Looking for advice on a Paris-based day trip to Reims
 

I'll be in Paris in May. Over the years I've taken multiple day trips to Chartres, Chantilly, Versailles, and Giverny. I'm thinking Reims this time.

Was your day trip to Reims worth the time spent? Besides visiting the cathedral and perhaps one of the champagne makers, what else was there to see? What restaurants would you recommend?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Reims is fine for a day trip from Paris. the cathedral is gorgeous. there is a high speed train from paris that takes 45 minutes. you can walk to the cathedral from the Reims train station. the champagne houses you would want to visit such as Pommery or Taittinger are not close to the train station so you will need to get a cab or rent a car. I would see the cathedral in the morning, have lunch, then head to a champagne house or two. check their websites as they have set times for tours and tastings.

Here are the champagne houses that offer tours http://www.reims-tourism.com/Discove...ampagne-Houses Some require reservations (and in the case of Ruinart, as far in advance as possible). There are a couple that are closer to the train station but most are around a 30 minute walk south from the center of town. We spent a few nights in Reims and walked everywhere.

In addition to the cathedral, the Musee de la Reddition is very close to the train station and the Saint Remi basilica and museum are at the south end of town near where many of the champagne houses are.

Our favorite place in Reims where we ate was a tiny restaurant called Le Bocal upstairs of the fish market http://www.restaurantlebocal.fr/index_bocal.php They're closed Sunday and Monday. This is close to the train station.

If you want to be close to the champagne houses at the south end of town, we had a very pleasant lunch at Le Jardin, the more casual restaurant at Les Crayeres, before our tour at Ruinart.

yes, of course it was worth the time I spent, it doesn't take that long to get there. YOu just need to decide if what there is to see there interests you.

I'm not remotely interested in champagne so didn't go to any champagne houses. I visited the cathedral, the fine arts museum and the Museum of the Surrender (Musee de la Reddition) which was a highlight for me (as well as the cathedral, of course). That was Eisenhower's headquarters and where the Germans surrendered. YOu can see the original map room and they had some film footage in there that was amazing, I'd never seen some of it. I'm a big history buff, though. There are several other good museums, I think I might have gone to one of them, but probably ran out of time with those things I've mentioned. I walked to the surrender museum but I like to walk a lot, it is not right in the center but not too far. It's only about 1.5 km from the cathedral, and then I walked to the train station from there to return to Paris as it's close to the station.

Taittinger isn't that far from the train station, you could walk it if you wanted, it's only about 2.8 km which is less than two miles. And the cathedral and center of the city are on the way. That is presuming you take a train to the central station, there are TGVs that go there (Reims Centre). But you don't have to go to Taittinger, Mumm is very close to the main station, so is Veuve Cliquot. Pommery is farthest, it's about 4 km from the train station.

here's one description of them http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/2012...-tour-of-reims

Reims is a pleasant city where we spent 3 nights to let my SIL recover from flu. We never did get to any of the champagne houses. The cathedral is truly fabulous. Preferred it to those of Amiens, Beauvais, and Chartres which we also visited on this trip. Reims is well supplied with tourist brochures which you can probably pick up in the train station. One very interesting place to see is the Surrender Museum at the SHAEF headquarters where the Germans signed the unconditional surrender documents that ended World War II. And there are other monuments around town that concern that war. All very touching.

I learned a lot on the walking tour. Because the town was nearly totally destroyed in WW I, one focus on the tour is how it was rebuilt, with some discussion of the architecture.

Loved Reims and the cathedral is my favorite. Majestic and we still have fond memories of sipping Champagne outside with the Cathedral in the background. I would want to make a stop at Veuve Clicquot, as well.

When I took my brother and sister-in-law to Reims, we first visited the cathedral and then walked into the tourist office next door to it to ask about a champagne tour in English (since SIL does not speak French). They checked their information list and told us the best place to go within 5 minutes.