On April 13th, I ran the Paris marathon. After the race, my sister and her husband and Dustin and I added on a few days champagne tasting in France. Here is a summary of that trip!
On Monday morning after the marathon, we were up early to uber to the train station (Gare du Nord) for a 7:30 am train from Paris to Reims. We had tickets for the direct route, which was only 45 minutes.
Reims is smaller enough that a car isn’t really needed; we were able to walk from the train station to our hotel upon arrival. We stayed at a hotel called La Caserne Chanzy, which was fine, nothing special like our Paris hotel (the Saint James) but just fine for two nights!
We booked a private tour (private being the four of us) via Sparkling Tours. They planned out our two day itinerary based on what was available and a mix of the small and big champagne houses. Our tour price included all tastings and tours, as well as lunches both days with champagne.
Day 1:
We started at Louis Brochet a smaller house, where our guide walked us through the process of making champagne and then we tasted several of their champagnes.
After the first tasting, it was already time for lunch, which was in the town of Eparnay. We also walked down “Champange Avenue” and popped into Moet & Chandon with a picture with Dom Perignon.
Next was the G.H. Mumm tour; the was one of the bigger houses, and their space was beautiful!
We ended the day at the Ruinart house, which was absolutely stunning and worth a visit and we tried so really good champagnes there.
We had a late dinner at Au Cul de Poule in Reims, which apparently translates to “The Hen’s Ass!” HA! But the food was good and it was very French.
Day 2:
We began the day with another small house and tasting, which was called Voirin Jumel which was one of our favorites.
We had a private cellar lunch at Champagne Julien Chopin with more tastings.
Our driver then took us to Hautvillers, the village of Dom Perignon and his burial place.
Our final tasting was at Champagne Michel Fagot.
We had a bit of a rest before our final dinner in Reims, which was at L’Alambic
My sister and her husband stayed an extra night in Reims and one more night in Paris before flying back to Chicago, but we left on the train back to London on Wednesday.
Two days of champagne was a lot of champagne, ha! But I feel like it gave us a really good overview into the area and the champagne process. I personally learned a ton about champagne, though I’ll admit I didn’t know that much before!
(Visited 4 time, 4 visit today)
Credit : Source Post
