A few years ago I visited the esteemed Moët & Chandon Champagne cellars in Epernay with a wine travel company called Wine Lovers Tours (a great company—check them out at http://www.vintagetours.com)/. Our group of about 20 people was in the middle of a fascinating private tour of the cellars. I was busily taking artsy-fartsy photos of the dusty bottles in the dark and deep vaulted chambers of this 33-mile labyrinth, when I turned around and realized that I was all alone.
I ran to a fro looking and listening or my group. I heard a sound and ran toward it. I came face to face with a cellar rat (the human kind) on a forklift. In my panic I couldn’t think of the right words in French to communicate my plight to the man. He looked amused and on his forklift began to chase me around a large stone pillar. As I tried to avoid being run over, I pleaded in English with the man to help me find my group. He just shrugged and motioned for me to go up a steep flight of stairs that I had not noticed before.
I ran up the stairs and found myself back in the reception area where we had begun our tour. It was only later, after I was reunited with my group and we completed the tour, that I realized what an amazing opportunity I had passed up. I could have stayed “lost” in the Moët & Chandon cellars with all of that wonderful Champagne until someone in the group noticed that I was missing. I doubt that the few bottles I could have consumed would have been missed!
