France - Cranes & Champagne

The Naturetrek office staff were very helpful in arranging my return travel home after staying on in France to visit family. First hotel was excellent - second one less good as my room was quite dated. Food was exceptional at the first hotel and still very good at the second one. Both hotels were ideally located for exploring the area with very little travelling involved each day. Plenty of quality birding in different habitats with vast numbers of birds and I also enjoyed the additional tour content with the walking tour of Troyes and the champagne visit and tasting, plus visiting some of the village churches, all of which gave me a good feel for the area as well as the wildlife. The pace was relaxed and we never felt rushed. Both Jason and Emilie were superb - excellent naturalists but also very efficient and good at organising things, including delicious picnic lunches, and creating a nice atmosphere within the group - we all had a lot of fun. Jason could not have been more helpful in sorting out my onward travel to Dijon to stay with my sister after the holiday when my original plans fell through and I was extremely grateful for his assistance in what was a very difficult and stressful situation. Their knowledge of reptiles, plants, fungi etc was a real bonus and added considerably to my enjoyment of the tour. The highlight had to be watching and hearing the cranes coming into roost at sunset which was magical! I also enjoyed seeing the salamander and the good views of the middle spotted woodpecker which was a new bird for me. The champagne tour and tasting were also very enjoyable. Another very enjoyable holiday with Naturetrek!

S.M. West Yorkshire, Nov 23

I love France anyway and had spend the year 1996 in Nantes, so it's always a delight to be back there. I enjoyed seeing all the Common Cranes flying in over the Lac du Der Chantecoq and hearing the trumpeting/bugling calls of the adults and the whiffles of the younger birds. An incredible feeding frenzy of Cormorants when a fishing boat appeared, while waves of Common Cranes continued to fly overhead. Wonderfully close views of the numerous Great White Egrets, especially from the hides where they could be observed just feet away. White Storks were quite numerous, and then there were all the ducks (pochard, redhead pochard, widgeon, teal .....), waders and often good views of Kingfisher. Black Woodpecker eluded us, even though our guide tried his best and could only come up with a larger than life poster of one in a forest. We had a super & prolonged view of a Middle Spotted Woodpecker while we were having our picnic lunch in the village of Lentilles; although they were heard often throughout the trip. A Green Woodpecker was a first for me as I don't think we get them in Scotland. Our guide was such good fun, very relaxed, yet so knowledgeable and organised. Excellent trip leader, and he coped well when I left my binocular case at Mesnil St-Pere; contacting both the auberge and Naturetrek while keeping me updated. He went out of his way to show us things and to share the vast amount of information he has gained about the Champagne region. Nice guy; good French and a wealth of knowledge. Over the years I have always found Naturetrek to be a very professional and extremely diligent and helpful tour operator. Their pre-departure information is excellent, as well as their curiosity as to how their tours could be improved; I've found the Naturetrek people to be very open minded. Obviously, each guide has their own personality, but without exception all have been incredibly knowledgeable in their field of expertise and eagerly imparted their knowledge and enthusiasm to their clients.

J.B. Midlothian, Oct 21

[This] trip was all I had hoped for: thousands of cranes flying in formation across ice-blue skies, woodpeckers calling in the forests, water birds in plenty on the lakes and on our "day off" from birding a visit to Champagne Drappier, nestling in beautiful countryside, where we were entertained royally and tasted some excellent cuvees (General de Gaulle was a customer and we followed in his footsteps!). The expert knowledge of our naturalist guides Gerald and Simon was impressive and they transported us to the best birding spots, so that our 'tick list' was full of birds seen and heard by the end of the trip. We stayed in three very comfortable hotels. The meals in the first of the three were of truly Michelin standard, earnng the chef a spontaneous round of applause from all of us! On our final day in Troyes we enjoyed a mornng tour of this photogenic and atmospheric city by a qualified local guide, whose accent was endearingly reminiscent of Catherine de Valois in Shakespeare's Henry V! Some of us chose to go back to the forest, less than an hour's drive from Troyes, in the afternoon for more birding, which was made possible by our guide Gerald giving up his free time to take us there. We were rewarded by great sightings of a pair of black woodpeckers, which had been playing 'hard to get' on previous days! Our transit through Gare du Nord on the way home passed - thankfully - without incident and we arrived in St Pancras on time. I can thoroughly recommend this trip to a part of France I had never been to before and which has so much to offer.

D.O. Essex

It was a week in France watching migrating cranes and enjoying the delights of champagne production. The guides were excellent and extremely professional and knowledgeable which added so much to the overall experience. We were able to see cranes calling and flying as well as resting in fields to take on food for the next stage of their journey. A truly magical experience to see such wonderful , prehistoric birds flying in group formations. The forests of the area also offered the chance to see many woodland birds. We spotted 5 different types of woodpecker, including the shy but spectacularly coloured black with its red crown.

R.O. East Sussex