THE RACE
After running around in chilly northeastern France, the teams head to Reims for its Joan of Arc statute. "We're watching everybody else like chickens with their heads cut off, and me and Mike are enyoing the amusement of the other teams," Louie says about being in first. But the dad-daughter duo gets to the statue first, the cowboys second and the detectives fall to third.
Miss Big Brother Lover confuses Joan of Arc with that guy who "carried all the animals." Her boyfriend has to explain that the animal lover she's thinking of is Noah of Noah's Ark. "I wonder why we're in last," he says. Miss South Carolina also thinks that Joan was a dude and searches a statue with animals.
A musician at the statue gives racers a clue that leads them to Leclerc Briant, a winery in Épernay. On the way there, Jordan wonders how Champagne is made. "Is it like wine and then you just add, like, club soda?" he asks. The cowboys make a grave error by going to the wrong town.
ROADBLOCK
In the roadblock, teams must rappel more than 100 feet down into the winery's old caverns and search among endless bottles of bubbly for one that's specially marked. Then they'll have to follow the tradition created by Napoleon's men and use a saber to slice the cork off of the bottle, which will cause the liquid heaven to explode out along with a clue.
Although Jordan was afraid he'd pee himself rappelling down, he has fun. The difficult part is finding the bottle with the small marking on it. But the bro does and gets his team in first.
After the roadblock, teams must head to Taittinger La Marquetterie, a chateau and vineyard in Pierry. Unfortunately most of the teams head to Reims instead of Pierry based on directions given by locals, but the worst offender was the tourism office that pointed the Big Brother Lovers to Reims. Taittinger's Champagne is made in Reims, but it's not the chateau La Marquetterie. "The lesson in this leg of the race was don't always trust a pretty girl," Jordan says. We love the cowboys' attitudes after heading to the wrong destination for the second time in this leg. "People pay thousands of dollars to get the tour we had today," Cord says. "No, we get it for free, in a Mercedes, all day."
Dad and daughter have the same issue, but they also take off part of their fender in the process. Luckily, the duo patches up the dragging fender with some duct tape. Meanwhile, the detectives receive a Porsche escort to the mansion.
DETOUR
In tower, teams have to build a tower with 680 glasses. It has to be 15 levels high with one glass on top. And without breaking any glasses, they then have to fill it all with Champagne. In terra, teams must search a square kilometer for a bunch of grapes with a tiny flag attached. As self-professed bulls in a china shop, the detectives go for terra and find the grapes. "If I can find crack in someone's rear end, then I can find grapes in a vineyard," "Eagle Eyes" Mike says. Lovely.
The bros do a beautiful job stacking the glasses, but end up with three extras and don't know what to do with them. So they precariously stack them on top of one another and have to pour a 60-pound bottle of Champagne on the tower. The South Carolinas come by and try to mimic the bros' tower, but just as the bubbly flowed, glasses broke. The Big Brother Lovers also shatter glass, but while they were building the tower. So they switch to terra.
PIT STOP
After the roadblock, teams must head to L'Orrca in Champagne, France. The detectives make their winning streak a hat trick, snagging a five-night trip to Cancun. The dating divas come out of nowhere to grab second. The South Carolinas follow them to the pit stop, but realize that they didn't do the detour yet—or unbeknownst to them, the roadblock, for that matter—and run back to their car. The dad-daughter duo come in third.
OUSTED
The South Carolinas' bad turns put them in the back of the racers. But by the time the Big Brother Lovers switch to the terra challenge, it's dark, which makes spotting the marked grapes even harder. The BB Lovers take too long and get eliminated.
NEXT WEEK
Mr. South Carolina declares he's quitting the race. It's not nice to tease us.
Related Stories:
· The Amazing Race [Official Site]
· Amazing Race Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photos: CBS]
