Côte des Bar

Côte des Bar: two river valleys and named village stops

Aube tourism describes the Champagne Tourist Route as a 220 km circuit between Bar-sur-Seine and Bar-sur-Aube. The number describes the tourist route, not a distance from Reims or Troyes. The area’s named stops include Urville, Ville-sur-Arce, Balnot-sur-Laignes, Les Riceys and Essoyes.

Bar-sur-Seine serves the Seine side of the vineyards; Bar-sur-Aube serves the Aube side. Drappier’s visitor site is in Urville, Devaux’s Manoir is at hameau de Villeneuve near Bar-sur-Seine, Chassenay d’Arce is in Ville-sur-Arce and Gremillet is in Balnot-sur-Laignes. A visit booking should name that commune.

Les Riceys: three appellations

Les Riceys combines Champagne, Coteaux Champenois and Rosé des Riceys. Rosé des Riceys is a still rosé and is distinct from sparkling rosé Champagne. The local heritage includes stone winegrowers’ houses, churches, wine-cellar businesses and the cadoles on the surrounding slopes.

The tourist-office Les Riceys listing counts two châteaux, six chapels, seven wash houses and 18 cadoles. Those are a village heritage inventory, not a list of buildings admitting visitors without reservation. The local office supplies the town and walking plans.

Cadoles: 7 km, 14.5 km or 23 km

Cadoles were dry-stone shelters used by vineyard workers against sun, cold and rain. The Champagne World Heritage mission publishes Les Riceys circuit options of 7 km/two hours, 14.5 km/four hours and 23 km/seven hours. The tourist-office contact is 14 place des Héros de la Résistance, Les Riceys, +33 3 25 29 15 38.

Courteron has a separate cadole circuit. The Côte des Bar tourism directory identifies twelve shelters and the village church along that route. The signed Les Riceys circuit and PR18 Les cadoles de Courteron are different walks; do not use the length of one as the duration of the other.

Other official walking names include PR15 Circuit Pierre-Auguste Renoir at Essoyes, PR16 L’Arce entre vignes et vallons at Ville-sur-Arce, PR17 Le chemin du vigneron at Celles-sur-Ource and PR23 Circuit Aline Charigot at Essoyes. Each route has its own official sheet.

Essoyes: Centre culturel, house and studio

Du Côté des Renoir combines the Centre culturel at 9 place de la Mairie with the family house and painter’s studio on rue de l’Extra. The operator recommends two hours for both sites. The complete Parcours Renoir adult ticket is €12; the house-and-studio ticket is €10 and the centre-only ticket €8 (checked October 2026).

The official opening calendar closes the sites in January and December. July and August have daily opening; May–June and September to the end of the Toussaint holidays exclude Tuesday. During the specified February–April and November periods, visits use reserved French guided departures with audioguide arrangements for non-French speakers. Use the operator’s calendar and reservation page.

Four producer addresses and direct booking

Drappier receives visitors on rue des Vignes, Urville. Its official contact page offers cellar-tour-and-tasting reservations, tasting without a tour and a seasonal Gourmet Picnic. Email reception@champagne-drappier.com for the selected product.

Devaux’s Manoir is at hameau de Villeneuve, Bar-sur-Seine. The tourist office dates the house to 1846, founded by Jules and Auguste Devaux. The manor beside the Seine has a historic dovecote; its appointment workshops are booked directly with Devaux.

Chassenay d’Arce is at 11 rue du Pressoir, Ville-sur-Arce. The official wine-tourism programme includes cellar visits with three signature cuvées, tastings with local specialities, blind tasting and paired lunch options. Gremillet’s reception at Envers de Valeine, Balnot-sur-Laignes, offers a Visite classique including Clos Rocher, arboretum, production spaces, museum, cellars and three wines.

Bar-sur-Seine and named food stops

Bar-sur-Seine’s Saint-Étienne church has 16th-century stained glass and sculpture. The Promenade du Croc Ferrand follows the Seine; a hillside path reaches the Tour de l’Horloge, a remnant of the medieval castle. These named landmarks provide a town walk around a Devaux appointment.

Le Clos des Cadoles is a named hotel-restaurant in Les Riceys, listed by the Côte des Bar tourist office. Le Magny is another Les Riceys hotel-restaurant named by Aube tourism. No unverified restaurant opening day, tasting menu or room price is repeated here.

Troyes contributes andouillette and Chaource to a wider Aube trip. The tourism office describes the local andouillette as pork tripe and publishes a gratin recipe with Chaource. The Troyes guide names the old-town sights and the Paris rail connection.

Route du Champagne en Fête

The 2026 Route du Champagne en Fête took place on 1–2 August on the Rive Droite de l’Aube. The event rotates between villages or sectors, so the 2026 location does not establish the next edition’s location. The organiser introduced compulsory adult wristbands for cellar access in that edition, separating tasting and accompanying-visitor options.

The event guide links the current organiser programme. No unannounced 2027 dates or ticket price are inferred from the 2026 weekend. The year-round 220 km tourist circuit remains a separate itinerary from the festival’s participating-cellar route.

Stay near the booked village

Search Find hotels in Bar-sur-Seine,%20France">Bar-sur-Seine stays for the Seine-side producers, Find hotels in Les%20Riceys,%20France">Les Riceys stays for the southern wine village or Find hotels in Essoyes,%20France">Essoyes stays for Renoir. Booking.com links are CJ affiliate links; we may earn commission from eligible bookings.

The transport guide provides named booking routes; the estate’s own address is the destination for a transfer quote. Tasting days require a non-drinking driver or booked transport. The area is not represented by one assumed regional driving time.

Clairvaux: a Cistercian abbey that became a prison

Bernard de Fontaine founded Clairvaux in 1115; building of the great medieval abbey began in 1135. Its last monks left in 1789–1791. Napoleon bought the site in 1808 to make it a prison. Prisoners moved to a modern building within the abbey walls in 1971, and the prison closed in 2023.

The general guided visit lasts ninety minutes and includes the 12th-century lay brothers’ building, the 18th-century kitchen and barn, and the monks’ refectory that became a prisoners’ chapel. The separate disciplinary-quarter tour also lasts ninety minutes; the extended abbey-and-disciplinary-quarter visit takes two and a half hours and is for ages eleven and over.

Grand Cloître restoration began in January 2024 and has made that building inaccessible during a project lasting several years. The tourist office states that the complete visitor route is not accessible to people with reduced mobility. Visits run with a guide, through the Association Renaissance de l’Abbaye de Clairvaux, at the Hostellerie des Dames in Ville-sous-la-Ferté, postcode 10310. The association’s booking office is based at this address.

For 2 November–20 December 2026, the abbey’s own schedule lists general tours Wednesday–Sunday at 10:30 and 14:30, with no Monday or Tuesday visits (checked October 2026). It gives exceptional closures on 25 November and 3 and 10 December for staff training, then winter closure from 21 December 2026 through 2 February 2027. Use the abbey’s visit calendar to select the actual tour date.

The abbey’s monastic market is scheduled for 7–8 November 2026. Its visitor page lists an additional 15:30 general tour on those two days and disciplinary-quarter tours at 11:00 and 14:00. The booking contact is +33 3 25 27 52 55. The market weekend has its own schedule; it is not the ordinary winter timetable.

Les Riceys: two hotels with restaurants

Le Clos des Cadoles is at 24 rue du Pont in Les Riceys, telephone +33 3 65 67 26 36. The tourist office lists sixteen hotel rooms and a forty-cover restaurant, with disabled access identified among its facilities. A specific accessible bedroom or bathroom arrangement needs to be requested as part of the room booking.

Le Clos des Cadoles’ restaurant lists a €24 starter-main-dessert lunch formula for Tuesday–Friday (checked October 2026). Its hotel listing gives restaurant service Tuesday–Sunday lunchtime and Thursday–Saturday evening. A hotel reservation and a table reservation are separate bookings at this address.

Le Magny is at 15 rue de la Voie Pouche in Les Riceys. The accommodation listing identifies twelve rooms with a capacity of twenty-four; the restaurant listing gives a garden, private parking, pool and terrace. The direct booking contact is +33 3 25 29 38 39 or lemagny@wanadoo.fr.

Le Magny’s 2026 restaurant listing has lunch at 12:00–13:30 and dinner at 19:00–20:45 on Monday and Thursday–Sunday, with Tuesday and Wednesday closed (checked October 2026). Its published menus include a €21 menu du jour and a €48 Menu Plaisir. Request the meal date directly when booking a room.

Gremillet: vineyard, arboretum and production spaces

Gremillet’s official visitor route begins in the vineyard at Clos Rocher, continues through the arboretum, and enters the cellar buildings. The production stages named in its description are the press, tanks, disgorgement and bottle-dressing workshops. A small museum and the cellars precede the tasting in a showroom overlooking the vines.

The French booking page lists the Visite classique at €15 for ninety minutes with three house cuvées and a minimum of ten people (checked October 2026). Its English page carries an older €14 figure, so the French booking page supplies the price here. Use the estate’s reservation page to arrange the visit and group conditions.

Vincent Lamoureux: three named visit formulas

The Côte des Bar tourist office lists three bookable formulas at Champagne Vincent Lamoureux. L’Essentiel combines a cellar visit and three-cuvée tasting. La Gourmande adds a food plate prepared with Le Clos des Cadoles. La Signature adds the food plate, disgorgement à la volée with the winegrower and a gift.

The listing advertises the visit range from €25 per person, by reservation (checked October 2026), and a ten per cent reduction on purchases made at the estate on the visit day. The €25 figure is the starting price for the range, not a published price for every formula. Request the selected formula through the official visitor listing.

Bar-sur-Aube: the halloy and Saint-Pierre

Saint-Pierre dates from the late 12th century. Its halloy, the covered timber gallery along the south and west sides, dates from the 14th century. The tourist office’s heritage sheet describes seven steps down into the church, made from old tombstones. About sixty surviving memorial slabs date from the 13th–18th centuries; some depict the working tools of merchants and craftsmen.

The master altar came from Clairvaux after the Revolution. The organ, reconstructed by Antoine Lété in 1845, has a case from Remiremont Abbey in the Vosges. Among the sculptures are the 16th-century Vierge au Bouquet and an Education of the Virgin associated with the workshop of the Master of Chaource. The Saint-Paul chapel’s ceiling includes vine shoots, pruning knives and carved heads.

Stays in Bar-sur-Seine and the Ource Valley

Les Tonnelles is at 1 avenue de la Gare in Bar-sur-Seine, telephone +33 3 25 29 86 77. The tourist office lists eleven rooms for twenty-two guests, disabled access, family rooms and air conditioning. Its restaurant is called Le Jardin des Tonnelles. The hotel was renovated in 2017.

For a stay beside the Renoir sites, the tourist office lists Arts & Millésimes in Essoyes. Au Cœur des Bulles is in neighbouring Loches-sur-Ource, on the Champagne tourist route, and combines rooms with a restaurant. These Ource Valley addresses are separate from the two Les Riceys hotels and from Les Tonnelles in Bar-sur-Seine.