Three days:Reims, Épernay and Hautvillers

Suggested reservation slots

The times below are suggested reservation slots for the named Reims and Épernay houses. The operator’s calendar supplies the actual departure; the paid ticket is tied to that departure. Numbered map points follow the Champagne stops. Allow extra time for stops between the numbered map points.

Day 1 09:00 — Notre-Dame Cathedral

Place du Cardinal-Luçon, Reims. Start at the cathedral in UNESCO’s 1991 Reims listing. The Smiling Angel stands on the western façade and Marc Chagall’s windows are inside. Saint-Nicaise Hill belongs to the separate 2015 Champagne listing, which links the city cellars to the vineyards and Épernay’s selling houses.

Official information and booking for Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Day 1 10:30 — Taittinger

9 place Saint-Nicaise, Reims. Reserve Instant Rosé,70 minutes and 2 wines from €40. This is the Reims cellar appointment in the plan. The former Saint-Nicaise abbey remains and chalk quarries form part of the route; the house’s rue de Tambour site is not the entrance used here.

Official information and booking for Taittinger.

Day 1 12:30 — Brasserie du Boulingrin

31 rue de Mars, Reims. The restaurant advertises its €27 (checked October 2026) formula with starter, main, dessert, drink and coffee. Request the table on the brasserie website and wait for its reply. For the train connection the next morning, use Reims Centre at Cour de la Gare instead of Champagne-Ardenne TGV.

Official information and booking for Brasserie du Boulingrin.

Day 2 09:19 example train — Reims to Épernay

Cour de la Gare, Reims Place de la Gare, Épernay. SNCF’s 24 October 2026 example TER 39916 leaves 09:19 and arrives 09:53:34 minutes. The direct route passes Rilly-la-Montagne, Germaine, Avenay and Aÿ-Champagne. Select the real service for the travel date; this example is not a standing daily timetable.

Official information and booking for Reims to Épernay.

Day 2 10:30 — Mercier

68 avenue de Champagne, Épernay. Reserve Founder’s Tour from €25 for 45 minutes and one Blanc de Noirs. The lift and driverless cellar train contrast with Taittinger’s walking route. The 68 avenue de Champagne entrance is at the eastern end of this day’s Avenue circuit.

Official information and booking for Mercier.

Day 2 12:30 — La Grillade Gourmande

16 rue de Reims, Épernay. Choose the published €42 or €69 menu and request a table directly. Christophe and Kristel Bernard run the restaurant, which specialises in wood-fire cooking. Its site lists Sunday and Monday as closed; move this lunch if the second day falls on either day.

Official information and booking for La Grillade Gourmande.

Day 2 14:30 — Boizel — Atelier 1834

46 avenue de Champagne, Épernay. The €40 Millésime tour covers the cellier, vat room and cellars, with Brut Réserve and Grand Vintage 2019 in the current tourist-office description. Boizel’s official reservation products give a 90-minute duration. English and French guided tours are advertised, with private language options on request.

Official information and booking for Boizel — Atelier 1834.

Day 3 10:00 — Saint-Sindulphe church

Rue de l’Église, Hautvillers. Arrange a driver for Hautvillers. Dom Pérignon’s burial is in the public Saint-Sindulphe church; the former Saint-Pierre abbey is private. The village’s iron signs and Marne Valley viewpoints are separate outdoor stops, not permission to enter the abbey.

Official information and booking for Saint-Sindulphe church.

Verified purchases and the unpriced parts

Day 1’s named purchases total €67:Taittinger €40+Boulingrin €27. Day 2’s visit-and-lunch subtotal is €107–€134:Mercier €25+Boizel €40+La Grillade Gourmande €42–€69. The 2 day sum for those purchases is €174–€201. Rail, the Hautvillers driver, hotels and other food are additional; no all-in 3 day cost is implied. Prices checked October 2026; availability and selected options determine the booking total.

Accommodation for the named base

Search accommodation in Reims through Find hotels in Reims. The accommodation directory lists named properties by town; Booking.com supplies the current room terms and dates.

Book the route in this order

Reserve Taittinger for Day 1, Mercier and Boizel for Day 2, then request La Grillade Gourmande’s lunch table. Its Sunday and Monday closures determine which weekdays suit this sequence. The Reims–Épernay TER and the Day 3 Hautvillers driver are separate transport bookings; use the driver’s agreed church pickup point.the house directory to open the actual producer calendar. For this 8-stop route, reserve the paid appointments first, then the named restaurant, transport and accommodation. No 9:00 or 10:30 slot above becomes a ticket until the operator accepts it.

Access on this route

Mercier offers reserved wheelchair places and a non-drinking adult option by direct contact. Boizel’s official tourist-office listing includes a lift. At 46 avenue de Champagne, ask Boizel which parts of the chosen cellar and vat-room visit that lift serves.

The Reims day links two different heritage listings

Notre-Dame, the former Saint-Remi Abbey and the Palais du Tau entered the World Heritage List in 1991 under criteria (i), (ii) and (vi). The palace hosted the coronation banquet and the cathedral the crowning ceremony. Saint-Nicaise Hill is instead part of the Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars inscription from 2015. The two entries explain the two halves of Day 1: the royal city at the cathedral, then the wine-production landscape at Taittinger.

The cathedral’s Smiling Angel is on the western façade’s north portal. Marc Chagall’s three windows were installed in the axial chapel in 1974. The 249-step tower visit is a separate reservation, with the kings’ gallery forty metres above the ground and views into Henri Deneux’s 1924–1926 concrete roof structure. This three-day schedule uses the cathedral floor before Taittinger; adding the tower means obtaining another operator departure and moving the cellar or lunch reservation.

The Épernay walk between the booked stops

At 7 avenue de Champagne, the tourist office occupies the building beside the Hôtel de Ville. Its directions place the office less than five hundred metres from the station forecourt, via place Mendès-France, the theatre, rue de Reims and the Hôtel de Ville garden. Château Perrier follows at 13, Moët’s visitor entrance at 18, the Perrier-Jouët Cellier at 26, de Venoge at 33 and Boizel at 46. Mercier is at 68 and Comtesse Lafond at 79.

Pol Roger at 34 is an exterior stop: the house explicitly says it is not open for public visits. Perrier-Jouët’s €95 Art of Chardonnay at the Cellier is a one-hour, two-cuvée tasting without a cellar tour. The Maison Belle Epoque at 11 sells a separate gastronomic experience. These addresses can be seen during the Avenue walk, but the Day 2 paid cellar appointments remain Mercier and Boizel. The street number identifies the building, not a ticket to every interior.

Hautvillers beyond the Dom Pérignon name

Saint-Sindulphe church on rue de l’Église contains Dom Pérignon’s tomb; the former Saint-Pierre Abbey next door is private. The public church has a sixteenth-century nave, the Sainte-Hélène chapel and historic woodwork. The village’s wrought-iron signs include a twenty-eight-sign discovery trail among around 140 signs. Belvédère Dom Pérignon and Croix Joseph are the named viewpoints used in the village guide. These are specific outdoor stops for Day 3 after the church, not entry into the abbey grounds.

Dom Pierre Pérignon became the abbey’s procurator in 1668 and remained until his death in 1715. The Union des Maisons de Champagne describes him developing the estate from ten to twenty-four hectares and improving the blending of grapes from different plots. Its history also records repeated destruction of the abbey in 882, 1449 and 1564, followed by rebuilding. The village’s Champagne story is therefore an account of vineyards, blending and monastic administration, not a verified claim that one monk suddenly invented every stage of sparkling wine.

The village meal and an alternative booked visit

Au 36 is the named Hautvillers tasting-and-food address at 36 rue Dom Pérignon. Champagne Joseph Desruets advertises a €25, forty-five-minute cellar visit and a €60, ninety-minute vineyard walk. The €40 sabrage item is priced per bottle, not per person. A Day 3 Desruets reservation needs the driver’s route adjusted to its actual start and finish; the church and iron-sign walk alone require no invented grower appointment.

For a longer stay in the vineyard villages, Castel Jeanson at 24 rue Jeanson in Aÿ lists an indoor pool, terrace, secure parking and a lift serving most rooms. Le Clos d’Aÿ is at 17 rue Jules Lobet, with four guest rooms and a limited number of courtyard parking spaces to reserve with the room. Those Aÿ stays belong to a different overnight base from this itinerary’s Reims plan. The named-property directory supplies the Booking.com links and the actual accommodation location.

Numbered stops on this itinerary

1. Notre-Dame Cathedral — Place du Cardinal-Luçon, Reims
2. Taittinger — 9 place Saint-Nicaise, Reims
3. Brasserie du Boulingrin — 31 rue de Mars, Reims
4. Reims to Épernay — Cour de la Gare, Reims Place de la Gare, Épernay
5. Mercier — 68 avenue de Champagne, Épernay
6. La Grillade Gourmande — 16 rue de Reims, Épernay
7. Boizel — Atelier1834 — 46 avenue de Champagne, Épernay
8. Saint-Sindulphe church — Rue de l’Église, Hautvillers

Map points from OpenStreetMap address data, checked 23 October 2026. Use the booking entrance stated by each operator.