9 Hours in the Champagne Capital – Do it or Ditch It? July 7, 2014 – Posted in: Blog

 

When you envision Paris it’s almost incomplete without a sparkling glass of champagne in hand.

When I found out that Reims (pronounced “Rains” with a nasal “n”) was only 45 minutes by high speed train from Paris – it was a must on our visit. Below you’ll find a breakdown of our 9 hours in Reims that was marinated in champagne. I’ve also included some helpful tips to help plan your honeymoon, vacation or “because I deserve it” visit!

 

Getting to Reims from Paris

 

We decided to book the early 7:58am TGV train that took 45 minutes from the Gare de L’Est metro station in Paris directly to Reims. We hopped on the metro that was near our pied-à-terre and chose the option to print the tickets at the station since we didn’t have a printer at the apartment. That turned out to be a bit of a pain since it wouldn’t recognize the reservation. We ran upstairs to the TGV counter and they printed it out for us.

 

 

CBJ Travel Tip: If you plan your trip in advance, print out your tickets online at home and bring them with you. It’ll save you from hunting down an internet cafe and/or any issues at the train station. They do check and mark your tickets once you’re on the TGV.

 

Arriving in Reims

 

We found out many times on this trip that Paris isn’t an early bird. Or at least its residents and shopkeepers tend to not be early birds.

When places say that they will open at 9am (including a tourist office) plan on that office not being open until well after 9:30am.

 

Once you arrive at the train station, there is the option to walk into town and visit the incredibly famous Notre-Dame Cathedral of Reims, have a bite at a cafe or head to your tasting/tour at your designated house of champagne. We had time to kill before our 11:30 tour, so we opted to have a little breakfast at Paul Cafe and walk around the cathedral. This was the cathedral where French kings were crowned and where Joan of Arc was consecrated.

CBJ Jewelry Travel Tip: Taxis aren’t easily found in Reims, but there is a taxi stand at the train station. The best option is to pre-arrange a taxi if possible. We decided to take a bus from the city center to a stop that was only a short walk to La Maison de Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin. If you’re feeling adventurous and your French is decent – go for it. If not, opt for a pre-arranged transport or a tour. We tend to try and “Amazing Race” it while on trips abroad but if it’s not your style, by all means set it up ahead of time.

 

First tour: La Maison de Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin – 11:30am

Open Tuesday through Saturday, 25 March through 15 November 2014.
9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Closed Thursday, 1 May 2014. Closed Tuesday, 11 November 2014.

 

Just as expected, Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin was impeccably designed from the moment we stepped foot through the glass doors. We were greeted by the hostess who happened to also be our tour guide.  Her English was perfect and she was extremely informative. Madame Cliquot was quite the businesswoman when many women during her time didn’t even have their own bank accounts. We toured the crayères, or chalk cellars that were built by the Romans and reach down to 22 meters. During the tour we were educated on the entire process on the art of creating champagne.

 

 

 At the end we were given one glass of a vintage champagne, La Grande Dame. I was lucky enough to be given the cork with Madame herself on the top! At the end we purchased a gorgeous pink mini fridge box with Veuve Cliquot Rosé champagne as a reminder of the beautiful maison. The tour lived up to what we envisioned and was the perfect introduction to the region and the champagne process.

 

 

 

CBJ Travel Tip: Reserve your spot at Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin ahead of time. They will email you a confirmation of your requested date/time and you pay upon arrival at the maison.

 

Second tour: La Maison de G.H. Martel & Co. – 2:30pm

Open daily from 10.00am to 1.00pm and from 2.00pm to 7.00pm.
Tours in French and English until 5.30pm. Booking advisable.
Film, cellar and ecomuseum tour
including a tasting of 3 champagnes.
Average length of the tour: 1 hour.

 

I’ll be honest about this tour. I wasn’t expecting much after visiting glitzy and sparkling Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin. G.H. Martel & Co. wasn’t a brand that I was familiar with but it was a available to book a tour on the day of, so we went for it. What it lacks in the uber stunning branding that the larger champagne houses flash, it makes up for in the knowledgeable tour guide and amazing champagne. We watched a short video on the process of making champagne and then toured the crayères.

 

 

These unique caves were adorned with winemaking tools along the walls and really added to the interest of the setting. At the end we were invited to a tasting of three different champagnes from brut, demi-sec and sec. They all happened to be amazing and truly made for a wonderful tour.

 

 

CBJ Travel Tip: Brut = dry and sec = sweet, completely opposite of what the meaning is in French. The word for dry in French happens to be “sec”. Confused yet?

 

Walking around Reims [not the city center]

 

 

Outside of the champagne houses, there wasn’t a whole lot of life. It turns out we were there on a religious holiday so many places were closed outside of the city center (although the few shops and cafes that we did see had hours listed of only about 4 hours per day in some cases). This was a little frustrating since we had a gap of time between our first champagne house visit and the second, but we were able to walk around and get some more exercise.

 

 

CBJ Travel Tip: Pack some fruit and snacks if your tours are a only a few hours apart. The city center will require a cab or a personal car so you may not have time to get back and grab a bite. We packed bananas and cherries and it saved us from having to wait to get back into town to have lunch until later.

 

Dining in Reims

 

The city center has shopping, restaurants and cafes galore. We were running a little short on time after our tour at Martel but at that point were ready for lunch. We grabbed kebabs before heading back to the train station to catch our 5:17 train. You won’t be at a loss for options so budget enough time to sit at a cafe and enjoy the charming city. In hindsight, we should have taken the train that left around 7pm to be able to walk around the city more than we did.

 

Oh, hindsight you little devil.

 

CBJ Travel Tip: Booking your TGV train ticket in advance will get you much better rates than booking last minute (around 20 Euros or more). We were able to get a first class train ticket on the return to Paris for less than the coach ticket.

 

 

9 Hours in Reims – Do it or Ditch It?

 

Do it! I would say to even extend it longer than nine hours. There’s a lot to see and you could even hop over to the other champagne town of Epernay which houses other major champagne producers like Moet & Chandon along with local producers. It’s definitely a not-to-be-missed part of a Paris trip if you enjoy a bit of the bubbles. Let us know, will this be on your bucket list?

 

Helpful Links:

 

City of Reims information + Info on the Champagne Houses

http://www.reims-tourisme.com/reims-champagne/champagne.aspx

 

TGV Train Tickets

http://www.sncf.com/en/trains/tgv

 

Wishing you champagne, sparkle + sass…cheers!