for five months. And at the end of these five months of auditioning,
finally, all these musicians from the 2020 harvest. We will finally be able to find the blend,
the final orchestration and give birth to our future vintages. These wines of the year will be blended with
others from previous harvests. They are jealously preserved
two floors below. Here we finally find
a library of 150 wines from 15 different harvest years. We call this the reserve wine library
, which will allow us to enrich and thicken our blends. So, for example, if one year
we had a warm climate, with fairly ample ripe fruit,
we will look in this library for years, for
plots capable of bringing back lively logs, length,
freshness, crystalline quality. So. I end up with about 4,000
tasting notes to recreate our blends each year. After blending,
the bottled wine ages for a minimum of seven years. And that’s when it gets sparkling. Here,
part of the stirring is still done by hand. An operation that allows the
removal of deposits from the wine. It is an extraordinary luxury to be able to
choose excellence at every stage. Because what makes these bottles
prestigious vintages is really a sum of details
at every moment of the process and a sum of all these choices which are not necessarily
the easiest, but which will be able to give birth to these prestigious vintages. Olivier opens the doors
to the house’s treasure trove for us. This is the cellar that we
almost never set foot in, where we find the last,
rarest and oldest bottles of the house. It’s full of history.
This is great. From the war in the 19th century
to more recent vintages. This is of course extremely valuable. It’s very rare. We are not used to having old
champagne, but old champagne is like great wines. They improve with age. So recently,
I had the extraordinary opportunity to taste a bottle from 1915,
one of the last four bottles of a champagne produced by my
great-grandmother, Jeanne Krug. This is an extraordinary moment. There was complete silence. The cork turned and whispered. We knew that wine was alive. We served it, it had an incredible golden color
, concentrated aromas of apricot, freshness,
a little spice, a touch of cumin. And in the mouth, I can’t even
describe how good it was. This champagne, one which, later,
was still completely alive. In Reims, as in Épernay,
the old private mansions of the great merchants are regaining their magnificence. This is the case of the Villa Demoiselle, a
masterpiece of Art Nouveau. Built in 1908 for the director
of the Pommery house, it had been abandoned since the 1970s. The building recently reopened its doors
after four years of colossal work. Bruno Hérau, carpenter and
journeyman, worked for three years on this restoration project
which marked his career. So here we arrive in the
reception hall of the villa. So, it’s very exceptional to have
a hall of this size in a private place. At the time, it didn’t exist. The first time we set foot
in the villa, the windows were bricked up, it was dark,
it was almost like a haunted house. It was scary, the tagged walls,
the woodwork on the floor. For example, here,
only the middle woodwork, the door frame, remained. And on each side, there was nothing left, no more stained glass, no more furniture either. And we had to rework from photos
of existing ones to redesign each console, each detail. And we remanufactured specific tools
that they had used to do that. The new owners of the villa,
the Champagne-Vranquenne family, sent the best local craftsmen to its care. Stenciled and gold leaf wallpaper
, stained glass windows, cordovan leather upholstery. All the decorative elements are restored
identically thanks to period photos. To recreate the atmosphere of those
years, he also visited auction rooms and found
exceptional pieces of furniture, stamped Art Nouveau, such as this
incredible carved wooden fireplace. There, we discover the chimney which was
made for the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris. What is magnificent here
is the detail of the umbels which are the flowers that we see here,
or the accantes which are sculpted there. This is truly a magnificent work. The door, there, which
is arched in plan and elevation at the level of its molding
and sculptures. For a cabinetmaker,
this is something extra. There is another detail in this room,
it is the sliding door which slides simultaneously. And it has the particularity of not having a guide at the top, nor a guide at the bottom. And when you close it, you see,
both parts work, but we’re not going to
guide up or down at all. So. And that’s exceptional
because at the time, the mechanism was located inside the partitions. It is a kind of
ultra-modern pocket door, but it dates from the beginning of the 20th century. A major part of the house,
the solid ash staircase was completely restored by Bruno,
Meilleur Ouvrier de France, and as a team. Above, another exceptional piece. This immense chandelier, ten meters
high, with its opaline globes. So here we arrive
in Madame’s room. So the woodwork that’s on the walls
that’s painted was the original woodwork. So, there were almost none left
in good condition and we remanufactured everything. And so we are here, under the roof. And in a turret,
we were able to hide a small, magnificent bathroom, all in marble,
with the bathtub at the end. It’s truly exceptional. For us, this restoration was a real
adventure. We went from a squat to
investing in a luxury home. Fortunately, we have achievements
like this to be able to continue to practice our professions and
perpetuate our know-how. So, if there is demand,
we can continue to train apprentices and have exceptional workers. Bruno Hérau is currently working
on another major restoration, north of Reims, the Hôtel Mignot. It was built in 1911 for the industrialist
Édouard Mignot and his family. Champagne. Founder of the French counters,
he is one of the pioneers of modern distribution
with his branch concept. He also moved into the
champagne trade and became director of the Heidsick Monopole house. Having made his fortune,
he settled on the brand new Boulevard Lundi and had
a luxurious home built to match his social success. 100 years later, the Mignot Hotel has
returned to its original purpose. Purchased by the owners
of Champagnes Piperite Seek, it is intended to welcome
their prestigious guests. In the main living room,
Bruno Hérau and his team are laying the Versailles parquet flooring. So, the new parts-You see the
squares that form the parquet, that’s it. It fits together like this and that’s what
forms the parquet floor. It’s a puzzle. So. The Versailles parquet floor
is typical of the 18th century. Versailles is Versailles. The Hall of Mirrors
is all about Versailles parquet. It was really for this castle that we
designed this extremely chic parquet floor, where there is a lot of labor. It must be made to order. It’s true that our choice of parquet
And that’s only first choice. There is not a single flaw,
not a single little knot. I hope that we are largely in the same
thread of excellence, since that is what is sought in all
the decorations that are placed here, it is French art. So today, it is up to
us to be up to the task of implementing all this work with
the same high standards and the same quality. Among the original pieces that were able to be
saved and restored was Madame’s old kettle. These painted decorations, in the Louis XVI style,
are inspired by those of the Château de Fontainebleau and Versailles. The restoration project is being led by
a young architect, Florence Lecalet. We arrive in the dining room,
which is a room that still has all its original woodwork, so
we are in the process of restoring it. Here, we are more in the Louis XV style,
a little busy, with shells, something with a lot of interlacing,
with dark wood. We will come to brighten up and modernize with
the furniture which will come with a large marble table which will come to
take up all the space. There we have the opportunity to have
exceptional carpenters. We have wood carvers. We have a little project. We have a concentration of companies
with incredible know-how. And it’s really nice for an architect
to work in this context because you learn a lot of things. How are you, Romain? Outside,
Florence finds the ironworkers from Château Perrier, who have been sent
on another major project. It is a beautiful work. It’s not bad. That still represents four
to five months of work and one person. Their challenge of the day: to install a beautiful
monumental window on the facade, despite the pouring rain. And these are construction site conditions. Unfortunately, we don’t always have
sunshine when we work outside. So, yes,
these are not ideal conditions, but my companions are well equipped
and it will go without a problem. Go on, go on, turn.
Go ahead again. Telescope. Destroyed during the First
World War, the original Bowindo has disappeared. The ironworkers had to manufacture
a completely new part in the workshop, using the available archives. We’ll do that upstairs, sir.
Top. The difficult thing
is that the facade is finished. So, we must not shock it, we
must not damage it. That is to say that here, we really work
to the centimeter with the size of the frame in the scaffolding.
Stop, stop. Go ahead, it’s good then Romain. Go ahead, it’s still spinning. It’s in place there normally,
is that okay Romain? We are always delighted to see a work like this that we designed, put in place and take shape in a building. And really, it changes
the facade and we are delighted. It’s going to be very beautiful. It’s a window shape that we saw
a lot at the beginning of the 20th century, with the whole Art Nouveau period
which magnified nature, where we opened the facades onto the garden. And it’s really going to bring a lot of
breathing room into this beautiful room that will be inside. It’s very gratifying to see that we’re able
to preserve things that were created, that were there when the
building was constructed, and to be able to magnify them so that they come back to life and
become once again the centerpieces of a place already steeped in history, and then
for a new story that continues. Day breaks over Lake Der,
one of the largest artificial lakes in Europe, around a hundred
kilometers from Reims. This November,
an unmissable event takes place every morning for
wildlife photography enthusiasts. We find Pascal Bourguignon there, for
whom this is one of his specialties. We’re going to watch the cranes rise there.
This is excellent. We have a beautiful day, beautiful light. Then we’ll get them right at
sunrise, there, like now. There they are just
above the orange layer. It’s super pretty. Very, very beautiful. It attracts a lot of photographers,
including very well- known international photographers. It is really a very
important spot at the European level. So, it’s a bit of a must-do
when you want to photograph the migration of common cranes. From mid-October to the end of February, up to
300,000 common cranes come to land here. They stop at Lake Der
during their migration between Scandinavia and southern Europe. This is an important step
because the lake is practically empty at that time, so they
have plenty of space to land. We’re not allowed to enter the lake, so they’re actually quiet. And also because there is
a lot for them to eat. There are many
corn fields. So, as soon as the first light
appears, they are in a hurry to go eat. So they take off early in the morning
to go to the other side of the lake to feed, regain their strength
and then continue their journey. This natural soundscape is quite impressive
, in fact. It’s a noise, it’s
really a cacophony. They talk to each other,
in fact, she communicates. This gathering of birds crying
in all directions, I find that it is as loud as the moments of the rut. There are few moments in nature where
it is really very loud, very intense. Look, there’s a beautiful flight over the… There are some clouds that are lit up
because the sun will come out soon and the cranes that are passing just above. Pascal has been coming here for 40 years to photograph this extraordinary spectacle. I still have the same enthusiasm to come and
see these cranes because it is still an incredible spectacle. But I’m looking for other images, actually. When we start animal photography,
we want to see them up close, we try to get a close-up. And then today, I’m trying
to highlight my region a little bit. So you have to find the right place,
obviously the right light. And then, there must be cranes
passing through the image where we wanted them. So, there you go, it’s not that easy. A little later, the sun is already well up. Pascal takes advantage of this beautiful day
to take a flight near Lake Der. This morning it was freezing and I particularly like the colors with the frost. They are faded a bit
like a pastel watercolor. Everything is light. Here we are in humid Champagne. On the vineyard side, we are
in the Créyeuse Champagne region. Here, it is a region where the soil is very
clayey, so it retains a lot of water. So this is what makes up
the landscape in these forests. And then these expanses of water a
little everywhere, to the right, to the left. At the end of the 1960s,
the Lac du Derre was built on former marshes to prevent flooding in
Paris by collecting water from the Marne. The immense reservoir becomes the
largest artificial lake in France. During the summer, the body of water
gradually empties until autumn. It is then practically empty. In fact, we don’t really realize
that we’re on a huge lake because there’s a lot more
land than water, in fact. What’s interesting
is all these shapes. I very rarely
fly over it with so little water and so I can discover areas that I don’t usually see. There, it’s interesting because all
the edges of the islands are white and in fact, it’s algae that
grew in the summer because the water is very hot and so when they are
exposed, they dry out and they all become white. It almost looks like there is a border
of snow around each island. It makes a white border,
it’s quite pretty. And then we arrive above the island
of Chantecoq, with the clouds hanging above, it’s truly magnificent. Shunkock Island, today
it is also called Sheep Island. And there, we understand why. There are lots of little
white spots at the bottom. These are sheep that are
farting peacefully. It acts a bit like a
natural lawnmower, and therefore prevents the middle from closing in and becoming wooded. So it’s good for bird nesting in particular. Below us, we can see a flock
of birds flying there, I think they are cormorants. There is really a very,
very great diversity of birds. And so the lake is
extremely important to them. Here it has truly become
the kingdom of birds. To create the lake, three villages had to be sacrificed. Of these submerged towns, only a few vestiges remain. We arrive at the church of Champobert. It was on a height,
so it remained completely intact. And so, it sits in front of the lake. And there, we can clearly see
in front of the church, in fact, the old foundations of the houses. We see a square there, it was houses. We imagine these peaceful little villages. These are villages where there
were few inhabitants, in fact. A field of roosters, I think there
were about sixty inhabitants. They are really very small villages. And so, when we fly over these landscapes,
we think of the people who lived there, who had their farms. It’s true that it’s quite moving. These villages were characteristic
of humid Champagne. Moving away from the lake,
Pascal sets off to fly over examples of this local architecture. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? These landscapes seduced the photographer
when he settled in the region 40 years ago. We arrive above the village of Outine. I’m very happy because, in fact,
Outine is where I live. And it is part of one of the very,
very beautiful villages of humid Champagne. What we can notice
is that the majority of the houses are half-timbered because here,
obviously, there were no stones. So, in fact, we built houses
with the oak pole structure, the cob fillings
with the earth from the region. Here, the churches were also
built with the same material. The interest of this village is that it is
the largest of the half-timbered churches. It is
quite impressive in size. These churches really have a
special charm. About ten of these half-timbered churches have been preserved. A group of religious buildings unique
in France, built between the 15th and 18th centuries. Fly over the church of Lentilles. So, its particularity is that its
bell tower, in particular, is made of wooden slabs. These are small
wooden slabs that replace the tiles. This is one of the most beautiful
half-timbered churches in the region. So, what you also need to know
is that at the time, in fact, all the mud-brick constructions,
so as not to show that they were a little rustic, were
covered with plaster. And today, we value all of that. So, the plasterwork is removed and the
timber framing is redone when it is too damaged. And really, all of this is highlighted. It is a great wealth. Pascal ends his flight about fifty kilometers away, in Haute-Marne. It is located above the Arcambarois forest massif
, part of the latest national park created in France in 2019: the Champagne and Burgundy Forest Park . It is the only park that concerns
the forest environment. The Arcambarois forest
is one of the largest and oldest forests in France. But what impresses me most
is this expanse of forest. It’s just trees, trees,
trees as far as the eye can see. We are truly spoiled in Champagne because whether
it’s the vineyards or these forest areas, in terms of colors,
it’s truly a fireworks display in the fall. Really, we have a
pretty incredible color palette. It goes from dark green on the fir trees. And then, little touches
of yellow which pigment this large expanse of brown a little. It’s quite surprising when
the sun hits these colors like here. It’s truly pure happiness. Back in the Marne. South of the Montagne de Reims,
the forest opens onto the most prestigious vineyards of Champagne. At the heart of these thousand-year-old vines, a small revolution is taking place. After half a century of abandonment,
the wooden barrel is making a comeback for the production of exceptional vintages. Among the pioneers of this movement was Jérôme Viard, a cooper who loved forests and wine. We are three
weeks away from the harvest. It’s high season
for this passionate craftsman. This is great. We are in full swing,
not to make a pun. It’s a wonderful moment for us because
now we have all the barrels leaving the cooperage. Each barrel goes to different terroirs. We are mobilizing everyone to
meet this demand, which is growing year after year. For several kilometers,
a veritable sea of ​​vines descends gently down to the small
village on the banks of the Marne. It is there, in the presses and cellars of these very ancient cities, that the most famous wine in the world is produced. I have Rome now arrives in Ayy, where wine has been produced since the ninth century. Ayy, it’s a great vintage terroir. It is the cradle of Champagne. Behind these walls,
you have presses, you have winegrowers who are
currently working in the vat room. And there you have Champagne Colet,
for example. A little further away, you have
Dots, Ayala, Bollinger. Jérôme goes to Maison Giraud,
a unique house in Champagne, since here, they only make wine in barrels. This morning, he came to deliver wooden barrels that had been reconditioned to the workshop. Hello, Sebastian. I’ll bring you the barrels,
maintained as we agreed. Maison Giraud is one of the pioneers
of the renaissance of cooperage in Champagne.
They bear witness to this. This is evidenced by this cellar of 1000 barrels, the
fruit of 30 years of labor. A breeding method that requires
regular maintenance, especially before the harvest. It is Sébastien, the cellar master,
who watches over his treasures. I love the smell there. You know, it smells like apricots, mirabelles. But you know,
when it stews in the copper bowls, there, you know,
which were hammered, it smells of grandma’s jam, the heat. The wood has retained the aromas
of the previous harvest. And cleaning them, well,
you bring back these very, very warm aromas of white-fleshed fruit. There we are, in the rhythm there. The barrel is something that requires
a lot of attention, a lot of care, much more than a stainless steel tank,
because with a stainless steel tank, you go in, you give it a quick blast with a
pressure washer and hey presto, it’s finished. But a barrel is not the same. The barrels must be dismantled,
cleaned and reassembled. So all of this is work,
it’s time, it’s energy. I don’t know if you remember, Claude,
these are barrels that we heated together last
time at the cooperage. Well, that was several
years ago now. 40 years ago,
when all the houses had switched to stainless steel vats,
Claude Giraud, the new director of the house,
bet on the traditional oak barrel. They are 5 years old now. All the great Champagne wines
were aged in barrels. Until the 50s and
60s, there was no tank. And then later,
when we look back in history, all the vineyards are linked to a large forest. Great wine, great forest, all of them. All of these barrels, 90 percent, came
from the Argonne forest. And so, it has always puzzled me why
the ancients traveled 80 km to get their fire, when we are
in the middle of a forest. So they started working on
the Argonne, they started looking. It’s a 30-year experience, you know. The next day, Jérôme and Claude go to their favorite place: the Argonne forest. About a hundred kilometers
east of Ailly. This is where the cooper and the winemaker come to look for the most interesting oaks for the
production of their barrels. It is an agricultural and
forestry region where, historically, all the Champagne coopers came
to stock up to make their barrels. There were up to 180 coopers here. It was really the activity of the country. Until the 1960s,
all champagne barrels came from the Argonne forest. If our coopers, historically,
came to look for oaks in Argonne, it was for a reason. And certainly, the reason was, above
all, to have quality oaks and especially oaks that knew how to
accommodate Champagne wine. Because we have fine wines,
elegant wines. And what we are looking for
is above all to privilege these flavors and this subtlety in
our Champagne wines. And by going into these Argonne forests,
we will seek out these nuggets which will allow us to keep all this finesse
and elegance in our wines. This morning, they must locate
the most beautiful tree specimens. A unique operation carried out in partnership
with the National Forestry Office. This is an example of an interesting topic. You see, what we are looking for, in fact,
are these chains which will grow very high, very straight, as straight as possible,
where we will find branches at the highest altitude. And then above all, without pins, without knots,
on this chain, we will at least produce between seven and eight barrels. So,
how many diameters do you think this one is? Oh, he can do 80, 90. Not bad, 85. We can still take
a second measurement, though. 80.
80, 85, let’s say it’s 80. We’re getting to 200 years now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The secret of the quality of these oaks
lies in the soil composed of gauze. A rock that only surfaces in
Argonne and Central Asia. It is a very poor rock, and so
the oaks grow very slowly. That’s what we’re looking for, to
have a development of less than 5 million per year.
It’s a bit like the vine. The oak, it carries its soil
and it must suffer. Geniuses are born in suffering. If it’s too rich,
if it grows too well, it won’t do anything for the wine at all. The soil, exposure, age, and identity card of all the trees used in the cooperage are recorded
to better understand the interactions between wood and wine. Not bad, huh? This is even more
imposing than the first one. We are on something
much more imposing. The trees that bend a little,
but where there are beautiful… Once again, there is a beautiful
quality of wood for the barrels. The oak, like the vine, bears its terroir. And we, when we go to select
oaks to make barrels to age the wine. There must be a meeting. There
has to be osmosis. There has to be a dynamic,
a synergy, something has to happen. The three of us combine our expertise
, based on what each of us knows, to try
to organize this most beautiful meeting. The harvest is approaching. It is time for Jérôme to return
to the cooperage, north of Reims. As soon as they are harvested,
the woods from the Argonne forest must be split as quickly as possible. There are only two weeks left
to build the thirty barrels ordered by Giraud. It is always a wonder
when you see the crack in the tree. And we say to ourselves, this heart has lived 250 years
A tree that saw the battle of Valmy, which certainly saw
the escape of Louis XVI. And so, in these tree logs,
we can find war balls, we can find shell fragments. A whole story that speaks to you. Jérôme saved the
Champagne cooperage from the brink of disappearance. He was able to count on Denis Saint-Aroman. This best worker in France trained
with the last coopers of Champagne. From the start, he believed
in the Contre vents et marées project. Many people
thought we were crazy. They are crazy. The champagne barrel house
has nothing to come. We don’t make champagne in barrels.
Fake. A century ago, all champagne
was made in barrels. There was no tank. A crucial step: heating the barrels is
when all the cooper’s art is expressed. This is where
the tannins in the wood are gradually revealed. The barrels must be constantly
monitored, as everything is decided by the minute. Hi Jerome. Claude comes to attend this operation
which is carried out according to the wishes of the winemaker. You see, we’re
heating your barrels right now. So, what I’m suggesting to you
is, like all the years, we stand above the barrel
to experience these different aromas. Where there, you see, we start, we are still
on the side a little fresh bread dough. We’re still on the dough, yes. I think a few minutes will be enough. When we heat our barrels, initially,
we are mainly focused on these natural wood aromas , that is to say vanilla,
coconut, cloves, linden, spices. All these aromas are
naturally present in the wood. And then, when we
gradually heat our barrels, we will vary the aromas of pine crust
, warm brioche, and pastries. The difficulty: finding the right balance
so that the aromas of the wood do not alter the taste of the wine. The wood must always
be behind the wine. Never in front, especially not, but
not even to the side, he must be behind. So this is the last step that
allows us to find this positioning. So it’s very important because
as the tannins cook, we have a whole
aromatic palette that will develop. And that’s why it warms up on the nose,
because that’s how we know the maturity of the tannins. Cooperage is a profession that is both an art in construction and also
a profession involving many people. We are in the living, we are in the human. Two weeks later,
it is time for the Champagne harvest. And for Jerome, it’s an intense period. He is on the road every day
delivering new barrels to the winegrowers. Well, we’re going to Claude’s,
at the Giraud estate, to deliver the barrels we just finished last night. The Champagne grape harvest is a celebration,
a time of good humor and joy. And we can say that it’s a
special moment for us because we enter a little into the intimacy of the winegrowers,
in the sense that we arrive in their vat room. This is the heart of their work. This is what is very interesting. At the Maison Giraud winery,
activity is in full swing. Pinot noir, meunier, chardonnay,
the freshly picked grapes arrive to be pressed, variety by variety,
before being put into barrels. And here is the little one. Well, folks,
it’s good, we waited for it. The last of our experiment. Sébastien, the cellar master,
ordered a special barrel with a glass bottom to monitor the future
fermentations that will take place inside. So. When you’re singing, that
‘s great. You have to put your nose above it. And there, we already realize the synergy
between the two worlds that meet, while here, it is the first meeting,
in fact, between the two. And already, I feel that there
is enormous potential, and that is just extraordinary, in fact. And then it’s going to stay like that for
15 months, and we’re going to let these two worlds meet like that, and learn
to tame each other. And that is something magical. Well, there you have it, Jerome. See you in 15 months for a tasting?
My pleasure. Awesome. Back to Troyes, at dawn. It is here that the mention of Companion appears for the first
time in the 15th century . Craftsmen who travel from city
to city to work and learn. Here, a young woman continues this tradition. At the Maison des compagnons, Elsa Bertolo, a young stonemason, is hard at work. At 24, she is about to complete
one of the most demanding artisan training courses available,
that of Compagnon du devoir. She only has a few hours left
to complete her masterpiece. So, it’s a piece that you
make to become a companion. So, I’m approaching the end, there,
it’s the final straight, the last cuts of the scissors. Tomorrow is my correction. So, tomorrow I will be
evaluated by my former colleagues , the stone terrors. And it will be decided tomorrow whether I
, in turn, can become a companion. I started this month. I’ve almost
worked on it for 700 hours, so there’s a little piece of me in this rock. So, I really want to show them
what I can do and my project, basically. This is an important moment for me
and I can’t wait to be there. That’s not it. His correction will sanction
seven years of training. Elsa grew up in the Loire. His masterpiece is linked to his childhood. I chose to make a copy of an
existing piece located at the Château de Villandry.
I made a mold of the original. I have a very
special bond with Villandry. My dad has been working for a few
years and I grew up within his walls. And for me, it was really this castle
that made me want to do this job. For me, stone has
become obvious. As a child, I was glued to
this vase which always impressed me. There was something, though. And I thought, ‘Well, you’ll do
this work for your masterpiece.’ And here I am.
So I’m happy. It was a dream of mine
to do this project. And there it is, I can see the end of it
and it’s nice. To achieve this dream,
Elsa added training as a sculptor to that of a stonemason. And tonight, she must at all costs finish
the pièce de résistance: the Ram’s Head. My Aries is the slightly
delicate part of my work, the sculpture. It would be great to be able to present a completely finished head to the elders
. Here, to show them that I
can do it. That’s the goal for tonight. We won’t stop until that point,
it’s not over. It’s midnight. Elsa will spend part
of the night in the workshop to finish before her assessment. Tomorrow will be a long day. At 8:00 a.m., Elsa is first at work at the Château de Vaud, about twenty
kilometers from Troyes. Like all aspiring companions,
she works in a company. Today it begins on the 18th century sculpted pontoon. You’ll have to be careful
with the bottom of the cornice. Antoine Chevalier is one of the six
companions of duty hired by the company.
You mark all the moldings. And then after,
you will come and align the bottom. We have to succeed in breaking the hump there. Since I’m the last one to arrive,
I’m the one who takes care of the younger ones. There, we pass on the pledge
of the master of the trade, what we call master of the trade,
to the youngest each time, so that he always remains on one foot. It’s true that it’s easier
for someone my age to remain accessible to younger people. When you have a partner who is much
older, he already has a distance that is not easy to break. Here, I’ll leave this for you.
Then I will show you. It’s great to work with veterans
because you know you can count on them. We know that they are there to
help us evolve and, of course, always seek excellence in our profession
and push our skills to the highest level. Okay. I’ll try to guide her to the front. Elsa continues her work a little further
along the pediment, accompanied by Laetitia, who is
one of the company’s masons. Together, they are rebuilding
a period wall. They are the only two
women on the construction site. It doesn’t look too bad.
We’re not doing too badly there. It’s true that
there aren’t a lot of female Masons. Fortunately, there is
a little bit, even if… We are still… We always remain quite
discreet, but we exist. I have always loved heritage. And then, one day,
life brought me here. And I don’t regret it at all,
because I’m really passionate. I really love my job. And you, do you bring
something different to the work? I think more rigor and thoroughness.
Yeah. Because I know that
in our team, there are three of us and a lot of the finishing touches are
done by me because I’m more subtle. So, in
particular, I was the one who redid all the joints of the statues,
certain repairs. So. For me, as long as you have the motivation,
you can achieve anything. And if we are passionate about our job,
there is no reason not to do it. And it’s true that the profession
has evolved a lot. We have a lot of lifting equipment,
we get tired much less than before. So, no, it’s… A woman has her place
in the building, there’s no problem. And I invite all women who are afraid
to take the plunge, to go for it, because it’s a great environment and we
really enjoy ourselves. Elsa’s workday is over, but the hardest part remains to be done. In three hours,
the performance of his masterpiece takes place. She has an appointment with
some stonemason companions. The stress is starting to build up a little. I think we don’t really know how it will
go and what the elders will say. We’re a little in the dark,
but I know it’s going to be very fraternal and it’s going to be a very
beautiful moment, I think. I am lucky to have my
sister and mother here tonight. And now, I’m really looking forward to
finding them again and having them there. It is a great support
for me and my family. I’m very glad they’re here. Elsa meets them directly at the workshop. Well done, sweetie. Yeah, that’s it, honey. Gorgeous. All that’s missing are the little flowers. We’re going to rest this one. Yeah, great. It’s an emotional day. We have an extraordinary daughter who
fought and who, for me, is a craftsman. Well, it’s a
rather unusual job. And to achieve this goal seven
years ago, she told us: I want to be a companion, I want to make my masterpiece. And so, when she told us what she
wanted to do, I said to myself: Whoa!
And in fact, there you have it. Here we are.
Here we are. It’s tonight.
Verdict. It’s tonight. So. There is only one hour left
before the fateful moment. Elsa goes to get ready in the
companions’ house where the young people of the Tour de France live. In her room, she adds
the final touch to her outfit. So, in fact, each profession has
a color, it represents its profession. And above, we have symbols
that are specific to the companions. And we have the coat of arms of the
stone cutters above, which is right here. We find the compass,
the squares, the mallet. With this color, we really enter
a big family, a beautiful family. It’s the school of life and we
are very, very proud of it. At the workshop, Elsa is welcomed by seven companions in a very solemn atmosphere. Good morning. Among them, Antoine Chevalier,
his master by trade. Our goal tonight
is to judge her work and then learn more about her
story, what she experienced about work, etc.
How did it go? We want to know everything, a little bit about everything
that led him to where he is today. It is a moment that must remain
between stonemasons. Not that it’s a secret,
but that it’s something that needs to be experienced rather than talked about. For an hour, Elsa presents
her project to the companions. Then the young woman leaves them to
deliberate in secret. A tense wait begins.
Elsa? After about twenty minutes,
she is invited to hear their verdict. What is most striking
is the elegance of the vase. And then
we still have all these sculptural elements with these
little donut heads. This is still
the particularity of his masterpiece. Well, the verdict is that she will be received as a companion
at her reception, which will be organized later. I’m relieved afterward, that’s it,
I’ll have to continue, but… I’m having a great time
and I’m very happy. We are proud to welcome Elsa, of course. She still commits
to a lifetime of companionship. So, it is important for us
to welcome young people and to pass on our knowledge
and to perpetuate the values of the companionship
and the values ​​of the stone cutters. Elsa will bring her masterpiece to the Château
de Villandry in a few weeks. The next day
is her last day in Champagne, where she completes her Tour
de France as a companion. It is important to
discover the regions. And it’s still a
fairly rich heritage in Champagne. There are still many
historical monuments. So yes, we come here to work,
but it’s also… Culturally,
it’s important to enjoy the city we live in and live in,
in fact, for a year. It’s not just about the work, the companions,
it’s also an opening onto society and the world that surrounds
traveling with the companions. Before leaving,
she wants to see one of her most striking restorations,
with Aurélien Wendel, one of the companions present at its correction. We head towards the
Saint-Laurent church in Nogent-sur-Seine. We restored it from floor to ceiling,
we restored the vaults, the walls and the display. This is the first time they will
discover the church of Nogent on stage without scaffolding. It’s surprising to see it without scaffolding. You see, once it’s finished,
it gives it grandeur. It highlights our work. Elsa worked for four months
on this project, led by Aurélien. The opportunity for her to have a
real lesson in architecture. Because the monument presents a
remarkable collection from different eras. Its 15th-century Gothic heart is inserted into a later Renaissance structure
, with its columns topped with sculpted capitals. Were you the one who carved
the parts of the ornaments? Yes, that’s it. I had done the work on the drops and
the boxes, and I redid the renovation. And even the cords of the hearth,
that was all the same? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So here, it’s hard to see,
but on the shelves at the top, at the top of the capitals, there were all
the heart stripes that were damaged. So, we came to make
stone grafts and then re-cut them. It was super interesting to come back and
look for this motif and not see my passing. I’m going to take a little picture. It’s important for a company
to welcome young people who are training on their Tour de France,
on a project like this. This building is special,
so these are things they might see once in their lives. So, this allows us to train them. And then, around them,
well, they will then train young people with everything that we have taught them, you know. Aurélien Wendel entrusted another job
to Elsa to showcase her expertise as a sculptor. The famous foot you restored.
Yes. The foot of the statue. I’m happy, she
doesn’t show up at the restaurant. That you are broken, that you restored. It was completely broken,
so I had to guess it thanks to the other one that’s a little hidden there under
the drapery, try to guess again what it was like and be able to redo it so
that it has a little more allure, anyway. At the top of the church tower,
Elsa takes a last look at the region she is about to leave. This is It’s nice
to come and admire this view here. It’s always a little sad,
a little pang in the heart, because it’s true that we arrive in
cities, we have a few months of discovery where,
well, we try to find our bearings a little. Afterwards, let’s say,
the next three months, we really start to feel at home. And then, well, the last three,
we’re home and we have to leave. And there you have it, we’re just passing through and that’s what
makes our Tour de France, in fact. These are the encounters we can have on the tour and they are only beautiful memories. A few weeks later, in the
Loire Valley, in September. At the Château de Villandry, the famous gardens are still deserted. It’s a crucial day for Elsa. Its basin will be placed
in the center of the building. In the forecourt, there is excitement. Today is
my break from work. We are right in front of the castle’s main courtyard
, so we will position it right in the middle of this courtyard. She will finally take
her place in the castle. But the operation promises to be perilous. I’ve dreamed about this moment a lot, but I
‘m really stressed about it happening. You don’t have to You have to think of everything. The difficulty is crossing the bridge. It is not designed to support
a 13-ton machine. Only the front wheels can engage. Henri Berthelot,
Elsa’s father and manager of the castle, directs operations
alongside his daughter. We are here.
Shall we try? We try. The tension begins to rise. Will the telescopic arm be
long enough to reach the deck? I’m lifting a little there. If the security alarm
goes off, it’s a failure. I don’t want it to sound. We have to move forward,
we can move forward a little, we mustn’t screw up, we’re missing a paddle. Henri Berthelot takes the risk of
moving the machine a little further along the bridge,
under the worried gaze of the castle’s owner. There, we have to put that one, it
has to be there. It’s not really the load we can
put on the bridge, so it’s a bit of a risk we’re taking
today, but it’s the only way we have to put the stone down. I have people here to
support me, and thankfully so, because it’s a bit of a difficult day. You have to hold on until the very end. The machine enters the bridge again. We’ve already crossed the line
from earlier. It’s good ? But as he was about to pull out his arm,
a disturbing noise was heard. Come on. Oh my goodness. He’s the Manitou, he’s the Anitou. Eh
? More fear than harm,
the machine can deploy its arm. The mud that reaches the level
of the stairs is the decisive moment. We can still go up. It’s a cow. We’ll be missing 50 cm.
You see? Go! Go! Go. We won. It’s good. Pose, pose, pose. Lower the rear. It’s good. Pega, get this out of here. I’m very emotional here,
but yes, yes, relieved. We will be able to continue
working more peacefully. All that remains is to place it on its base. Come on, let’s take it easy. Without damaging the base. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening.
Good evening. Good evening.
Good evening. Good evening.
Good evening. In the center of the main courtyard,
the 800-kilo coin is handled with care. Come on, take it easy. Last difficulty: adjusting the part
on the two base fixings. Wait, we’re going to put some… Wait, there’s going to be something. Go on, go down, go down quietly. Come down, come down. Well done. It’s good. Yeah, yeah. Where does it go? That’s it, it’s done. I am very happy. It’s the conclusion of a Tour de France,
the transmission with the elders, all my learning,
everything that my colleagues were able to transmit to me on my tour.
And there you have it, it’s thanks to them. It’s very beautiful. Well done, my big breakfast.
It’s good. Thanks to
Elsa’s grace, the castle has regained its basin, a copy of the original
from the beginning of the 20th century. Inspired by the Renaissance,
it adds a finishing touch to the main courtyard of the Château de Villandry. Around
. With the char, it looks pretty good.
Yeah, I’m happy. The base with the sunlight, it
looks really good. My workshop is just across the street. My daughter will always be by my side,
even if she is far away. My daughter’s cat, I’m here… There are no words. When you see this little
woman, you say it’s fabulous. For
me, it’s a real thank you to the castle for giving me the desire to
do this job. And then, suddenly, to have really been
in the yard in a few years, it’s pretty crazy.

Pascal Bourguignon, un photographe champenois, survole les vignes de la vallée de la Marne.

Amoureux de la France et du patrimoine, ses trésors n’auront plus de secrets pour vous 👉https://bit.ly/4dnI1h1

Arnaud Lallement, chef du seul restaurant 3 étoiles de la région, ouvre les portes de sa cuisine. Elsa Berthelot, une jeune femme tailleur de pierre, perpétue la tradition du compagnonnage. À Épernay, l’Avenue de Champagne, est la vitrine des maisons de négoce les plus prestigieuses au monde.

“Terroirs d’excellence en Champagne”
Un documentaire de la collection Des Racines et des Ailes, écrit et réalisé par Mathilde Deschamps Lotthé et Myriam Elhadad.
© ECLECTIC PRODUCTION
Tout droits réservés – AMP
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