Reims

Reims cathedral, Saint-Remi and a champagne cellar in one day

One full day covers Reims. Spend the morning in Notre-Dame cathedral, with the Smiling Angel on the west front and Chagall's windows in the eastern chapel; the Palais du Tau is closed for works until 2027. In the afternoon, book a cellar tour at Pommery, Taittinger or Ruinart and finish at the Basilique Saint-Remi.

Take an early TGV and walk from the station along Place Drouet-d'Erlon to the cathedral, about 15 minutes. Before going in, find the Smiling Angel on the left-hand portal of the west front, the carved figure that became the city's emblem. Inside, give an hour to the nave, the 13th-century glass high up in the choir and Marc Chagall's deep blue windows in the eastern chapel. A modern window by Jacques Simon in the south transept shows the champagne trade, Dom Pérignon included. The Palais du Tau next door is shut for works until 2027, so the cathedral alone fills the morning.

Eat lunch around Boulevard Foch, then look into the Art Deco Carnegie Library, free to enter, on your way south.

Spend the afternoon on the Saint-Nicaise hill with a booked cellar tour at Pommery, Taittinger or Ruinart, where the galleries run through old chalk quarries; allow about an hour and a half including the tasting. Walk on to the Romanesque Basilique Saint-Remi, which holds the tomb of the bishop who baptised Clovis, before taking a bus back to the station. If you are staying the night, the Musée de la Reddition, where Germany signed its surrender in May 1945, is a short walk from the station and fills the next morning well.

Visiting Reims champagne houses and eating locally

Book champagne cellar tours in Reims a few days ahead, because almost every house, including Taittinger, Pommery, Ruinart, Mumm and Veuve Clicquot, works by appointment. Tours end with a tasting, and the chalk galleries stay cool all year. To eat, try biscuits roses, jambon de Reims and Chaource cheese around Boulevard Foch.

Many of the grandes marques, the big champagne houses, have their headquarters here, and their cellars run for kilometres under the city. Taittinger, Pommery and Ruinart use chalk pits first dug in Roman times, which gives their tours a cathedral-like scale; Mumm, near the centre, and Veuve Clicquot also take visitors. Almost every house works by appointment, so book online a few days ahead, and further ahead for summer weekends and the harvest. Tours run in several languages and end with a tasting, with longer premium visits adding older vintages. Take a jacket, because the galleries stay cool all year.

The food that goes with all this is simple and local. Biscuits roses de Reims, crisp pink sponge fingers, are made to be dunked in a glass of champagne, and the bakeries in the centre sell them by the box. Jambon de Reims is cooked ham pressed with herbs into a breadcrumbed loaf, sold by charcutiers and served as a starter. Mustard from Reims is milder than Dijon's, and Chaource, a soft cow's milk cheese from the south of the region, ends many meals.

Place Drouet-d'Erlon is where Reims eats out, but the better mid-range restaurants are around the corner on Boulevard Foch and in the streets off Place du Forum.

Events in Reims through the year and the drive to Épernay

May to October is the best time for vineyard walks around Reims, with highs reaching 25C in July and August; rain falls steadily all year. The Fêtes Johanniques come in early June, the harvest in September and a large Christmas market in December. Épernay and its Avenue de Champagne are about 30 minutes by regional train.

The climate is cool and even. January averages 6C by day and just above freezing at night, while July and August reach 25C. Rain falls steadily through the year, between about 40 and 60 mm a month, so no season is reliably dry. May to October is the time for vineyard walks, and the cellars are a constant cool temperature whatever the weather above.

Early June brings the Fêtes Johanniques, which recreate Joan of Arc's arrival for the coronation of Charles VII in 1429, with costumed parades and a medieval market around the cathedral. The grape harvest falls in September, when picking crews fill the slopes and cellar tours book up. In December, one of the largest Christmas markets in north-east France sets up beside the cathedral.

Épernay, about 30 minutes south by regional train, is the region's other champagne town, and its Avenue de Champagne is lined with the mansions and cellars of Moët and Chandon and Perrier-Jouët among others. Between the two towns, the wooded Montagne de Reims has walking trails, vineyard villages and the Verzenay lighthouse, a wine museum built in a lighthouse among the vines. A car or a guided tour makes the villages easier.