Before I finish the story of our trip to the Christmas markets in 1999, I want to share Mum’s writing news with you.
If you remember from my very first post, I started this blog in 2018 in the hope that helping me to write it every week would encourage Mum to start writing her own stuff again after a very long break. She had so many ideas for novels and short stories, as well as some non-fiction books, and so, to encourage her, I got her to set up a big plan – which I told you about in Post 5 – so that I could help her get herself organised.
As I’m sure you’ve realised by now, however, “my mum” and “organised” are not words that go together very well. In fact, I’m sure herding cats or catching the moon in a fishing net would be a lot easier. And she’s so-o-o-o good at excuses – anything from having whooping cough to needing to scrub the kitchen floor will turn into one of her reasons for not writing.
But finally I decided I wasn’t going to listen to her excuses any more. Earlier this year I found a Zoom workshop on the internet called “Making Money From Your True Stories”, run by a writer called Esther Chilton. It was about how to write letters and short anecdotesand sell them to popular magazines – and, as this was how Mum started her writing career more years ago than she likes to admit to, I persuaded her to enrol.
There were just two lessons and, at the end of the first one, there was homework. Mum had to write a short letter about something that had happened to her in the past – and, to my amazement, she sat down and did it, without making any excuses!
At the start of the second lesson, she had to read it out. The tutor suggested she sent it to the Aren’t Men Daft? page in That’s Life! magazine. Mum took her advice and within a couple of weeks she had an email to say they liked it and it would appear in the April 13th issue – with a cheque to follow.
As I’d hoped, that encouraged her to get out the typescript for her novel When Daffodils Bloom – which has been nearly finished since before she started to help me write this blog.
She read through what she’d already written, rewrote a few bits that she didn’t like, then wrote the last two chapters in just over a week. Then she put it to one side for a couple of weeks, but is going back to it later today (when she’s helped me finish writing this post!) to do the final edit and proofread, before it goes to the printer.
She hopes – but doesn’t promise! – to launch it on August 1st as A Yorkshire Romance For Yorkshire Day and, although she knows some of you have seen them before, she thought you might like another look at the front cover, based on artwork commissioned from Bill Hobson…
…and the trailer she’s had made for it…
And now that I’ve shared Mum’s writing news with you, I’ll go back to the story of our trip to the Christmas Markets in 1999…
Back at the hotel, we had a little rest before getting ready for our evening meal. Then, not long after we’d eaten, we went back to our room and started to pack up, ready for an early start the next day. It was going to be a long journey to get back home, but Mum said we’d be going by a different route across France – and we’d be making a special visit along the way.
As it was getting very near to Christmas, I wondered if we might be going to meet Santa Claus, but Mum said it was ever more special than that. She had me trying to guess, then – when I couldn’t – she told me. We were going to visit the town of Epernay, in the heart of champagne country…
…and – even better – we were going to visit one of its famous champagne cellars.
Although I was only a young bear at that time and had never tasted champagne, Mum said that it was very nice and so I found myself hoping that there’d be some samples, so that I could try it out for myself.
The cellars we were going to visit belonged to the House of Mercier which was established in 1858 by Eugene Mercier. He developed a champagne for all occasions and not just for the very wealthy.
He also took advantage of every opportunity to promote his brand, including serving it in a bar attached to a hot air balloon at the 1900 World Fair, and exhibiting this huge oak barrel (which can hold around 200,000 bottles of champagne) at the 1889 World Fair in Paris…
Before that, however, he’d become famous for having huge tunnels to store his champagne cut through the thick chalk on which Epernay is built. At a depth of 98 ft/30 metres below ground, these were started in 1871 and a few years later measured a total of 11 miles/18 kms.
People were encouraged to visit from the start, but in the early days they had to walk around. Now it’s much easier with a little train to transport visitors around while they learn more about the House of Mercier by listening to an audio track in many different languages.
Me and Mum did this and really enjoyed it, but I must admit that I thought it would have looked better if someone had gone round first and dusted the bottles…
At the end of the train ride, we took the lift back up to reception – where a glass of champagne was waiting for everyone. Mum let me have a little sip out of hers, but, although it tasted nice, the bubbles went up my nose and made me sneeze!
After that it was time to get back on the coach and be on our way back to Yorkshire. We’d had fabulous time and enjoyed every minute. Little did we know that our lives were about to turn upside down again and it would be many months before we could cross the Channel again.
That’s all for now, so take care and stay safe – and look out for some more tales from me soon!
Follow my next blog: 256. MY MUM THE STORY-TELLER – PART ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE
27/04/2023
Wilf the bear-faced blogger 