Reims
Imagine the extravagance of a French royal coronation. The focal point of such pomposity was Reims’ resplendent Gothic cathedral, begun in 1211 on a site…
Must-see attractions in Champagne
Reims
A Unesco World Heritage Site, this lavish former archbishop’s residence, redesigned in neoclassical style between 1671 and 1710, was where French princes…
Troyes
Half-timbered houses – some with lurching walls and floors that aren’t quite level – line many streets in the old city, rebuilt after a devastating fire…
Troyes
Housed in a 16th- to 18th-century bishop’s palace, this place owes its existence to all those crocodile-logo shirts, whose global success allowed Lacoste…
Épernay
Épernay’s handsome av de Champagne fizzes with maisons de champagne (Champagne houses). The boulevard is lined with mansions and neoclassical villas,…
Champagne
Bernard de Clairvaux (1090–1153), nemesis of Abelard and preacher of the Second Crusade, founded this hugely influential Cistercian monastery in 1115…
Cathédrale St-Pierre et St-Paul
Troyes
All at once imposing and delicate with its filigree stonework, Troyes' cathedral is a stellar example of champenoise Gothic architecture. The flamboyant…
Champagne
This museum is so outstanding that it’s worth planning your day around a two-hour tour. Assembled by a family that has been making Champagne since 1872,…
Maison de l’Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière
Troyes
Worn to a sensuous lustre by generations of skilled hands, the 11,000 hand tools on display here – each designed to perform a single, specialised task…
Champagne
For the region’s best introduction to the art of growing grapes and the cycles of the seasons, head to the Phare de Verzenay, on a hilltop at the eastern…
Reims
This 121m-long former Benedictine abbey church, a Unesco World Heritage Site, mixes Romanesque elements from the mid-11th century (the worn but stunning…
Épernay
Everyone who visits Moët & Chandon invariably stops to strike a pose next to the statue of Dom Pérignon (c 1638–1715), after whom the prestige cuvée is…
Troyes
This haunted-looking, Renaissance-style mansion shelters a twinset of unique museums. The Musée de l’Art Champenois is a repository for the evocative…
Champagne
The impressive Mémorial Charles de Gaulle presents graphic, easily digestible exhibits, rich in photos, which form an admiring biography of France’s…
Reims
Lodged in an 18th-century abbey, this museum's rich collection stars one of four versions of Jacques-Louis David’s world-famous The Death of Marat (yes,…
Troyes
Off rue Champeaux (between Nos 30 and 32), a stroll along tiny ruelle des Chats (Alley of the Cats), as dark and narrow as it was four centuries ago – the…
Champagne
You’re assured a warm – and English-speaking – welcome and a fascinating cellar tour at Albert Levasseur, run by a friendly Franco-Irish couple, which…
Champagne
At the northern entrance to Cramant, this mammoth, Instagram-worthy Champagne bottle, emblazoned with the name of the village, is one hell of a magnum…
Troyes
Troyes’ oldest and most interesting neighbourhood church has an early Gothic nave and transept and a Renaissance-style choir and tower. The highlights…
Champagne
Featuring colourful and often gaudy objects associated with 19th-century marriage traditions, highlights include a tableau of newlyweds in their nuptial…
Champagne
Many past, present and future Champagne makers learn, or are learning, their art and science at the Avize Viti Campus run by the Ministry of Agriculture…
Champagne
Once the abbey church of a Benedictine convent, Église St-Nicolas mixes Romanesque, Flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance styles. There are no specific…
Reims
The vaulted Halles du Boulingrin were a symbol of Reims’ emergence from the destruction of WWI when they began service as the city’s main food market in…
Champagne
The Atelier Renoir has displays zooming in on the hallmarks of Renoir’s work (the female form, the vibrant use of colour and light), alongside original…
Champagne
For insight into how crystal is made, visit the Musée du Cristal, where a 15-minute film highlights the different stages involved in crystal production. A…
Troyes
Begun in 1262 by the Troyes-born Pope Urban IV, whose father’s shoemaker shop once stood on this spot, this church is exuberantly Gothic both inside and…
Champagne
People flock by the coach-load to visit Charles de Gaulle’s vine-swathed home, La Boisserie, its elegant antique furnishings unchanged since he was laid…
Troyes
Housed in the barn of the 18th-century Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte, this free museum dazzles with 25 works of stained glass reaching from the 12th to the 21st…
Reims
The original Allied battle maps are still affixed to the walls of US General Dwight D Eisenhower’s headquarters, where Nazi Germany, represented by…
Troyes
Faded with age and all the more enigmatic for it, this Renaissance-style, cruciform church, with its barrel-vaulted wood ceiling, is a great place to see…
Champagne
The highest point in Châtillon-sur-Marne is crowned by a 25m-high statue of Pope Urban II, dedicated in 1887, a particularly successful local boy (1042–99…
Volière des Cigognes Altavilloises
Champagne
Hautvillers is twinned with the Alsatian town of Eguisheim, which explains why several storks (including one rare black one) live here, an easy 500m walk…
Reims
Housed in a 17th- and 18th-century abbey, this museum homes in on local Gallo-Roman archaeology, 16th-century Flemish tapestries, medieval sculpture and…
Apothicairerie de l’Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte
Troyes
If you come down with an old-fashioned malady – scurvy, perhaps, or unbalanced humours – the place to go is this fully outfitted, wood-panelled pharmacy…
Champagne
Part of a former Benedictine abbey, the Abbaye St-Pierre d'Hautvillers, founded in AD 650 by St Nivard, bishop of Reims, this church is liberally…
Champagne
The Renoir trail in Essoyes begins at the Espace des Renoir, which also houses the tourist office. The centre screens a 15-minute film about the artist…
Reims
A strangely expressionless statue of Joan of Arc, raised high on a rearing horse and bearing a sword, graces this square facing the cathedral. The so…
Reims
For a quick trip back to Roman Gaul, check out the massive Porte de Mars, a three-arched triumphal gate built in the 2nd century AD. The gate was…
Reims
Highlights in this 15th-century townhouse include a series of furnished period rooms (kitchen, smoking room, Napoléon III’s bedroom), some 50 wood…
Reims
Thanks to a donation from the US-based Carnegie Foundation, the lobby of the Bibliothèque boasts gorgeous 1920s mosaics, stained glass, frescos and an…
