A weekend in the champagne region

Last weekend my girlfriend and I, together with our good friends Monique and Bart, visited the champagne region in Épernay – Reims (France).
A visit to this region and visiting the champagne cellars had been on my wish list for a long time.

We had booked a hotel less than a 2 minute walk from the ‘Avenue de Champagne’, which, by the way, belongs to the world heritage list of Unesco. This avenue is strewn with almost all the major champagne houses and can be seen in all its splendor. Also close to our hotel was the champagne house Mercier and here we had pre-booked a tour and tasting. It is always advisable to book this type of tour and tasting in advance as these are quite busy. The tour gave us a glimpse into the champagne cellars with a clear explanation of how to make champagne and of course followed by a tasting.

The second day we went by train to the city of Reims. A beautiful old town and definitely recommended to visit. Here we visited a second large champagne house: Vranken-Pommery.

The third and last day we visited Hauvillers where we visited the tomb of Dom Perignon, the inventor of the champagne, and had a last tasting at the smaller champagne house: Champagne G.Tribaut.

What surprised us a little is that the selling prices of the bottles of champagne hardly differed from the selling prices here in the Netherlands but despite this it was a very pleasant and successful weekend and we learned a lot about the champagne process.

Some snapshots below.

Vive la France et vive la République!