After breakfast, we checked out and bid adieu to Épernay. As it’s a fairly long ride to Chablis, we thought that breaking it up would be good. We decided to stop about midway at the Medieval village of Provins.

Provins is said to be one of the most beautiful medieval towns in France, with its architecture and well preserved ramparts that were constructed between the 11th and 13th centuries. Walking along the winding streets among half-timbered buildings makes you feel like you stepped back in time. Of course, nowadays you don’t have to watch where you walk as there aren’t many animals that parade through town.

In the olden days, Provins was a center for international trade fairs. Today, it relies on tourist dollars to keep the coffers filled.

Sadly, we had a rainy day. Not a light drizzle, but intermittent downpours. And though it wasn’t brimming with people, there were still some tourists shuffling down the streets looking miserable – just like us.

We did duck into a nice cafe for a bite of lunch. The food was good and it gave us a chance to dry off a little bit.

We only spent a little over two hours there as we still had a ways to drive to get to Chablis. The town really is quaint and charming, it would have been much nicer on a sunny day, but you can’t win them all. It was definitely a good choice for our midway stop.

Onward to Chablis…