There’s nothing as chic as sipping champagne in Champagne while savouring the gastronomic delights of the region. A leisurely drive from the historic city of Reims meanders through some wonderful scenery with several sparkling interludes along the way.
Total drive approx: 100 kms
Relax in the Champagne countryside
Day 1. Reims
Reims is located in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, some 130 kilometres from Paris. For visitors whose itinerary begins by crossing the Channel from England the quickest route to Reims from Calais is along the A26, which is a partial toll road. It will take you about three hours.
The region surrounding Champagne has a long and often turbulent history, meaning that there are many places to explore along the way that have nothing to do with champagne, but are worth the effort. If driving from Calais you might want to stop in Arras or Cambrai (or both).
Over the centuries Arras has been the fief of an array of feudal rulers, including the counts of Flanders, the dukes of Burgundy and the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg. All left their mark. It. was also the birthplace of Robespierre, one of the most influential and feared figures of the French Revolution.
Arras was also the scene of much fierce fighting during World War One. The Battle of Vimy Ridge is commemorated by an inspiring Canadian memorial that overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge, about ten kilometres north of Arras. Vimy Ridge marked the first time Canada fielded an entire army of its own in a war -- four Canadian divisions fought there on Easter weekend 1917, and casualty figures were high. The Canadian success at Vimy heralded a profound turning point for the Allies. A year-and-a-half later World War One was over.
Cambrai also has a long history, having belonged to the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by France after being captured by Louis XIV (the Sun King) in 1677. During World War One, tanks were used successfully in a war for the first time at the Battle of Cambrai, which took place at the end of 1917.
While the primary attraction of this journey is champagne, you might want to stop by the brasserie at the old Benedictine Abbaye du Cateau in Cambrai and try a much raved-about Vivat beer. French artisanal beers are not universally known, so this could be quite a treat. The abbey brewery is a good alternative for those who are not overly attracted by cathedrals, battle fields and historic buildings. The brasserie serves lunch four days a week: from Thursday to Sunday. Reservations can be made at + 33 3 27071919.
Reims cathedral
Thirty two French kings were crowned in Reims, so you know that a visit to Our Lady of Reims (Notre-Dame de Reims) is cathedral really worth visiting. The exterior of the cathedral is embellished with more than two thousand statues: among European cathedrals, only Chartres has more sculpted figures. The stained-glass windows of the cathedral’s interior are just as resplendent: most date back to the13th century, though there is also a much-admired window by Chagall.
Adjacent to the cathedral is the Palace of Tau (Palais du Tau). Once the residence of French royalty and archbishops it is now a museum housing the cathedral’s treasures, including some of the finest tapestries to be found in Europe. It is open every day except Mondays, and entrance costs €7. The palace, together with the cathedral of Notre-Dame and the former Abbey of Saint-Remi, are World Heritage listed.
Nearby are two of the nine major champagne houses in Reims: Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot. They are members of a powerful organisation called the Union de Maisons de Champagne (Union of Champagne Houses), sometimes referred to as the Grandes Marques, or top brands (sounds much grander in French). Both run cellar tours.
At Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot, as with all the big champagne houses, you’ll find yourself tagging along with a large group (depending on the time of the year) on a rather impersonal guided tour. You are unlikely to experience the passion that emanates from smaller producers in the Champagne region, but there’s nothing quite like the excitement of walking through cellars where several millions bottles of champagne are slowly maturing.
The most impressive cellars beneath the streets of Reims are those owned by Mumm, where no less than twenty five million bottles of champagne are kept in twenty-five kilometres of cellars. You’ll be guided through only a small section of Mumm’s gigantic champagne labyrinth, but you are bound to come way impressed. There are English-language tours daily (09.00 –11.00 and 14.00 – 17.00). There are no tours on Sundays between November and March. The tour fee of €10 includes champagne tasting.
Another Reims champagne house that should be on your list is Pommery Vranken , which is open daily from the beginning of April until mid-November. The tour costs €12 and needs to be reserved in advance + 33 3 26616256. Also check out the impressive art nouveau and art deco architecture at the family’s Villa Demoiselle. The villa adjoins the cellars and is surrounded by a magnificent garden. Tours are run daily between 10.00 and 18.00. Reservations can be made at + 33 3 26358050
Pommery Vranken
Reims is not short of good restaurants. They can be expensive if you order a la carte, but most have fixed price menus as well. The Michelin three-star La Vigneraie, located close to the cathedral, offers a set three-course gastronomic lunch for €25. Reservations are necessary + 33 3 26886727. For something more informal the art deco Brasserie du Boulingrun in the city centre has been in business since 1925 (which says a lot) and stays open fairly late. The brasserie serves a set three-course menu for €23. Reservations at + 33 3 26409622.
A bit of foodie trivia: the people of Reims are often called ‘gingerbread eaters’, a tradition that goes back to the 14th century and the start of a local guild of gingerbread makers. Look for real Reims gingerbread, don't be fobbed off with the industrially made version.
Accommodation options: Mercure Reims Centre Cathedrale, Grand Hotel Continental, Best Western Hotel de la Paix.
Day 2. Depart: Reims O/night: Epernay Approx: 50 kms
Leave Reims in the direction of Cormontreuil to the south of the city and continue on the D4 (and then the D9) to Ludes, a short drive of about twenty-five minutes in good traffic conditions.
Ludes
Ludes is the home Canard Duchene an estate that has been making fine champagne since 1868. The chalky cellars at Canard Duchene stretch for six kilometres – and that translates to ten million bottles of champagne. Tours need to be booked in advance, which can be done on line.
You will pick up a lot of useful champagne knowledge during cellar tours. The small and large producers present two very different tours, with the small producers giving a much more personal insight into champagne making: it helps if you have some understanding of French. Remember that not all champagne makers have the scope to welcome visitors.
One thing that the in-house tour guide will stress over and again in their ‘bubbly briefings’ is that champagne can be made only within the Champagne region – an area that sits between Paris to the west, Belgium to the north and Lorraine to the east. Because of the administrative divisions champagne producers are spread over five departments: Marne and Aube (home to around two-thirds of all Champagne’s vineyards ) Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne. About a hundred of the ‘big boys’ -- such as Krug, Lanson and Pommery, dominate the trade and are based in the Marne area.
From Ludes continue west to nearby Cigny-les-Roses and Rilly la Montagne.
The village of Cigny-les-Roses has nothing to do with roses, the name refers to the rosaries that villagers traditionally hang on their vines to ward off pests and diseases from the wine grapes, which could spell ruin at harvest time. Champage Dumangin has been a local family business for five generations and should be on your ‘to visit’ list, especially if you are looking for good wines at pocket-friendly prices. Phone ahead to let them know you are coming on +33 3 26034634 and you will get a private tour of the cellar.
Rilly la Montagne is home to Champagne Vilmart a small estate that has been described by several ‘champagneologists’ as the epitomy of family-made champagne houses. Most champagnes are bought because of label recognition. While the Vilmart label may be known only to the true champagne cognoscenti, it’s a gem worth discovering as you drive through Rilly. Put aside the image conjured up by many when they hear of Vilmart and think of a ‘convenience store’: that it is not. Visitors are welcome Monday to Friday and opening hours are 9.00 – 12.00 and 14.00 – 17.30. Call to let them know you are coming on +33 3 26034001
Road signs in Champagne
From Rilly la Montagne continue on past Villers Allerand until you reach the Voie de la Liberte where you turn left and drive for about seven kilometres to the crossroad with the D71. Turn right on to the D71 and drive past Saint Imoges to Hautvillers.
The flower-filled village of Hautvillers, about five kilometres from Epernay, is credited as being the birthplace of champagne. It was at the St Pierre Abbey in Hautvillers that the 17th century Benedictine monk, Dom Perignon, is reputed to have perfected the technique of fermenting and bottling champagne. Dom Perignon did his bit, but it was not until much later in the mid-1800s that sparkling champagne gained dominance as the region’s wine style.
Dom Perignon lies buried in the abbey church of St Sindulphe: where his black marble tombstone has pride of place by the high altar. The abbey is now owned by Moet et Chandon and contains a museum where several artefacts related to Dom Perignon and his experiments with wine are kept.
The tomb of Dom Perignon
A group known as the Association of Friends of Hautvillers (l'Association Les Amis d'Hautvillers) offer interesting tours of the village. The tours, which last a couple of hours, cost €5 a person and include meeting a local wine-maker over a glass of champagne. There is a minimum of four participants: if you are travelling as a couple and nobody else is taking the tour pay €10 a head as it’s worth it for the ambiance. English and German-speaking guides are available. This is not a spur of the moment tour: you need to book in advance, preferably by e-mail.
Champagne Tribaut in Hautvillers is open daily 09.00 -12.00 and 14.00 –16.00 (closed on Sundays from January to March), It’s a friendly, family-run operation that produces some excellent vintage champagnes.
Not all vineyards you pass on your champagne drive make their own wine. Grapes are lovingly nurtured by some 15, 000 growers across the region, but only a couple of thousand make their own wine. The others are suppliers to the big houses and the region’s co-operatives.
From the hills above the Hautvillers there are several viewpoints that provide a marvellous panorama over the Marne Valley and surrounding vineyards.
From Hautvillers continue on to Damery. Take the D1 westwards, it's a ten-minute drive. Damery is home to a dozen smaller champagne producers. Among them, Prevoteau-Perrier produces the respected Adrienne Lecouvreur Cuvee, named after a celebrated French actress from the 1700s. Her rustic house is now home to Prevoteau-Perrier.
Prevoteau-Perrier is open daily except Sundays, but closes at mid-day for a couple of hours. Call ahead on +33 3 26584156 Taste the champagne and enjoy the passion with which it is presented.
About a kilometre south of Damery you come to the Avenue de Paris (D3) where you turn left for the six-kilometre drive to Epernay.
Epernay is recognised as the capital of the champagne-making region. Moet & Chandon, Perrier Jouet and Pol Roger are among the major champagne houses that line the town’s majestic Avenue de Champagne, below which are about 100 kilometres of wine cellars.
Avenue de Champagne in Epernay
Some of the big champagne houses in Epernay beat their promotional drums loudly: Mercier has a €10 tour that starts with a marketing film and continues with a trip on a small laser-guided train through some of the house’s eighteen kilometres of tunnels. If you want champagne without the showmanship seek out some of the smaller players (the local tourist office has a list).
Epernay also boasts a rather swish champagne bar, restaurant and shop called C Comme Champagne de Propriétaire which showcases the produce of small makers from the region -- champagnes you are unlikely to find too far outside of the region.
It is only natural that a town that is regarded as the champagne capital has a wide choice of restaurants. Some are chic and heavy on the plastic, others are easier on the wallet. Check out La Cave a Champagne which offers a three-course gourmand menu with several choices for each dish at €34 and a seemingly endless list of champagnes, some priced for diners watching their budget, others for those who have the means to splurge. Another choice might be Le Table Kobus just behind the Epernay Cathedral. which has various set menus (a couple of them a little pricey).
Accommodation options: Best Western Hotel de Champagne, Hotel Jean Moet, Premiere Classe D Epernay
Day 3. Depart: Epernay Arrive: Reims Approx: 50 kms
The area around Epernay is particularly good touring country, and offers lots of scope for visiting wine-producing villages as you drive back to Reims. From Epernay head north on the Voie de la Liberte to Dizy on your way to to Mareuil sur Ay. Dizy, which has a population of just over 1,700 has seventeen vineyards producing champagne.
A well-photographed road sign
The people of Dizy and nearby Bouzy (with a population of less than a thousand) are often amused (or bemused) by the number of English-speaking visitors who stop to take photos of the village signposts. Less surprising is the number of dedicated wine lovers who pass this way and stop to spend a little time discovering the villages’ offering to the world of champagne.
Mareuil sur Ay is home to Billecart-Salmon, known for its ‘pink’ champagne. Made by adding red wine to the normal champagne blend, ‘pink’ champagne was all the rage back in the 1920s, but for years it dropped out of fashion. It has more recently been embraced by trendy city bars and clubs. Check it out for yourself in Mareuil sur Ay.
There are a couple of dozen champagne houses dotted around Bouzy, most of them small, but all producing quality champagne at attractive prices. Tasting and cellar tours are usually free, but doubtless you will be tempted to buy a bottle or two without any arm-twisting. It pays to know a little French, but you will always find somebody who knows English, or German.
Wind your way further north through the Montagne de Reims Nature Park to Verzenay. Here you will get a fascinating insight into the history and production of champagne at the Museum of the Vine. The museum is open daily (except Mondays) from 10.00 – 17.00 with an entrance fee of €6. The museum is housed in a lighthouse that stands amid rows of vines -- it was erected years ago by a wine grower as a marketing attraction (strange, but true).
The landlocked lighthouse at Verzenay
From Verzenay it is about a thirty minute drive back to Reims.
This is a journey that calls for a dedicated driver: never drink and drive. Take note that if you have between 0.5 and 0.8mg of alcohol in your blood you could be fined between €135 to €750, and you will not be allowed to drive until the alcohol level drops to under 0.5mg. All drivers in France – including visitors -- will need to carry a breathalyser kit in their cars as from July 1, 2012. It will apply to anyone travelling in or through France, even for a day trip. From November there will be a fine of 11 Euros for not complying.