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Driving the Champagne Route of France: A Complete One-Week Itinerary

 

“Come quickly, I am tasting the stars.”

Dom Pérignon — the Benedictine monk who perfected the art of champagne making at the Abbey of Hautvillers in the late 17th century — reportedly said this on tasting his first sparkling wine. We arrived in the Champagne region on 25th August 2018 to find that the harvest had already begun — the earliest in years, possibly the earliest in living memory. From dawn until dusk, 100,000 itinerant workers moved through the vineyards with their clippers, filling baskets with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes under a late summer sun. The air smelled of crushed fruit and warm earth. Every road through the vineyards was crossed by tractors carrying their loads to the press houses.

We had timed our arrival perfectly, entirely by accident.

Villages in the Champagne Region
Small villages along the Champagne route

Driving the Champagne Route of France — the Route Touristique du Champagne, a network of signposted roads through the vineyards, villages, and historic towns of the Champagne-Ardenne region — is one of the great self-drive journeys in Europe. It combines extraordinary landscape, world-famous wine tourism, Michelin-starred gastronomy, and some of the finest small hotels in France into a journey that can be completed comfortably in a week. This is our account of how we did it, what we wish we’d done differently, and everything you need to plan yours.

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The Route at a Glance

Our itinerary ran from Auxerre in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region through the Champagne region, finishing in Reims. It can equally be driven in reverse — starting in Reims and heading south — depending on your point of arrival.

Stop Nights Drive from Previous Stop
Auxerre, Bourgogne-Franche-

Comté region

0 (we wish: 1) Arrival from Paris

~1.5 hrs

Troyes 1–2 1.5 hours from

Auxerre

Sezanne 1 1 hour from

Troyes

Rilly-la-Montagne 1–2 1 hour from

Sezanne

Epernay 1 20 minutes from

Rilly

Reims 3 30 minutes from

Epernay

Total driving distance: Approximately 350km over seven days — a genuinely relaxed road trip with short driving legs that leave most of each day free for wine tasting, cellar visits, and the particular French art of doing nothing in particular in a beautiful place.

Before You Go: Essential Practicalities

Driving and Drinking

This needs to be said plainly: you are driving through wine country and visiting champagne houses that will offer you tastings at every stop. France’s drink-drive limit is 0.5mg/ml blood alcohol — lower than the UK and significantly lower than Australia — and is enforced with roadside testing. The practical solution is to designate a driver for each day’s cellar visits, or to use the spit bucket (which exists for exactly this purpose and is not considered rude) and save the serious tasting for the evening when you’re done driving.

Alternatively, some champagne house tours offer non-alcoholic grape juice as an alternative tasting. Mercier — our favourite cellar visit of the whole trip — handles this gracefully.

Moet & Chandon vineyards
Moet & Chandon vineyards

When to Go

Late August to October is the ideal window — harvest season, when the vineyards are at their most active, and the champagne houses are running at full pace. Arriving during harvest, as we did, is one of those accidental travel coups that reward an open itinerary. The energy of 100,000 workers in the fields adds a dimension to the champagne experience that visiting in a quiet February cannot replicate.

May and June are excellent alternatives — the vines are in full leaf, the weather is good, and the cellar visit queues are shorter than peak summer.

July and August are busy — school holiday traffic and queues at the major champagne houses make for a more crowded experience.

Booking Champagne House Tours

The major houses — Moët & Chandon, Mercier, Nicolas Feuillatte — can be booked online in advance, and we strongly recommend doing so for peak season visits. Some smaller grower-producer houses (récoltants-manipulants) require advance contact but offer more intimate and personal experiences. More on the distinction between house types below.

Getting There

From Paris: The Champagne region begins less than 90 minutes from Paris — Troyes is 1.5 hours by road, Reims is 45 minutes by TGV or 1.5 hours by road. Flying into Paris Charles de Gaulle and picking up a hire car is the most flexible approach; CDG to the Champagne region avoids Paris city centre entirely by heading directly onto the A5 or A4 motorways.

From the UK: Eurostar to Paris, then hire a car or train to Reims. Alternatively, drive via the Channel Tunnel — Calais to Reims is approximately 2.5 hours, making the Champagne region one of the most accessible French wine regions from Britain.

Understanding Champagne Before You Visit

One piece of knowledge that transforms a Champagne region visit: understanding the difference between the Grande Marque houses and the grower-producers (récoltants-manipulants).

Grande Marque houses — Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Mercier, Taittinger, Nicolas Feuillatte, Mumm — buy grapes from across the appellation to produce large quantities of consistent, house-style champagne. Their tours are professional, well-organised, and often spectacular (Mercier’s underground tunnel being the prime example). Their champagnes are blended for consistency year on year.

Grower-producers (look for RM on the label) grow their own grapes and produce champagne from their own vineyards — typically in much smaller quantities, with more vintage variation, and at significantly lower prices than the major houses for comparable quality. The Champagne Route passes through dozens of villages where small producers welcome visitors directly to their cellars. These visits are less polished than the major houses but often more personal and more memorable.

The ideal Champagne week includes at least one major house tour (Mercier) and at least one small grower visit in the villages of the Montagne de Reims or Côte des Blancs.

Stop 1: Auxerre — The Town We Should Have Stayed In

Auxerre
Auxerre

We drove through Auxerre en route north and made what turned out to be our biggest mistake of the trip: we didn’t stop for a night.

Auxerre sits on the Yonne River in northern Burgundy, 170km southeast of Paris, and it is one of those French provincial towns that works quietly and completely without needing to advertise itself. The medieval centre climbs from the riverbank to the Gothic Cathedral of Saint-Étienne — a building of real splendour with Renaissance stained glass that rivals anything in Chartres. The clock tower at the town’s heart, the pedestrian lanes of the old quarter, the local bar we found by accident, where nobody was performing for visitors — all of it told us we had arrived somewhere worth slowing down for.

We didn’t slow down. We pressed on north. We regret it.

What we’d do on a return visit: One night minimum. Walk up to the Cathedral at dusk. Find a local brasserie in the old town for dinner — Auxerre has a genuine local food scene anchored by Burgundian cooking (oeufs en meurette, boeuf bourguignon, the local Chablis wines, which are produced just 20 minutes away). The Abbey of Saint-Germain contains one of the oldest Carolingian crypts in France. The river quays in the morning light are beautiful.

Auxerre is the right starting point for the Champagne Route if you’re approaching from the south — arrive the night before, sleep well, and leave northward refreshed.

Book accommodation in Auxerre here

Stop 2: Troyes — The Capital of Champagne in Everything But Name

The medieval buildings of Troyes
The medieval buildings of Troyes

Troyes was the historical capital of the Champagne region — the great medieval Champagne Fairs that made this the commercial crossroads of medieval Europe were held here, and the unit of weight still used by jewellers worldwide (the troy ounce) takes its name from the city. The champagne appellation moved north to Reims and Epernay over the centuries, but Troyes retains the capital’s architectural legacy: a perfectly preserved medieval city centre of half-timbered houses, Gothic churches, and narrow lanes that is one of the finest in France.

Troyes Cathedral
Troyes Cathedral

The city’s medieval street plan survives almost completely — seen from above, the old town forms the shape of a champagne cork, which the locals will tell you is either a coincidence or a deliberate medieval joke, depending on who you ask. The Cathedral of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul has one of the largest collections of medieval stained glass in the world — 1,800 square metres of windows spanning five centuries.

Joan of Arc connection: Joan of Arc passed through Troyes in 1429 during her campaign to have Charles VII crowned at Reims. The town initially refused her entry; she persuaded it otherwise. The route she took through the Champagne region is marked with signage along parts of the Champagne Route.

For dinner in Troyes: The Bouchon Champenois on Rue Jules Lebocey for traditional Champagne regional cooking — andouillette (tripe sausage, an acquired taste that Troyes considers its signature dish and takes very seriously), chaource cheese (a soft white-rind cheese produced in the villages south of Troyes, creamy and mild), and the local rosé des Riceys wine.

Factory shopping: Troyes is France’s outlet shopping capital — a cluster of large designer outlet centres (Marques Avenue, McArthurGlen) sit just outside the city, drawing French and Belgian shoppers on weekends. If this interests you, allow an extra half-day. If it doesn’t, the medieval centre more than justifies two nights without leaving it.

Allow one to two nights in Troyes.

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Book accommodation in Troyes here

Stop 3: Sezanne — The Quiet Village and the Best Hot Chocolate in the Champagne Region

16th century Eglise Saint Denis
16th Century Eglise Saint Denis

Sezanne sits in the southern Champagne region in the area known as the Côte de Sezanne — a ridge of vineyards producing predominantly Chardonnay grapes, less visited than the Montagne de Reims and therefore considerably more peaceful.

The town itself is small and unhurried — a market square, a Gothic church, a handful of local shops and cafes that exist for residents rather than tourists. We stopped for coffee and found ourselves sitting opposite the church with a hot chocolate that was one of the most unexpectedly excellent things we consumed on the entire trip. Thick, dark, properly made — the kind of hot chocolate that reminds you that France takes food seriously at every level, in every setting.

Sezanne is a natural overnight stop between Troyes and the Montagne de Reims — quiet, genuine, and a good base for exploring the Côte de Sezanne vineyards, where small grower-producers welcome visitors by appointment.

Book your accommodation in Sezanne here

Stop 4: Rilly-la-Montagne and the Chateau de Rilly — Our Favourite Stay of the Trip

Rilly-la-Montagne is a small village on the eastern slopes of the Montagne de Reims — a forested plateau between Reims and Epernay where the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes that form the backbone of most champagne blends are grown. The village sits among its own vineyards, the vines running up the slope behind the houses, and has the quiet self-sufficiency of a place that has been growing grapes and making wine for a very long time.

Chateau de Rilly
Chateau de Rilly

We stayed at the Chateau de Rilly on our visit, and it was our favourite accommodation of the entire trip — possibly one of our favourite hotel stays in France. We are keeping our account of it here, even though we have to share some sad news: the Chateau de Rilly has permanently closed since our visit. We’ve preserved the description because it captures exactly what the best small Champagne accommodation can be — and because knowing what to look for is half the battle when choosing where to stay in this region.

Bedrooms at the Chateau de Rilly

The bedroom was extraordinary — the kind of room that makes you reconsider your policy of keeping things brief. High ceilings, period furniture, a bed that enveloped you entirely, and a view over the chateau gardens that changed character completely between morning and evening light.

The dinner menu was seasonal and local — Champagne regional cooking that used the produce of the surrounding villages with real intelligence. We ate well, drank well (champagne from producers within walking distance of the table), and felt entirely no desire to be anywhere else.

But the breakfast. The breakfast at Chateau de Rilly was the finest of the trip and one of the finest we’ve had anywhere. Fresh bread, local jams, excellent coffee — and scrambled eggs that were creamy to a degree that suggested either an exceptional recipe or an exceptional chicken, possibly both. We ate slowly and at length, which is the only appropriate response to a breakfast of that quality.

Rilly-la-Montagne is also perfectly positioned for the Montagne de Reims Champagne Route — the D26 road that circles the plateau through a succession of champagne villages, each with its own small producers and cellar doors. Verzenay (with its extraordinary windmill rising from the vines), Verzy (and its mutant beech trees — the faux de Verzy, gnarled and contorted in forms that look deliberately sculptural), Mailly-Champagne — all within easy reach for a morning’s drive with tastings.

Where to Stay in the Montagne de Reims Now

Les Crayères Domaine (Champillon, near Épernay) — a Relais & Châteaux property sitting in its own vines above the Marne valley with panoramic views over the Champagne country. The rooms are beautifully appointed, the restaurant uses local produce with genuine skill, and the setting — vineyard on one side, valley on the other — is exactly what the Champagne region should look like from a bedroom window. Book here

Accommodation in Rilly-la-Montagne

For all properties: book well in advance for peak season, always ask specifically about dinner arrangements when booking (some properties require advance notice for evening meals), and request a vineyard-facing room if available.

Stop 5: Epernay — The Champagne Capital and the House of Mercier

Epernay is the capital of Champagne in the most literal sense — the Avenue de Champagne, its main boulevard, is lined on both sides with the headquarters and cellars of the world’s most famous champagne houses, representing an estimated €30 billion worth of champagne ageing in the chalk cellars beneath the street. Beneath your feet as you walk the avenue are approximately 100km of tunnels carved from the chalk, holding hundreds of millions of bottles.

The Avenue de Champagne is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and genuinely deserves to be. The grandeur of the houses — Moët & Chandon, Pol Roger, Perrier-Jouët, De Castellane, Charles de Cazanove — presented in their Belle Époque splendour behind iron gates and formal gardens, gives a vivid sense of how seriously this region takes its product.

The House of Mercier: Our Favourite Cellar Visit in the Champagne Region

House of Mercier

Of all the cellar visits we made in the Champagne region — and we made several — the House of Mercier was our favourite, and we recommend it above all others.

Mercier was founded by Eugène Mercier in 1858 with an explicit mission to make champagne accessible to ordinary French people rather than exclusively to the aristocracy. He carved 18km of tunnels beneath Epernay — the largest champagne cellar system in the world — and to promote the house at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, commissioned a giant oak barrel containing 200,000 bottles of champagne that required 24 oxen and 18 pairs of horses to transport to Paris. It took three weeks to move it 143km. Mercier was, by any measure, a man who understood the value of spectacle.

The cellar tour descends into those chalk tunnels in a way that no other champagne house matches: by electric train. The narrow-gauge railway carries visitors through carved galleries of ageing champagne, past riddling racks holding thousands of bottles at their precise angle, through tunnels where the temperature is constant, and the silence is absolute except for the soft hum of the train. The scale of what’s down there — the kilometres of chalk corridors, the millions of bottles, the weight of production history embedded in the walls — is genuinely impressive, and the train makes it feel like an adventure rather than a museum visit.

The guide on our visit was one of the best we have encountered anywhere on our travels — knowledgeable, funny, genuinely passionate about the subject, and skilled at reading what each group of visitors wants from the experience. She made the tour feel like a private conversation rather than a presentation.

The tasting at the end — in Mercier’s elegant above-ground reception rooms — matched the cellar in quality.

Practical information for Mercier: The house is at 68-70 Avenue de Champagne, Epernay.

Tours run daily except Monday (and are closed on some public holidays)—book in advance online, particularly in summer. The tour takes approximately 1 hour, including the tasting. Book here

Other Champagne Houses Worth Visiting

Moet & Chandon bottles

Moët & Chandon — the largest and most famous house, producing around 28 million bottles annually. The tour is polished and professional, the history extensive (Napoleon was a personal customer and friend of Jean-Remy Moët), worth visiting for the scale and the history, even if Mercier is the more enjoyable experience. Find out about tours here

Nicolas Feuillatte - Champagne House Epernay
Nicolas Feuillatte – Champagne House Épernay

Nicolas Feuillatte — a cooperative house representing over 5,000 grape growers, producing the best-selling champagne brand in France. The tour guide on our visit was exceptional — among the best we have had anywhere. The cooperative model gives the tour a different angle from the family-house history of the other properties. Book tours here

Champagne De Castellane in Epernay
De Castellane

De Castellane has a tower you can climb for panoramic views over the Avenue de Champagne and the vineyards beyond. The view alone justifies the stop. 

For Dinner in Epernay

La Cave à Champagne on Rue Gambetta is the essential Epernay dinner — a wine bar and restaurant with an extraordinary champagne list (over 300 references) and classic Champagne regional cooking. Arrive with an appetite and a willingness to ask the sommelier for guidance.

Le Sardaigne Restaurant Epernay
Le Sardaigne

Le Sardaigne is the practical tip: a reliable Italian restaurant that fills quickly. Arrive at 6 pm rather than 8 pm — by French dinner standards, this is early, but the tables at the better Epernay restaurants go fast in season, and the wait for a late walk-in can be long.

One night in Epernay is sufficient — the cellar visits are the reason to be here, and two days is the maximum most visitors want in a town whose entire purpose is its wine.

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Stop 6: Reims — Three Days in the Coronation City

Reims (pronounced “Rance,” which surprises almost every English-speaking visitor) was the city where the Kings of France were crowned for 1,000 years. Twenty-six monarchs received the sacred unction in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims between 816 and 1825, including Charles VII in 1429 — the coronation that Joan of Arc fought and died to make possible. The cathedral was largely destroyed in the First World War and rebuilt, painstakingly, over two decades. It is one of the finest Gothic buildings in France and one of the finest anywhere.

Reims deserves three nights. We gave it three and wish we’d had more.

The Cathedral

Reims Cathedral
Reims Cathedral

Notre-Dame de Reims is not the most famous Gothic cathedral in France — that distinction belongs to the one in Paris — but it is the most complete and the most harmoniously beautiful. The west facade, with its three doorways smothered in sculptural figures, its rose window, its Gallery of Kings, and its towers rising 80 metres, is one of the great architectural sights of Europe. The interior is vast, surprisingly light, and contains original and reproduction 12th-century lancet windows alongside a set of modern windows by Marc Chagall in the axial chapel — an unlikely combination that somehow works completely.

Go at different times of day — the light through the windows changes entirely between morning and afternoon, and the exterior is dramatically floodlit in the evenings.

Visit the Reims Cathedral Light Show during the summer months.

Youtube video of Reims Cathedral Light Show performances

The Palace of Tau

Adjacent to the Cathedral, the Archbishop’s Palace of Tau (named for its T-shaped floor plan) contains the Cathedral’s greatest treasures — the original sculptural figures removed from the facade for conservation, the coronation regalia, and the reliquary of Saint Rémi. The Goliath tapestry alone — a 15th-century work of extraordinary quality depicting the story of David — is worth the entry fee.

The Basilica of Saint-Rémi

Reims’s second great church is less visited than the Cathedral and more moving for it. Saint-Rémi was the bishop who baptised Clovis, the first Christian king of France, in 498 — a moment that shaped the entire subsequent history of European Christianity. The basilica built on the site of his tomb is Romanesque with Gothic additions, darker and more intimate than the Cathedral, with a crypt of genuine power.

The Champagne Cellars of Reims

The chalk subsoil of the Reims region contains some 250km of tunnels — ancient Roman chalk quarries converted by the champagne houses into ideal ageing cellars at a constant 12°C. Several of Reims’s major houses offer cellar tours:

Taittinger is our recommendation for Reims cellar visits — the tunnels here incorporate the remains of a 13th-century Abbey of Saint-Nicaise, and the combination of medieval architecture and millions of ageing champagne bottles is extraordinary. The presentation is elegant and the champagnes among the finest produced in the region.

Mumm Champagne

Mumm offers a well-organised tour with a focus on the house’s history and production process. The tasting of the Cordon Rouge is an essential experience.

Ruinart — the oldest champagne house in existence, founded in 1729 — has the most spectacular cellars in Reims: enormous chalk galleries (crayères) that were originally Roman quarries, rising to cathedral heights, with the humidity and temperature that make them perfect for ageing wine. Visits require advance booking and are more intimate than the larger house tours.

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Where to Stay in Reims

We self-catered in Reims — an apartment in the city centre where we could buy champagne from the local caviste and drink it with French cheese, charcuterie, and bread from the market. We would do this again without hesitation. There is a particular pleasure in sitting in a French apartment in the evening with a bottle of properly cold champagne and a board of local cheeses that no hotel room replicates.

For those who prefer hotel accommodation:

Hotel de la Paix on the Rue Buirette — a comfortable four-star in a central location, well run and well priced for the quality. Walking distance from the Cathedral. Book here

Château Les Crayères — if budget allows, this is the finest address in Reims: a Belle Époque château in its own grounds on the edge of the city, with a two-Michelin-starred restaurant (Le Parc) and wine cellars that are in themselves a reason to visit. It is expensive. It is worth it. Book here

Where to Eat in Reims

Le Foch on Boulevard Foch — one Michelin star, classical French cooking with Champagne regional influences, excellent wine list with strong Champagne coverage. The tasting menu is the right choice.

Brasserie du Boulingrin — a beautiful 1925 Art Deco brasserie that has been feeding Reims since it opened, serving classic brasserie cooking (steak tartare, sole meunière, tarte flambée) in a room of real architectural distinction. Booking recommended for dinner.

La Vigneraie on Rue de Mars — a reliable and welcoming local restaurant specialising in Champagne regional cuisine: potée champenoise (a hearty pork and vegetable stew), chicken in champagne sauce, and local cheeses. Prices are reasonable, and the welcome is genuine.

The Saturday morning market at Place du Boulingrin — in the extraordinary 1920s covered market hall — is the best food shopping in the city: local producers selling vegetables, cheeses, charcuterie, and honey from the Montagne de Reims.

Beyond the Wine: What Else to See in Reims

The Salle de Capitulation — the modest schoolroom in which Germany signed the first unconditional surrender on 7th May 1945, ending the Second World War in Europe. General Eisenhower’s headquarters during the liberation of France is preserved almost exactly as it was on that morning. One of the more quietly powerful historical spaces in France.

The Carnegie Library — a spectacular Art Deco building funded by Andrew Carnegie in 1921 as a gift of reconciliation to a city devastated by the First World War. The reading room is one of the finest interiors in Reims.

The Museum of Fine Arts — housed in an 18th-century former abbey, containing a strong collection of French painting from the 16th to 20th centuries, including a room of 27 Corot paintings, the largest collection outside Paris.

What to Buy: Champagne to Take Home

The Champagne region is the place to buy Champagne, not the airport. Prices at the cellar door — particularly at small grower-producers — are significantly lower than retail, and you have access to champagnes that are never exported or distributed outside the region.

Veve Cliquot Reims

At the major houses, Most offer a selection of their range for purchase after the tour. Vintage champagnes and prestige cuvées (Dom Pérignon at Moët, La Grande Dame at Veuve Clicquot, Comtes de Champagne at Taittinger) are available at prices below UK or Australian retail.

At small grower-producers: Budget €15–25 for a bottle of grower champagne that would cost three times that in a London wine shop. Ask for the récoltant-manipulant’s visiting hours in advance.

Practical note: Most airlines allow you to pack champagne in checked luggage with appropriate protection. Specialist wine carriers are available at many cellar doors. If flying from Charles de Gaulle, the departures duty-free area has an excellent champagne selection as a backup.

The Champagne Route: A Note on the Official Signage

The Route Touristique du Champagne is divided into four circuits, each covering a different subregion:

  • The Montagne de Reims — the forested plateau between Reims and Epernay
  • The Vallée de la Marne — following the river west from Epernay
  • The Côte des Blancs — south of Epernay, producing predominantly Chardonnay
  • The Côte de Bar (Aube) — the southernmost circuit, around Troyes

The official route is well signposted with green and yellow markers throughout. A comprehensive map is available from the Comité Champagne website or the tourist offices in Reims and Epernay. For a one-week itinerary, the Montagne de Reims and Côte des Blancs circuits, combined with time in Reims and Epernay, give the most complete picture of the region.

The Verdict

We arrived during the harvest and left convinced that no other wine region in the world combines landscape, history, architecture, gastronomy, and wine tourism with quite the same completeness as Champagne. The Grand Tour tradition — the aristocratic journey through Europe’s great cultural sites — was partly built on this region, and it is easy to understand why. There is a seriousness to Champagne that goes beyond the celebratory associations of the wine. The cathedrals, the medieval towns, the chalk tunnels stretching for kilometres beneath the vines, the centuries of accumulated craft — it is a region that rewards attention.

The Chateau de Rilly’s scrambled eggs. The electric train at Mercier descends into 18km of chalk tunnels. The Nicolas Feuillatte guide made 45 people simultaneously interested in things they thought they already knew. The Cathedral of Reims at dusk. The hot chocolate in Sezanne opposite the church.

The best travel experiences are the ones you didn’t quite expect. The Champagne Route delivered several of them.

Go back and spend a night in Auxerre. We still mean to.

Quick Reference

Don’t miss: House of Mercier underground tunnel tour, Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims, Taittinger cellars, Montagne de Reims village circuit, Troyes medieval centre, 

Eat: La Cave à Champagne (Epernay), Brasserie du Boulingrin (Reims), Le Foch (Reims), Chaource cheese, andouillette (Troyes), Saturday market at Place du Boulingrin

Drink: Mercier (tour and tasting), Nicolas Feuillatte, Taittinger Comtes de Champagne, small grower-producers on the Montagne de Reims circuit

Stay: Château Les Crayères (Reims splurge), Hotel de la Paix (Reims mid-range), self-catered apartment in Reims city centre

Best time: Late August to October for harvest season; May–June for quieter visits

Getting there: Paris CDG, then hire a car (1.5–2 hours); Eurostar to Paris, then TGV to Reims (45 minutes from Paris Gare de l’Est)

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