Champagne region France
 

I'm wanting suggestions of villages to stay in the Champagne region for 7 nights. We enjoy the country side and are wanting a nice relaxing few days of cafes, people watching, eating and getting the feel of the region. Any ideas?

The first thing what you should do is to find accomodation. There are many villages in Champagne - but few with (decent) hotels.

We found this 3-star castle hotel in a small village most charming:

www.chateau-etoges.com

It offers excellent food, a very affordable house champagne and is very atmospheric. Be sure to visit the Launois cellars & champagne museum in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger (Cote des Blancs).

If you want to go more upscale this is a wonderful place with Michelin-star awarded cuisine:

www.labriqueterie.fr

7 nights are a lot of time for a regions which does not have too many attractions. You will certainly do some driving. There are some scenic roads (with the green line in the Michelin maps, especially around Montagne de Reims) and typically the vineyards and wine villages form chains which make scenic drives at a leisurely pace.

Laon (although technically not in the Champagne) is a quaint old town and nearby Foret de St. Gobain offers some opportunities for hiking and a few ancient abbeys to see.

For sitting in cafés and people watching, Reims would probably be a better place than a village. Consider staying a few nights there and some nights in a village.

My husband and I stayed at Chateau Les Crayeres in Reims, France in the Champagne region. www.lescrayeres.com

We loved it. Our room was so beautiful and our view was of the spires of Reims through the trees.

Within walking distance of Vieve Cliquot (sorry for misspelling), and Pommery.

We had a car and driver with a guide take us to Tattinger and Moet & Chandon/Dom Perigonon. Then to a local Champagne house- G. Tribeau.

Great trip, great fun, great Champagne!

Keep in mind that if you actually stay in a village, the people watching is extremely sparse. Villagers now prefer to stay at home and watch what the satellite dish has brought to their plasma screen.

I agree that 7 days is an awful lot of time to stay in Champagne country - and the smaller towns are VERY quiet.

I think I would combine a couple of days there with an area with a lot more to do - and villages that are more active - perhaps Strasbourg and the wine road down to Colmar (good for 4 or 5 days between them) .

I am a major, major francophile, and even I couldn't bear 7 days in the Champagne region. There are SO many more lovely bits of countryside in France. I'd spend 2 nights in Reims or Epernay and then hightail to somewhere really pretty. Go south, go north, go east - there are a zillion choices.

Most wine growing regions in Europe are very pretty - with picturesque villages. In France, Bourgogne and Alsace are especially beautiful. The reason is that wine growing was a very profitable business and wine farmers got rich enough to afford beautiful houses, churches, village fountains and town halls.

There are, however, two exceptions:

The Médoc and the Champagne. The reason is that in both regions very large, factory-like wineries dominate to that the wealth did not spread around. In the Champagne, the villages are indeed rather miserable. The Champagne has been called "lousy Champagne".

Of course, the region is worthwile to spend a couple of days there, although 7 days are a lot: You can spend two days in Reims, visiting the Cathedral and two wineries. You can spend two days driving through the countryside at a leisurely pace, with picnics and tastings and cave visiting. You can spend two days with hiking in the forests and maybe one day visiting towns like Laon.

I spent a lot of time in that area in 2002 while following the "Pop train," all the places my grandfather had been stationed as an ambulance driver for the French Army in WWI.

Champagne is a delight. If you are going to be there, you may wish to spend a little time exploring WWI history. Stop at some of those graveyards, They are an unforgettable experience. Visit the fort at Sedan and the old garrison at the Fort de la Pompelle.

There's a wonderful literary car tour, too, the "Rimbaud Trail." To say nothing of wine tours like the "Champagne Trail."

Rheims is a lovely city and the cathedral, with its evidence of bombardment during WWI is a must-see. Epernay is surprisingly interesting and has the hqs for several major champagne makers including Moet.

Charleville-Mezieres is a charming town and the center of puppetry. It hosts a huge international puppet fest, I think it's each year.

I realize my experience was unusual and deeply focused on obscure locations mentioned in Pop's letters and diaries, but they did bring me to places I might otherwise have overlooked.

Have a wonderful time.

Try 3 days in the Champagne region followed by 4 in Normandy. If you stay in the region east of Rouen there are Lyon-la-Forêt, Petit Andelys (La Chaîne d'Or, right on the bank of the Seine, is a lovely small hotel), and quite a few more from which to choose.