Champagne for My Real Friends

Bonjour!

You know what’s always a great time? Drinking champagne. You know what’s an even better time? Drinking champagne IN Champagne. Let’s take a stumble.

It’s 7:00AM at St. Pancras International and you almost smacked your friend because he wandered off for too long, but it’s okay, because you’re on your way to France to sip on the glory that is champagne.

Hop on that Eurostar… St. Pancras —> Paris Gare du Nord.

We decided to stay in Paris for a few days and just take a day trip to the Champagne region. There are trains that will go from Paris to Epernay and Reims, but being self aware, I knew there was no way I could carry all the champagne I would buy on trains all day, so that’s where our man Mel came in. We booked a car through Paris Platinum Service to pick us up from our hotel and take us to the champs. It’s about a two hour drive from Paris, but with a quick car nap and a popped bottle at 10:00, time flies!

Stop One: Moët & Chandon

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go to smaller champagne houses, they have better champagne and a more intimate setting, I get it, but I’m not gonna go to Champagne and NOT hit up Moët for some of that rosé.

You can prebook your tour online for about €35 per person, and if you call ahead, they will even accommodate you if you are late to your scheduled time… at least in the off season (who does that? definitely not us….).

You’ll go through a tour of just a fraction of the miles of caves that store ALL THE CHAMPAGNE, then get to the goods, two tastings of deliciously crisp Moët Imperial. After that, hit the gift store and treat yo self! (I’m really unsure how I only left with 2 bags. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.)

On to the next! But first, lunch, a drive down the Avenue of Champagne, and another bottle in the car. Car bottles are key here. We brought one, our driver bought us one (complete with plastic champagne flutes), and we continued to buy car bottles throughout the day.

A lot of the houses were closed since it was so early in the season, but I can tell you, this street will be LIT in the summer, you probably only have to walk about 10 feet before you’re in another champagne house. So what I’m saying is, Heaven is real and it’s right here.

On our schedule, we had a stop at the church Dom Perignon is buried in, and from there, we asked our driver to find us a small champagne house, and boy, did he deliver.

Stop Two: Champagne G. Tribaut

This beauty not only has delicious champagne, but it has some pretty badass real estate. Their tasting room is all glass walls on one side so their guests can look out over the whole Champagne valley as they sip on some bubbly. And the town is basically where Belle lives in Beauty and the Beast, it really is a little town. Its a quiet village.

No tour or booking required. Tasting flights are available for €10. Highly recommend the blanc de blanc and blanc de noir.

We loved that place so much it made us late to our next stop. Classic us. Luckily, they were willing to give us a new tour time as well…

Stop Three: Veuve Clicquot

Yes, another big one, but again, we can’t NOT go to Veuve, okay?!

This one was a tricky one to book, they close the cellars for tours from January to March and this includes their online booking system. But if you check every day, eventually it will open up, and you can book tours starting at €25 per person.

Being late worked to our advantage on this one, we ended up getting a private tour. So our guide was able to customize it (aka, skip the stuff we already learned at Moët and get us to the tasting room faster).

Guys. These caves are insane. Photos don’t do them justice… but what the hell.

In the tour we chose, you get one free tasting of the classic yellow label, but you can buy additional tastings for various prices.

Stop Four: Reims Cathedral

Although there is not champagne on the immediate premises, if you’re in Reims, stop by Notre-Dame de Reims. It is the COLDEST cathedral you will ever set foot in, so bring your coat, but it is beautiful. We decided its much better than the one in Paris. So take our word for it.

And don’t worry, theres a champagne store right next door. Because car bottles.

With our bottles in hand, we headed back to Paris, almost peed our pants on the way, and incurred an overage fee on the car, because we are late to everything, apparently. Worth it.

Oh yeah, then we hung out in Paris for a couple days. It was chill. We found the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and a new favorite French pop song (Mercy by Madame Monsieur), but I didn’t get any crepes and I’m still disappointed in myself.