Trip to France wine region has been on my list for a long time and given our relatively new found love for sparkling wine and proximity to Paris, we decided to spend a week in Champagne. Planning a wine trip to another country was definitely not easy without much local knowledge! Here’s a few things to note if you are planning a trip to Champagne
Pick a sub-region/town: Just like other wine regions, there are multiple villages in Champagne and it can take 30minutes to an hour to travel between each of them. We stayed in the region for 5 days and ended up splitting our stay between Reims and Epernay/Avize. If you have enough time, I’d recommend the same!
If you like large houses (Ruinart, Veuve Cliquot, Tattinger, etc) and want to stay in a larger city stay in Reims
If you like small grower producers and quieter town, stay in Epernay or surrounding towns.
Book tasting visits in advance! and get your hotel’s help: Large houses get booked up a few weeks in advance and small grower producers usually only open for advanced appointments. Other than large houses, most places take appointments by phone or email so best to book via hotel’s concierge!
Rent a car or hire a driver if you want to visit a more variety of producers: You can visit large houses within Reim and take a train to visit Epernay but this means you will be limited to visiting only large houses located in the city.
Make dinner reservations, especially if you are staying in Epernay: Reims is a popular day trip destination from Paris so lots of restaurants get booked up. You can always find a place to eat but if you want a specific cuisine or restaurant, best to book in advance. Epernay is a smaller town with less restaurant options and when we went, we were turned down by 4 different restaurants because they were fully booked.
Champagne was such a fun destination especially for wine lovers and you will have an amazing time! You can also see the full itinerary with specific recommendations in this post.