High Five: Day Trip Champagne {Reims}

My parents were in town over father's day and we decided to take a little day trip to the champagne region. There are three main options when it comes to taking the train – Reims, Epernay (which Meg visited) and Laon – which are just about an hour from Paris. For no particular reason we opted for Reims (knowing my dad, he probably liked that train schedule the best). We were on the 11:30 train out of Gare de L'Est, and back to Paris on the 6:45pm train, and while we could have stayed and sipped our champagne longer, it actually worked out quite well. We had absolutely no plan when we arrived, which was part of the beauty of this jaunt, where we just walked and hopped on the tram. Outside the train station there was a tourist office, so we picked up a map (while the champagne "caves" were labeled, it didn't say which was which, nor their openings). Even though we loved winging it, here's my high five of the trip! And you can find all five places on my Everplaces too!

Dandelion fountain along rue Drouet d'Erlon, the main street heading out of the train station, and full of restaurants and outdoor terraces.

Cathedrale Notre-Dame is an impressive site. Turn a corner and it appears before your eyes and suddenly makes you feel small. There is a Marc Chagall widow in the apse of the church.

Parc Léo Lagrange became an unexpected detour as we headed to one of the caves on the map that turned out to be closed on weekends (ok, so maybe a bit more planning would have done us well). However, the park and green space on a perfect day was a nice break.

Mumm is one of the oldest and leading producers of champagne in the world with their signature red ribbon label. (Thankfully, with the help of the iPhone we found out this one was open). They offer tours in English and in French (we ended up in a French tour thanks to our timing). Some caves offer free tastings, but here there were a few options, but we opted for the 17 Euro tour + 2 glass tasting.

Take the train! While driving is definitely and option, taking the train meant we could drink all the champagne we wanted and not have to have a designated driver. Inside the city we mainly walked, but at one point we hopped on the tram which was really smooth and easy to use.


There are a million guides out in the world, but of course you can't do everything when you travel. So if you only have a limited time, these are my high five picks I'd recommend. Click here for more in the series, and here for my Everplaces map.