My husband and I will be in Paris in March and are planning a day trip to Reims. We have arranged with the Champagne house we wish to visit. My questions are 1-do we have to reserve train tickets for a day trip to Reims and 2-someone (though I have searched to find who and where) mentioned a wonderful restaurant for lunch in Reims can you repeat that recommendation. Any other suggestions are also appreciated. Thanks!<BR> Abigail

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Abigail.<BR>Hi. No reservations are needed on the train. When I bought the tickets in advance I tried to reserve seats too, but the train staff said just go to the train, as they don't take reservations. Train leaves from Gard de L'est train station, takes 1hour 40 minutes. Best to check hours for direct trains.<BR><BR>The restaurant is Le Vigneron. Be sure to get good directions. Main thing is to remember that is not in the area directly behind the cathedral, but in a direction veering off toward the right as you face the cathedral. We spent at least 20-30 minutes trying to find the place, but are so glad we persisted in finding it. Lunch course for 2 with small bottle of champagne cost Euro 78. It was the highlight of my dining experience in France. Staff hardly speak English, but are very friendly. I got the tip to go there from this site, and I am glad to pass this info on to others. I want to go back to Reims again, and cannot think of eating at another place.<BR><BR>I am not sure of the champagne house you are going to. I reserved with Veuve Cliquot and couldn't have had a nicer and more friendly guide, plus the tour was good too.<BR><BR>Enjoy,<BR>Ron

Can you all expand on the champagne reservations? I would like to do this, also, but the guided tours out of Paris seem to make it an ordeal.

Ron-<BR> Thanks for the information. I knew I had seen something but there are so many posts on Fodor's they can disappear before your eyes.<BR>Santa Chiara-<BR> I don't know about other Champagne houses but we arranged with Lanson (which was the champagne we had for our wedding 20 years ago) by email. There is a website that is a kind of clearing house for all the Champagne houses. I think it is Champagne.com (if it isn't Champagne.com I found it using the Google search engine) and it takes you to the websites of all the producers. Most have some information about visits. Good Luck.<BR> Abigail<BR>

Santa Chiara,<BR>The website for reservations at Veuve Cliquot is as follows. http://www.veuve-clicquot.fr/gb/messagerie.html<BR>All I did was send a message and tell them the date I was going to be in Reims, and they promptly replied that they could arrange an English-speaking tour at 2pm, and then gave directions to their locaton.<BR><BR>I did the trip to Reims in January all on my own without any tour, because there weren't any tours in the winter. It is quite easy to do, and Reims makes for a wonderful day trip from Paris. I highly recommend it. Once in Reims, though, we used taxis to save time, and also because the distances are rather long walks--in the January cold especially. Except we opted to walk from the cathedral to the restaurant, which wouldn't have taken us more than 10 minutes, if we hadn't gotten lost.<BR>I don't think you really need an organized tour. <BR><BR>We also visited the house of Mumms too, and for there you don't even need a reservation, as they accept walk in visitors. Nice informative tour too, by the way.<BR><BR>Ron<BR><BR><BR>

Also for your information, I'm posting another informative website from the Reims tourist office. It lists information about all the local houses.<BR><BR>http://www.ville-reims.com/anglais/ville-du-champagne/Default.htm<BR><BR>Ron<BR>

Thanks Ron and AGM for the great information.<BR><BR>

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Don't miss the Cathedral in Reims, if you enjoy this kind of thing. During a two-week trip to France a couple years ago it was my very favorite cathedral on the trip. Still my favorite of all I have ever visited. <BR><BR>Have a good trip!<BR><BR>Sandi

This is completely in a different direction, but a one day trip to Angers is easly done from Gare Montparnasse and the train station in Angers is and easy walk to the Chateau de Angers and some plesant walks through the older part of the city. Angers is a beautiful city.

TTT