What Champagne House in Reims or Epernay for a day visit?
 

My daughter in law, best friend and myself will have 2 weeks in Paris in October and want to take the train to Reims or Epernay to spend the day visiting one or two champagne houses and also have lunch. Any suggestions? We don't have to go through a tour company per se, we can take the train on our own, and reserve a tour on our own, but are wondering if anyone has a particular favorite or two that they could suggest, I would be grateful.

Moet-Chandon was very interesting. It's in Epernay and you get to tour the historic caves.

I very much enjoyed my tour at GH Martel in Reims. It is a smaller house with a charming and funny tour guide. 11 euros and 3 tastings (better value than the other houses).

Had my hotel make my reservation.

Came home with a bottle that is never exported out of Reims. Surprised it made it all the way back to NYC before I drank it!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...e_Ardenne.html

If Épernay is your destination, take some time to stroll the famous Avenue de Champagne, and then make an appointment at Perrier-Jouët, which recently celebrated its bicentennial, and whose Art Nouveau-style bottles are recognized the world over.

We are fans of Veuve Clicquot. You might check to see if you can tour Tsarine in Reims, a new favorite of ours.

In Epernay, see if you can book a tour at Billecart-Salmon....wonderful champagne and a smaller house than the big ones. We did enjoy Moet e Chandon.

I had looked into Veuve Cliquot....they want 35 euro p/p for a 1 hour tour and tasting. Worth it ??

We really enjoyed the Ruinart tour. I think it was around the same cost as VC and a more extensive, smaller group tour. At the end we could choose what we wanted to taste.

My daughter and I took the Veuve Clicquot tour a few years ago and really loved it. We had a very interesting guide as well. The story of the Widow Clicquot is fascinating and the champagne is wonderful, of course.

some do not offer free bubbly at the end of the tour - I'd certainly want one that did!

some caves are the draw - some have veritable works of art in them for eons ago - Mumm's Veuve-cliqot and Moet-et-Chandon are often sites as the best, both in tours and Champagne. Really I've been on most and the tours itself are kind of like peas in pods - kind of - I've never made a reservation but just showed up - I have not been in a few years so maybe reservations are suggested. Easy to do two in a day as in Reims at least most are concentrated in a cluster about 1.5 miles south of the city center.

At a cost of 11 euros, GH Martell offers the best value.... Includes 3 tastings. It is a small, charming champagne house.

I was able to purchase a variety that is not sold outside of France.

My wife and I have been to both Reims and Epernay. Our favorite Champagne houses were Perrier-Jouet and Moet. I have heard that Perrier-Jouet does not offer tours any longer but it is worth checking out. If you want a wonderful lunch after visiting Epernay, I would highly recommend Royal Champagne, a Relais et Chateau hotel and restaurant.

We've been to Pommery, Moet and Chandon and Ruinart. This year will visit Veuve Cicquot and Billecart-Salmon.

We really enjoyed Pommery for the art in the caves and Ruinart for the detailed tour and vintage champagne.

Last year when we went to Ruinart we had lunch at Les Crayeres in Reims.

Tattinger is another classic Champagne House and Tour.

The veuve cliquot tour was the best of all the ones we went to. I really enjoyed it. Moët et Chandon in Epernay was also good. I actually found the tours different, not samey at all and we did 3 in the space of 24 hours!
I thought the Mumm was only ok!