Wow. I loved everything about this trip and the champagne region. We started in Reims and stayed for 2 nights, and then took a bus to Epernay where we stayed just off the L’ Avenue de Champagne for 3 nights. While we were staying in Epernay we rented electric bikes to visit Hautsvillers. Spoiler alert, the bike ride to Hautsvillers was the highlight for me!
Champagne Houses
Before I get into our itinerary, let me tell you about champagne houses. The champagne region is known for their champagne houses which are incredibly beautiful and are active businesses that are used to produce and store champagne. Champagne houses will often offer a tour of the cellar and then a tasting. Some will also have a café or restaurant on site where you can go to get a glass of champagne and a bite to eat. Both Reims and Epernay offer a huge variety of places to tour and taste. With Hautsvillers and Ay offering a smaller selection.
If you would like to do tours of any of the champagne houses in the champagne region, it is recommended booking online ahead of time. Some places may still be available the day or week before but others, like Veuve Clicquot will be booked at least a week in advance. For booking, I recommend using the website Champagne Booking. You can schedule multiple tours and it’s easy to see what is available for specific dates. You can also pull up their map to see what is nearby so you can easily walk from place to place. But, be sure to pay attention to the tour language when booking, don’t be like us and book a tour in FRENCH!
Reims
We had two tours with tastings scheduled in champagne houses in Reims and that was a good amount. The tours are really fascinating, you will see so many champagne bottles! Even though these are fascinating tours and each house is unique, I wouldn’t book more than 2-3 since the general information is the same. All the champagne houses are still active cellars where millions of champagne bottles are stored while they wait for their time to be consumed. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Reims Center. It was a great location, and close to Place Drouet d’Erlon which is a nice strip of bars, restaurants and cafes. The hotel had a lovely rooftop terrace, and we were able to walk to both our tastings in Reims.
Pommery Champange Tour
Our very first champagne house tour! We had no idea what to expect and were pretty excited! Come to find out, I had booked the Tour and Tasting: Pommery and Villa Demoiselle guided tour (in French). Oops. That wasn’t going to work for us so we ended up going through a self-guided audio tour through the champagne cellar. This cellar was super unique since they also had art work on display, it was like an art museum within the champagne house. It was a really neat experience and a nice introduction to the wine making technique and history of the area.
After the tour, we had a nice glass of rose and then found out that Villa Demoiselle was actually across the street and I booked a tour for there as well! The house is beautiful but the best thing was the glass of champagne and snack in the courtyard! It was the perfect setting for a little mid morning refreshment.
Taittinger Champagne Tour
Luckily, I booked this one in English though, so no problems! We learned about the history of Taittinger before we descended into the cellar where we found unique doors, the historic abbey and so much more champagne! The tour ended at their bar with a glass of their blanc de blanc and rose.
Veuve Clicquot Champagne House
We were ready to eat lunch since we had 4 glasses of champage and a light snack! And, what a better place to relax than the cute patio at Veuve. The tour here was highly recommended and I was encouraged to book in advance, not once, but multiple times but somehow just never did and then it was all booked by the time I finally got around to checking. It suited us well though because we just split a bottle and enjoyed some food!
Epernay
The train workers were a having a protest and not working so we had to take a bus from Reims to Epernay, and I would totally recommend doing that one way. You get to see a little more of the countryside, the vineyards and small towns. It’s super cute. Anyway, as I mentioned above, we stayed right off the L’ Avenue de Champagne. We did three main things in Epernay; a walking tour, visited as many of the champagne houses to try as much champagne as we could, and rented bikes to go to Hautvillers. Let’s break those things down.
Walking Tour:
This was a walking tour put on from the visitors center. I always recommend doing a walking tour as soon as possible to get the scoop on the area. The guides are always super friendly and helpful with questions and can give recommendations for you on your stay. Our tour focused on the L’ Avenue de Champagne. Our guide said that this street was often referred to as the most expensive street in the world due to huge amount of champagne stored underneath in the cellars. The cellars stretch over 50 miles and hold more than 200 MILLION bottles of champagne. As we walked along the avenue our guide pointed out special places and unique wineries. We were able to get a good feel for where we wanted to stop!
Champagne Houses
I did notice that the feel of Epernay was different from Reims. I felt like, in Reims, the champagne houses were big on tours and with that they offered you one glass of champagne. Not much of an opportunity to do a “wine tasting.” In Epernay, they had courtyards after courtyards, each one typically offering some food options, glasses of their champagne and frequently even a tasting menu where you could try a variety of their wines. That is much more my vibe, just all the champagne please. I know we stopped at: Perrier-Jouet, COLLARD-PICARD, Michel Gonet, A. Bergère Champagne, and #Brut. There were probably a few others. They were all great. If you go, just go to as many as you can! Don’t worry, gluttony doesn’t count when it comes to champagne.
Hautvillers
We rented electric bikes from Facil-e-bike. It is right next to the visitor’s center in Epernay. We did a full day, 9-5, packed a snack (and a bottle of champagne), and hit the road to Ay! Unfortunately, since it was a Sunday, most places were closed. Which was fine, because it would have been too much. I would love to go back and check out AYALA. We did find Pressoria – which was incredible spot with an amazing view of the vineyards and a variety of local champagne. We enjoyed only 1 glass, it was hard, but we knew there was more in our future. We stopped at a river front park and had our snacks before we rode 4 miles to Hautvillers.
The bike ride up to the town and back down had the best views! Hautvillers made it on my list of things to see and do because it is the final resting place of Dom Pérignon and where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. But, turns out, it is an extremely adorable little town and has so many tasting rooms. Our favorites were La Chevalée and Champagne G.Tribaut à Hautvillers. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking here.
I am glad we had the chance to stay in both Reims and Epernay and check out the champagne houses in both locations and do a little exploring to the countryside towns of Ay and Hautvillers. It was a great first trip to the Champagne Region!
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