Champagne, kilometres of chalk cellars beneath two cities and vines on the hillsides.

Champagne is the region that gave its name to a wine and, unlike others, it is visited above all underground. The champagne houses keep their bottles in galleries dug into the chalk, sometimes reusing quarries from Roman times, and those galleries lie beneath two cities, Reims and Épernay, half an hour by train from one another. Above, between the two, the Montagne de Reims and the Marne valley provide the vines. In 2015 UNESCO declared "the Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars" a World Heritage Site, which is exactly what this route covers.

Why champagne tastes like champagne

The appellation was delimited in 1927 and covers about 33,500 hectares in about 319 villages. Three grapes are used: chardonnay, almost the only one in the Côte des Blancs, south of Épernay; pinot noir, which dominates the Montagne de Reims and the Aube; and pinot meunier, that of the Marne valley. We are near the northern limit of vineyards, on the 49th parallel, with an annual average of about 10 degrees: the grape ripens just enough and gives wines with plenty of acidity, the base a sparkling wine needs. Beneath the vineyard, except in the Aube, there is chalk, the same soft stone in which the cellars are dug.

The method is what is explained at every visit. Sugar and yeast are added to the base wine and it is bottled closed, so that it ferments a second time inside the bottle and makes the bubbles. It then rests on its lees: at least fifteen months for a non-vintage champagne and three years for a millésime. The bottles are turned and tilted bit by bit, the remuage, until the sediment reaches the neck; the neck is frozen, opened and the pressure expels the ice plug with the lees; it is topped up with the dosage liqueur, which decides whether it will be brut, extra brut or sweeter, and sealed with the final cork.

On the label, two letters tell you who makes it: NM is a house that buys grapes and produces, like almost all the big brands; RM, a grower who makes champagne from their own grapes. About 5,000 growers make their own wine; another 14,000 only sell grapes.

Reims: crayères beneath the city

In Reims, the big houses receive by appointment. Mumm, next to the station, runs its 90-minute Cordon Rouge Experience with a glass for €30; in November it opens Thursday to Monday. Pommery goes down 116 steps to the Gallo-Roman crayères that Madame Pommery joined with galleries, about thirty metres down, with a glass from €30. Taittinger shows its crayères and the remains of the abbey of Saint-Nicaise at 18 metres. To see the vineyard from the city, Sparkling Tour picks you up at the station and takes you to Hautvillers and family cellars, from €105.

Épernay: the avenue of the houses

In Épernay everything happens on the avenue de Champagne, a kilometre and a half of mansions of the great houses. Moët & Chandon opens its galleries with the Instant Impérial visit, 90 minutes with two champagnes, from €48. At the Castellane tower you climb 237 steps with a guide and come down to a glass for €20. My Vintage Tour Company leaves the tourist office in a vintage Estafette van for the vineyards, with a tasting and a guide in Spanish, from €49. And the Champagne wine museum, in the Château Perrier, tells the story of the region starting with the geology.

Table and bed among the bubbles

In Épernay, Bulles & Bonheur is a winegrowing couple's restaurant at number 71 on the avenue, with pairings of their own champagne, and La Cave à Champagne cooks Champagne dishes with champagnes from independent growers. In Reims, the Brasserie du Boulingrin, from 1925, has a €25 midday set menu.

To sleep on the route, La Villa Eugène is the former mansion of the Mercier family on the avenue de Champagne, and the Hôtel Jean Moët, with twelve rooms, is a few metres away. In Reims, La Caserne Chanzy has a champagne bar facing the cathedral, and the Continental is five minutes from the station.

When it is worth it

From May to October the vines are alive and the grape harvest, in late summer or September depending on the year, is the moment of most work and most colour. The cellars open all year, and since the visit is underground, winter works for a route of the houses; some reduce days, such as Mumm in November. On the second weekend of December, Épernay celebrates Habits de Lumière on its avenue, from 11 to 13 December in 2026.

By train, without driving

It is the easiest wine route to do without a car. The TGV gets you to Reims in about 45 minutes from Paris Gare de l'Est; to Épernay there is a direct train from Paris in 1 h 20, and between Reims and Épernay, half an hour on the line that crosses the Montagne de Reims. The cellars in Reims are on foot or by tram from the centre, and those in Épernay, ten minutes' walk from the station. The vineyards are the only thing that requires transport: a guided excursion or a van with a driver.

To start: Reims and Épernay in a train day, the day trip to Épernay from Paris and the weekend in Reims.