Reims ~ the champagne city

Reims is well known as  the champagne wine growing region in France and has several champagne houses grand and small, some with cellars that even date back to the Roman era.

Located northeast of Paris and just a 2 hours drive away, is the scenic city of Reims. You can take a train as well from Gare de l’Est Paris to Reims, it takes about the same time.

We reached Reims and headed to the tourist office to buy tickets for the vineyard tour. You could also purchase them online at the Reims tourism website.

Since the tour was only at noon, we had plenty time to go visit the city’s cathedral and basilica that are both UNESCO heritage sites now.

The snapshots are of the 12th century Notre Dame Cathedral of Reims where the grand event of coronation of the kings of France used to take place  .

An absolute must do thing is the open bus vineyard tour which takes about 3 hours. Hop on and be taken away from the main city, past the big river, into winding roads that have endless vineyards on each side. The bus even stops at a famous vineyard property with a windmill, for tourists to get down and go click those memorable photos and may be taste a grape or two. This sight was so gorgeous.

 We then proceeded to visit a family-run champagne producer who gave us a brief demo and spoke about the whole process of wine and champagne making. The tour also included visiting the cellar downstairs and seeing and understanding for ourselves the various stages of champagne production from fermentation to ageing and storage.

The best part of course was the tasting session along with some treats. Santé to that and it was a wrap. We purchased a bottle of champagne from here to toast back to this visit later on. The bus driver was set to take us back to the city through the same scenic route and I then caught a small nap, enjoying the cool summer breeze.