Destination #14 - Reims & Epernay, France

Funny enough, the dream to go to the Champagne region in France started at the gym back home in Canada. On the stationary bikes, there was a program that had video of bike rides you could do around the world. One of my favourites I would use on the bike would be the Champagne region one where it took you through the small villages and roads around the vineyards. Coming over to London, I knew I would have an opportunity to do this trip and when I told my friends Sasha and Nicole last summer about my idea, they were very keen. After almost a year and many months of planning, we made it happen.

We arrived late Friday night to CDG airport but I won't bore you with those details. The next day, we took a short train ride over to a city called Reims, part of the Champagne region. We stayed at an Airbnb and it did not disappoint. It was really spacious and we each had our own room...something we're not used to these days going on trips. 

The first stop of our search for good champagne was the Mumm cellars. I'm sure the tour was interesting but I think I was more interested in taking pictures in the cellar and tasting the bubbly at the end. Mumm being an expensive brand, we of course only got one glass to taste at the end but it was still delicious. Not to mention, for the first time, we could actually say "We are drinking champagne in Champagne."

After Mumm, we made our way towards the city centre and stopped to admire the Notre-Dame de Reims, a much more impressive cathedral than the one in Paris. After walking around the city centre, it started to rain so we decided to do what any normal group of people would do...grab some champagne, cheese, bread, and meat and head back to the apartment for dinner. Call us lame but hey, we all happily agreed on a night in!

On the Sunday, we ventured over to a town called Épernay, another city famous in the region of Champagne. In this town, they have what's called the "Avenue de Champagne" where a lot of the big producers can be found, including Moët & Chandon. On that note, as we walked past this mansion, about 10 Ferrari's just casually rolled in. No big deal.

Unfortunately, I think we made the mistake of going on a Sunday because I feel like a lot of the houses were closed. We made the best of it anyway. Our first stop on the avenue was at a producer called A. Bergère. We each grabbed a different type of champagne for our tasting and when we went outside to sit and drink it, we probably took a first 5 minutes taking pictures!? What has the world come to! I can only imagine what the people around us we're thinking...

Next stop was at a producer called Michel Gonet where we tasted 3 different champagnes with 3 different cheeses. Delicious! Did I mention that all of these tastings we're pretty cheap??? After that, we decided to walk it off a little bit and venture into a vineyard just off the grid. It was definitely worth the mini hike to get there as we got some stunning views and some great photos. After that, we grabbed one more glass of champagne from a producer before we headed back to Reims. That night, we got some dinner in the city centre of Reims while enjoying the beautiful sunset. Oh, Sasha had snails... yuck.

On our last day, we headed out on a day tour that we pre booked. My expectations weren't high but this actually turned out to be my favourite part of the trip. In a small group of 8, our tour guide took us over to a town called Hautvillers where we visited the vineyard where Dom Pérignon grapes are grown. While Moët & Chandon owns the majority of these grapes, there are a few small producers that have rights to some areas of the vineyard as well. Our tastings today involved a couple of these small producers.

Our first producer was Fernand Lemaire where we got a tour of the cellar (this time I paid attention) and a few tastings of the champagne. It was pretty crazy to think that we were drinking champagne made from Dom Pérignon grapes, the same stuff that Moët & Chandon sells for hundreds of Euros. The producer also doesn't sell any of their wine in stores. It is all done direct sales, which I thought was pretty cool. The next producer was JM Gobillard et Fils where not only did we taste quite a bit champagne but I also got to sabre a bottle. It was actually surprisingly easy and probably my highlight of the trip. At the end of the tour, our guide gifted us with a big and small bottle of the JM Gobillard et Fils which was really generous! Unfortunately, we couldn't check any baggage for our flight home so our only choice: drink it...while having a picnic in the park.

Soon after, it was back to reality. It's worthy to note that the Champagne region was actually named a World Heritage Site over the weekend so that was cool to be there at that time. I would definitely recommend going but perhaps rent a car. You would probably get to see a lot more of the region.

Au revoir.