I wrote a book actually named "A book of champagne" four years ago, and I always wanted to visit a producing district of champagne once at least.

From North station of Paris, it took about an hour to get to Epernay, the central town of Champagne region.

I was excited looking at the vineyards stretching as far as the eye could see from a train window, but once I actually got down from the train, I found that there was nothing around, and though being called the central town, it was such a small rural town that would allow you to walk round only within 10 minutes or so. Yet, this town is said to have the highest amount of income per person in France. And needless to say, what is making that fortune is nothing but champagne.

There is a street simply called Champagne Main Street within few minutes' walk of the station. The street was lined on both sides with such famous champagne manufacturers as Moet et Chandon and Pol Roger. Most of those were open to the public for touring. So, I decided to visit the Moet et Chandon, one of the most well-known brands.

It is not particularly necessary to make a reservation in advance, and a convenient tour starts when a reasonable number of people are gathered. Because I visited there during the off- season in November, there were only five people on the tour.

Our guide was an elegant tall woman with blonde hair having good posture and dressed smartly in a suit, and she appeared surely like a rich madam. She gave an account of varieties of grapes as well as brewing process one after another while walking through a champagne cave, but what impressed me was the length of the cave.

I heard that it extended as long as 30 kilometers all through the lower ground floor three. And such impressive cave is full of champagne bottles lining in a raw waiting to mature.

I would omit a detailed explanation, but since champagne goes under the secondary fermentation inside the bottle, every bottle of champagne is to be kept at least one year or 3-10 years if it is a vintage product to age before being shipped. Temperature and humidity are the extremely important factors in order to preserve the bottles of champagne, but if you try to maintain them in a man-made warehouse, it would cost awfully lot for land, facilities, and electricity. However, this region has a few hundreds meters of special chalky stratum, and the cave, which has been made by boring into such stratum, maintains its temperature at an average of 10 degrees Centrigrade throughout the year also with moderate humidity. So it certainly is the perfect nature for champagne to mature.

The reason why champagne was born in this district has been considered to be due to the development of a thick bottle and cork that withstands pressure and also to the fact that the famous blind monk, Dom Perignon, invented the idea to blend grapes. But I believe that the prosperity of this district is entirely due to the thick stratum that makes a natural refrigerator. What is supporting the fortune of Epernay is not the gorgeous stone-built building on the ground but the cave tunnel extending like a stitch under the ground.

Now, the madam was talking incredibly fast (Because it was cold in the cave and the visitors were all foreigners who hardly looked to be superior customers, she seemed to be talking with indifference), and going on and on at a quick pace. It was transparency obvious that she just wanted to get over with this and go home.

I stopped for a moment to take a picture, but then when I turned around, they were no longer there. What? They left me.

But at that moment, I could still hear their voice, and so I thought I went toward that direction. Besides, I was expecting them to wait for me for a while once they realize that they were missing one. There were only five of us on the tour. They would notice right away that I was lost.

So, I was convinced that I would easily be able to catch up with them, but though I turned the corner and went up the stairs, they were still nowhere to be found. I suppose each tunnel was about 50 meters long. And there were lots of such tunnels extending to both sides, and what is worse, as there were nothing but bottles of champagne all over the tunnels, I could not tell one tunnel from the other. I found another stairs that would lead me either to the upper floor or to the lower. It certainly was a maze.

After a while, I felt a bit anxious if I was in trouble. I then tried giving a loud cry, but it was only my voice that was echoing and I had no response. There could be at least one person working somewhere around, but there was absolutely nobody.

This is a joke. Have I gone missing in such place like this?

Then after about 10 minutes from then, a man finally appeared and he was greatly astonished at finding me. Well, of course. It is not usual to see an Asian woman wondering around by herself.

Though he spoke only French, I somehow managed to make myself understood (If not a member of the tour, who else would be wondering around in such place like this), and I had him taking me to the exit. But it was by an electrical car. I assume that this would explain how spacious the inside really was.

When I finally saw a familiar exit sign after driving for a while, I was relieved from the bottom of my heart. Then I was taken to the living room of a favorite residence of Moet et Chandon where even Napoleon is said to have been visited. There I found the group of my tour having a pleasant chat comfortably as drinking champagne.

I expected the guide, Madam, to be turning pale at having lost me, but she actually was drinking champagne smilingly with other members. "Oh hell, what would you be doing if I did not manage to come back!" I was tempted to say something like this in a rough tone, but my language skill was not good enough for that.

So instead, I just said "Because it is so spacious and structured like a maze, there must be at least one person who would get lost each month."

But she coldly replied "No, you are the first one."

Then as I showed a bit of blame by saying "Oh my god, I thought I was going to be lost forever," this madam shamelessly said "Well, but you would have no problem with drink."

I felt vexed, but the madam was the winner. Damn, I should have really guzzled down the champagnes.

Translated by Maiko Noda