Wharton almuni weekend in Champagne

Reunion with the Western-European WG'12 alumni

Francesco Revel-Sillamoni and his wife Elise, Stephanie Awad and her fiancé Philippe, Eva Ducruezet, Joe Frem and myself, Marijn Spillebeen.

Always something to look out to, especially as this time, we decided to meet in Reims, in the heart of the Champagne region in France…

 
The weekend started off with a blast (for all women and soccer fans – or almost everyone in Europe actually) as we quickly realized that we were in the same hotel as Paris-Saint-Germain, the Paris based soccer team studded with soccer celebrities such as David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Below a quick pick from when I “tried” to check in, with Mr. Beckham on the right.

 
Immediately after checking in, we went off to Epernay, a quaint village in the Champagne region to visit the caves of Champagne Mercier, part of the LVMH-group. It felt like Disneyland for grown-ups, with a tour of the caves in a small train and a short tasting session afterwards.

Later that night, we went to a spectacular restaurant (and we’re in France, so that’s really “spectacular”) in Reims, with a 7-course tasting menu all accompagnied by champagne kindly sponsored by the Wharton Club of Paris who decided to support once again our young alumni reunion initiative. Life can be good!

Below a picture of the cathedral of Reims, on the Sunday morning. The weather was beautiful, although with below-zero temperatures, and the cathedral is stunning as you can see. It used to be the place where French kings were crowned – before the revolution.

 
Our trip to the Champagne region ended, just as it started, with a visit to a champagne house. This time Mumm, the third largest champagne house in the world, and widely known for its jeroboams (the size of 4 normal bottles) being sprayed onto the public at the Formula 1 podium ceremonies. It still had some nice bottles left from the year of 1895 (see picture), but sadly those were behind bars…

An amazing weekend, we honestly can’t wait to do this again in the near future!
Cheers,
Marijn