My husband and I visited Paris last year in May and had such a wonderful experience. I plan to write about all the different things we did there but I’d like to focus on a day trip that we took when we went- visiting champagne country in Reims, France and going to the Veuve Clicquot Cellars and Champagne House!
This has been something I wanted to do for so long! When it comes to champagne, I can admit to being a little bit of a champagne snob. Don’t get me wrong, in college I probably thoroughly enjoyed some bottles of Andre $4.99 “champagne” and maybe some Korbel or Barefoot- but please don’t hold it against me! I have since then learned that it’s not champagne unless it comes from the champagne region in France; otherwise that’s called Sparkling wine. I had my first sip of Veuve Clicquot maybe 8 or 9 years ago? And that’s all I choose to drink now. It was quite the experience getting to visit the champagne house and learn all about its history.
So let’s get to the trip and details. Champagne country is made up of a little town called Reims and then there’s also Epernay. The main cellars in Reims are Veuve Clicquot, Mumm, and Taittinger. Epernay has Perrier-Jouet, Moet et Chandon (Dom Perignon), and Bollinger. Where should you go? Well ideally both, but since we went for the day we chose Reims so we could visit Veuve Clicquot. We took the train there from Paris and it was about 45 mins away, not too bad! They had cabs outside the train station so we took that and headed to the champagne house (maybe 10 min drive).
I recommend you make your reservation online to the cellars ahead of time to make sure you are guaranteed a tour! There are three different tour options at Veuve Clicquot and we chose the middle tier which was 50 euros per person. The tour lasted about an hour to an hour and a half and I highly recommend it. You get to go underground to the cellar and learn about the history as well as enjoy two glasses of champagne, one from the yellow label and the other is a vintage 2006 Grande Dame, which is AMAZINGGGGG! They also have the Veuve Clicquot shop at the end of the tour which has all the adorable Veuve accessories that you can only get there. After the tour, we took a cab to the city center to eat and explore. We also went to check out the Reims Cathedral, which was a must see. We had such a great time and wonderful experience. Of course when we got back to Paris, we opened up a chill bottle of Veuve and enjoyed it on the terrace watching the shining lights of the Eiffel tower. So French.
Let me know if you have any questions about visiting Champagne country! I would definitely recommend spending two days there, one in Reims and the other in Epernay so you can get the full experience. For us, since our trip in Paris was only a week long, we decided to only visit for the day. I definitely want to go back! We have a trip coming up in October and fingers crossed we get to go!
Amazing post! I am so jealous of your trip!!!
Thank you! Definitely worth a visit!