Day Trip to Reims
 

I know this topic has been done before, but I still have questions and seek advice. We will be taking a day trip form Paris to Reims in early November. We will arrive in Reims at around 10:30 and leave around 5:00 (I don't have the details in front of me). We would like to do one champagne tour, at least, maybe two if we can squeeze it in, lunch, and what other sightseeing we can fit in to such a small time frame.

I have been looking at the tours and have seen some recommendations for G.H. Martel. I would love to hear first hand experience about the champagne tours, recs for a nice, but moderately priced place for a sort of celebratory lunch (big anniversary and birthday combined), and what to squeeze in while walking back to the train station.

opaldog, we made a day trip to Reims about 18 months ago. Like you, we arrived around 10:30. We spent the balance of the morning looking at the cathedral:

http://anselmadorne.zenfolio.com/p62...4466#h1bfe4466

http://anselmadorne.zenfolio.com/p40...8a40#h26c28a40

We had lunch at Le Grand Café:

http://anselmadorne.zenfolio.com/p62...1ff17#h871ff17

and then walked to the Veuve Cliqout cellars for a tour:

http://anselmadorne.zenfolio.com/p62...ff17#h1439d6d0

The staff called us a taxi after we finished the tour and we were back at the Reims station in time for our TGV back to Paris.

I would certainly recommend you look at the cathedral while in the city; the Chagall windows alone are spectacular enough, the entire building is beautiful.

The Veuve Cliquot tour was quite interesting. We did the tour in French, which taxed my abilities, but I recollect that there are tours in English, too.

What do you consider moderate? The more formal restaurant Le Parc at Chateau Les Crayeres offers a 3 course lunch menu for I believe 65 euros. It's located at the south end of town close to many of the champagne houses (Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart, Martel, Taittinger, Pommery). From the train station it takes about half an hour to walk to this part of town (assuming you're arriving at Reims gare and not Champagne-Ardenne station which is located 8km outside of town). But maybe lunch here will take up too much of your limited time.

I've only toured Ruinart which was a nice, leisurely paced small group tour (they take 8 max). Including the tasting this took about 2.5 hours so again might be more time than you want to spend at one champagne house. Most of the other champagne house tours are about 1 hour in duration. You definitely need to reserve in advance for Ruinart and I believe for Veuve Clicquot and Pommery as well. I think Taittinger and Martel take walk ins. Close to the train station is Charles de Casanove and I believe they take walk ins as well. More info is available here http://www.reims-tourism.com/tabid/15199/Default.aspx

There's the cathedral and several small museums you can visit depending on your interests. We went to several of them during our stay and you can find more details in my trip report http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ims-report.cfm

Enjoy!

Reims now has a tramway system which makes getting around the city much easier.

The tram doesn't go near the champagne houses south of town (there are some bus lines that do but we just walked). However the tram does go to Champagne-Ardenne station.

http://www.citura.fr/le-voyage/les-plans/

Thank you for the replies. AnselmeAdorne - Nice pictures. Your day sounds about what we will be doing when we visit. I'm not sure which champagne tour we will do yet. I am assuming that you did not need reservations for Le Grand Café. How did you find the food? We're looking to have a nice, but moderate to inexpensive lunch with some local offerings, and of course champagne. Was that Le Grand Café? kerouac - I will definitely look into the tramway system as I am dealing with a foot issue. Hopefully it won't get in the way and slow me down. Patty - really enjoyed your report and will look at the link to reims-tourism.

opaldog, about Le Grand Café (http://www.le-grandcafe.com), here's what I wrote in my trip report at the time:

"We lunched at Le Grand Café on Place Drouet d’Erlon. This is not a place for fine cooking, but the lead-off glass of champagne (Henri Abelé, a producer we cannot find in Canada), the moules frites, and an agreeable waiter made for a fun meal. (Well, there was also some white wine along the way, and one of our party did have a second glass of champagne; we rolled out of there in very good spirits.) We then walked to the Veuve Cliquot champagne house, arriving just in time for our 2 pm tour."

No need for a reservation, but if you are in search of more elegant food, you might cast a wider net.

Sounds good to me. We will be eating in Paris, although nothing elegant. I also don't want to have to be tied down to a reservation, so it works. How long was the walk to Veuve Cliquot?

Le Grand Cafe is near the train station (as is the town center) so will take about half an hour to walk. There's also a casual restaurant at Les Crayeres called Le Jardin. They offer a 2 course lunch for 28 euros as well as a la carte. The setting is lovely and the service was excellent. We did make reservations but could have walked in. The reason I keep mentioning Les Crayeres is because the chateau is just around the corner from several champagne houses so if you're considering visiting more than one, it would make a convenient lunch stop sandwiched between a morning and an afternoon tasting.

Patty has the timing right. We walked from Le Grand Café to the Veuve Cliquot house and it was somewhere around 30 minutes.

Two thumbs up for the recommendations of both the cathedral and Les Crayeres.
I visited both last October and they are wonderful.

The Cathedral is a classic piece of gothic architecture and very easy to get to on foot once in the town. It was celebrating 800 years last year and had an incredible sound and (laser) light show beamed on it's facade most nights. Don't forget to pick up a small package of the pink cookies symbolic of Reims from the store just outside the cathedral.

Our party had dinner at Les Crayeres and it was exquisite. I'm sure the lunch will be no less.
We also had an equally fine, 'haute' lunch at A. Lallement which is just on the outskirts of Reims (Reims is small) though it may be difficult to fit this in with the cathedral and Champagne house visits on either side. You don't want to rush your lunch here ! http://www.assiettechampenoise.com/i...oto_gallery-69

The houses we visited over 3 days were Mumm, Krug and Roderer.

Mathieu,
May I ask how you arranged your Krug and Roederer visits and were these private visits?

Hi Patty,

Yes, they were both private visits, thanks to some connections we had with a course I was taking. However I believe that at least Krug offers public tours - or used to. We had M. Krug himself overseeing our tour, though he had recently sold his interests the business.

Thanks, Mathieu. I believe Krug no longer offers public tours. No I'm curious about your course :)

My plans are beginning to gel. We will do a tour of Charles de Cazenove, Pl. de Republique at 11:00 then sightsee and lunch and then probably to a tour at Mumm before we head back for the train at 5:15. In between drinking and eating we will do the Cathedral and what ever else comes our way. Thanks all.

Sounds like a good plan.

I made a lunch reservation at Cote Cuisine. It has both good and bad reviews, a nice website, and overall fits what we are looking for. It won't make or break the day if it's not our best dining experience, so we'll give it a try. I'll report back after our trip on our day in Reims.

Off subject, but I just reserved a tour of the Codorniu Cava Cellars outside of Barcelona. We are bookending tours, Reims on Monday and Codorniua on Friday. Anyone been to the Cava tour?

We thought Cote Cuisine was OK overall. The menu leans toward fushion-y. The dishes were definitely hit or miss and I think perhaps their menu is too ambitious. The setting is nice and the service was good and it's very close to the train station. Many restaurants in Reims are closed on Monday. Hope you have more hits than misses and looking forward to your report.

While in Paris we will eat at Café Constant and Brasserie I'sle St. Louis, two of our favorite traditional places. So fusion style will be a change. We are also planning to have pho and bun at this Vietnamese place we saw last time we were in Paris, Song Heng. It's a hole in the wall place up in the 3rd with a line snaking out the door down the sidewalk. They are only open for lunch and only serve those two things. Looking forward to it.