The weekend
Four days in Épernay, and the one trip on the whole list that needs no airport. Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris Nord, cross to Gare de l'Est, and a TGV puts you in Reims in forty-five minutes — roughly four hours door to door, city centre to city centre, with no baggage drop, no 4am alarm and no transfer at the far end. For a long weekend that is a material advantage, and it is why Champagne earns its place despite being the priciest wine on the list.
The Avenue de Champagne is the reason to base in Épernay rather than Reims. Moët & Chandon, Perrier-Jouët, Pol Roger, Mercier and de Castellane sit along a single street, with something like 200 million bottles ageing in the chalk cellars beneath it. Churchill called it the most drinkable address in the world; UNESCO listed it in 2015. These are commercial houses running scheduled daily tours with online booking — precisely the sort of reliability a short weekend needs.
A little history
Champagne was still wine for most of its history, and the bubbles were a fault — the cold Champagne winters halted fermentation, which restarted in spring and exploded the bottles. Dom Pérignon, cellarer at Hautvillers from 1668, spent his career trying to prevent that, not create it; the English, who had stronger glass and a taste for the fizz, encouraged it. The chalk beneath Reims and Épernay was quarried by the Romans, and those pits became the cellars. In the First World War the population of Reims lived in them for four years while the city above was shelled to rubble.
What it costs
Per person for the whole weekend, priced for a party of four — two twin rooms, or one whole place between you. Everything but the bed is fixed, so where you sleep is the only row that moves and the only one shown as a range.
| Per person | |
|---|---|
| Getting there, both ways | £180 |
| Three nights | £70–140 |
| Bikes and getting about | £53 |
| Eating, drinking and tastings | £190 |
| The weekend, per person | ~£490–560 |
Where to sleep
| Option | Per person |
|---|---|
| Hotels — two twin rooms | |
| B&B Hôtel Épernay, or the Saint Pierre by the station | €29 a night £75 for three |
| Hôtel Jean Moët — an 18th-century building in the middle of town | €55 a night £140 for three |
| Airbnb and self-catering — one whole place | |
| The typical Épernay listing, shoulder season | €28 a night £70 for three |
Épernay rentals run $108 in December against $158 in high summer, so the season matters more here than the property.
Eating and drinking
| What | Each |
|---|---|
| A menu du jour | €16–28 |
| Dinner with a bottle | €40–70 |
| A standard cellar visit and tasting | from €25 |
| The Épernay average for a cellar tour | €74 |
| A vintage flight at one of the grandes maisons | €100+ |
The £190 above assumes the middle of this list: a cheap lunch, an ordinary dinner, one good one over the weekend, and wine throughout. It does not change with the room.
Day by day
Friday Eurostar & the Avenue
- Mid-morning Eurostar from St Pancras; Paris, TGV, and into Épernay by late afternoon with no airport in the day at all.
- Walk the Avenue de Champagne before dinner — a single street of 19th-century mansions with the world's most valuable cellar beneath the pavement.
- Evening: a first bottle somewhere unhurried. Épernay is a small town and quiet out of season, which is much of its charm.
Saturday Down the Marne to Châtillon, back over the Montagne
- 71.3km with 601m of ascent — by a distance the hardest day on this list, and not the gentle champagne potter the region suggests.
- Out through Dizy and Cumières and down the right bank of the Marne — Damery, Venteuil, Reuil — with the vineyards rising on your right the whole way.
- Châtillon-sur-Marne at 25km is the turn: a thirty-three-metre statue of Pope Urban II standing on the bluff, visible for miles down the valley, put up by public subscription to the man who preached the First Crusade.
- Back east and then up into the beech woods at Nanteuil-la-Forêt at 44km — the quietest corner of the Montagne — before dropping to Hautvillers at 49km. Dom Pérignon was cellarer at the abbey from 1668 and his tombstone is in the church floor. Lunch at Au 36, and book it.
- Then the climb. Up to Saint-Imoges at 54km, 271m and the high point of the weekend, then the descent past Champillon with the whole Marne valley laid out below.
- East to Mareuil-sur-Ay at 64km through Grand Cru Pinot, and home along the flat canal towpath. If the day is running long, that towpath is also the short cut: it runs straight back to Épernay from Ay.
71.3 km · 601 m of ascent · 63–271 m
Sunday Over the Montagne to Chamery and Écueil, then Reims
- 37.6km with 397m of ascent, finishing at Reims station and taking the TER home — the Ligne des Bulles, 25 to 35 minutes, bikes carried free. All the climbing is done by the 25km mark.
- North out of Épernay and up past Hautvillers at 6km, over the shoulder of the Montagne and down through the beech woods to Nanteuil-la-Forêt and Sermiers.
- Champagne Pascal Lallement at Chamery, 23km. 29 rue de l'Église, in the middle of the village, with parcels across Chamery, Sermiers, Écueil and Rilly — all Premier Cru, on the south-facing bowl of the petite Montagne. A small house: arrange the visit directly rather than turning up.
- Lacourte-Godbillon at Écueil, 25km. Two kilometres on, and the perfect counterpoint — Demeter-certified biodynamic, old Pinot Noir on pure limestone, same slope and same rock, a different philosophy. Email well ahead for a Sunday.
- Lunch at Château de Sacy, 26km, on the first floor looking over the vineyard — and the pinch point of the day, since they serve 12.00 to 14.00 only. Be seated by a quarter to one, which means leaving Épernay around nine.
- Down through Les Mesneux and off the Montagne into Reims — eleven kilometres, downhill or flat the whole way. The cathedral where the kings of France were crowned, with Chagall windows in the axial chapel, and the Palais du Tau beside it.
- Dinner in Reims, then the train. Check the last Sunday departure before you set off — the evening service is thinner than on a weekday, and it is the one train you cannot miss.
37.6 km · 397 m of ascent · 68–269 m
Monday Home
- Slow morning in Épernay: the Avenue de Champagne, a last look at the cellars, biscuits roses and coffee.
- If Sunday evening ran short, Reims is 25 minutes by TER — Ruinart and Taittinger both show visitors their Gallo-Roman chalk pits, cut as quarries in the third century and now full of bottles.
- TGV and Eurostar home, into St Pancras in the early evening. No airport, either end.
When to go
Spring — March to May
8–18°C. The Marne valley greens up, the chalk slopes are bare, and the cellars are 11°C whatever happens above ground. Showery, and the growers are busy tying down.
Summer — June to August
16–26°C, warm and long-evening, with the Avenue de Champagne at its most photogenic and the vineyard paths dry. Reims and Épernay run summer light shows on the cathedral and the houses.
Autumn — September and October
9–18°C, harvest through September — the whole region mobilises and picking is done entirely by hand — and the vines turning gold along the Montagne through October.
When to go
September, once the picking is under way, or June for long evenings. The great houses run scheduled tours year-round, so no season is closed to you.
Festivals
None of this weekend assumes a festival. The rides work on any weekend of the season. If your dates land on Champagne Day in October, growers across the Montagne open who normally do not — ride the Sunday route and stop at three of them instead of one. In September the harvest is on, everyone is working, and visits need booking well ahead. The trade is worth stating plainly: on a festival weekend the growers are behind a stand in the square rather than showing visitors round a cellar, so book private tastings weeks ahead or accept that some will be shut, and expect beds to be scarcer, dearer and gone months in advance.
Spring
Saint-Vincent — late January
The growers' patron saint, celebrated village by village across the Marne with processions and tastings. It is a local affair rather than a fixture with a programme, so there is nothing to book and no published rota — ask in the village.
Summer
Rêve de Reims and cathedral light shows — summer evenings
The west front of Reims cathedral is lit as it would have been painted, in colour, on summer nights.
Autumn
Harvest — September
Champagne is picked by hand by around 120,000 people over a few weeks. The villages are transformed, and the growers are working — book visits well ahead.
Champagne Day and open cellars — October
Growers across the region open for tastings, and the Montagne villages are at their most colourful.
Getting there
From London, per person, assuming bikes are hired locally rather than flown. Fares checked September 2026 and converted at €1 to 86p.
| Leg | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| London to Paris | ||
| Eurostar, St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord — cheapest booked months ahead | 2h 20 | £60 |
| Across Paris | ||
| Métro or a ten-minute walk to Gare de l’Est (€2.15) | 0h 10 | £2 |
| Into Champagne | ||
| TGV Gare de l’Est to Reims | 0h 45 | £22 |
| TER Reims to Épernay (€7) | 0h 25 | £6 |
| Waiting and two changes, one of them across Paris | 1h 05 | — |
| Door to door, one way | 4h 45 | £90 |
| Both ways | £180 | |
No airport at any point, which is the argument for this one.
Bike hire
Assumes hybrids.
| Shop | Rate |
|---|---|
| Bikehire.fr, 5 rue de la Fauvette — a hundred metres from the tourist office and the Avenue de Champagne | €25 a day €35 e-bike |
| Facil-e-Bike, 7 Avenue de Champagne — classic and electric, plus child seats and trailers, delivered to where you are staying and collected after | rates on request |
Getting about
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Bike hire, Saturday and Sunday | £43 |
| TER hops up and down the valley, allow | £10 |
| Getting about, whole weekend | £53 |
The wineries
Mercier
18km of galleries toured by electric train, plus a giant barrel built for the 1889 Paris Exposition. The most purely entertaining cellar visit in Champagne.
Moët & Chandon
28km of cellars and the biggest name in the business. Scheduled tours daily, book online; expect €30–60 depending on what is poured.
Champagne Pascal Lallement
29 rue de l'Église, in the middle of the village, with parcels across Chamery, Sermiers, Écueil and Rilly-la-Montagne — all Premier Cru, on the south-facing bowl of the petite Montagne. Farmed to Haute Valeur Environnementale standards, and they run a vineyard tour by little train alongside the tasting. A small house: arrange the visit directly rather than turning up.
Champagne Lacourte-Godbillon
Géraldine Lacourte and Richard Desvignes farm 8.5 hectares of Premier Cru at Écueil and Les Mesneux, Demeter-certified biodynamic, dominated by old Pinot Noir on pure limestone. The Terroirs d'Écueil is around 85 per cent Pinot from vines averaging thirty-five years. Two kilometres from Chamery, and the perfect counterpoint to it — same slope, same rock, a different philosophy. Email well ahead for a Sunday.
A Côte des Blancs grower
This is where the trip earns its keep — small récoltant-manipulant houses charging a few euros a glass for grand cru blanc de blancs. Ask the hotel who is receiving that weekend.
Ruinart or Taittinger
The oldest Champagne house (Ruinart, 1729) and the Gallo-Roman chalk crayères beneath it. Book well ahead.
The wines
Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier, blended across villages and years to a house style, aged on the lees in chalk cellars. Blanc de blancs from the Côte des Blancs is all Chardonnay and the most precise expression; grower Champagnes (récoltant-manipulant, marked RM on the label) are the interesting value, made by the family that farmed the grapes.
Eat & drink
| Friday | Dinner in Épernay, unhurried |
| Saturday | Au 36 at Hautvillers — regional plates and a flight of champagnes; book ahead |
| Sunday | Château de Sacy, in the vines — then dinner in Reims |
| Monday | Biscuits roses and coffee in Épernay before the train |
The food
Reims ham, andouillette, chaource cheese, pink biscuits de Reims for dunking, and the local trick of drinking Champagne with everything rather than nothing. Ratafia — fortified grape juice — is the aperitif nobody exports.
Where to stay
Because the Sunday ends with a train back into Épernay, walking distance from the station matters, and somewhere secure to leave the bikes is worth more than an extra bathroom. Self-catering works out at roughly half the price of the hotels for a group of four; the two below were available and priced for an autumn long weekend when this was checked, and both should be re-priced for whichever dates you settle on. Neither the exact walk from the station nor bike storage has been confirmed with the hosts.
La Parenthèse Pétillante
A two-bedroom duplex sleeping four in four separate beds, with off-street parking — which on this trip means somewhere to put four bikes overnight. Around £486 for the three nights for four, or £122 each, against roughly £250–300 each in the hotels. Rated 4.93 across 58 stays. On Airbnb.
Charming townhouse with terrace
The comfortable version: a whole townhouse with a terrace, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the best rating of anything available that weekend — 4.98 from 97 stays. About £883 for the three nights, or £221 each, which still undercuts the hotels. On Airbnb.
Hôtel Jean Moët
An 18th-century hôtel particulier with a courtyard, a few minutes' walk from the station and from the Avenue de Champagne. Small, so two rooms for four people needs booking early — but it puts you exactly where the weekend starts and ends.
La Villa Eugène
A former Mercier family mansion at the far end of the famous street, with a garden and a pool. More characterful than Jean Moët and about fifteen minutes' walk further from the station — which only matters coming home on the Sunday.
Les Avisés
Jacques Selosse's guesthouse among the grand cru vines, and the bed a wine obsessive would choose. But it is 12km south of Épernay in the Côte des Blancs, which is the wrong side of town for a weekend that now runs north over the Montagne and finishes on a late train into Épernay. Worth it only if you swap Sunday back to the Côte des Blancs.
Practical
- France allows cyclists 0.5 g/l of blood alcohol, the same limit as drivers — so one glass with lunch is the practical ceiling if you are riding afterwards. See the country-by-country table.
- The two days are wildly uneven, and deliberately so. Saturday is 71km with 601m of climbing; Sunday is 38km with 397m, all of it before lunch. Saturday is the ride; Sunday is the reason for the trip.
- Mardeuil makes a quieter base than Épernay, a couple of flat kilometres west along the Marne — add roughly three kilometres at each end of both days, on the level.
- The east flank of the Montagne is the day that did not fit. Bouzy, Verzy, Verzenay and its lighthouse make a fine 57km ride from Épernay to Reims — but it cannot share a weekend with the Chamery and Écueil growers without producing an 85km Sunday with 831m of climbing and the tastings at the 23km mark. Something for a second visit.
- Sunday is a chain of bookings, and they have to be made in order. Château de Sacy serves lunch Wednesday to Sunday, 12.00 to 14.00 only — fix that first, then the two growers around it. Both Chamery and Écueil are small houses where a Sunday visit happens by arrangement, not by walking in.
- The Sunday finishes with a ride into Reims, so check sunset. From late October it falls before half past five, and this is not a leg to do in the dark.
- Check the last Sunday TER from Reims to Épernay before committing to dinner there. Bikes travel free on the Ligne des Bulles, but the evening service is thinner at weekends.
- Rilly-la-Montagne is the bail-out. If the weather turns or legs give out at Chamery, the station is 6km east and on the same line back to Épernay.
- Book Au 36 at Hautvillers for the Saturday — it is small and fills early — and fix the Mercier tour time first, since a long lunch and a timed cellar visit do not combine.
- The best travel on the whole list. No airport, no transfer, no early start — Eurostar and a TGV, four hours, city centre to city centre. Book Eurostar early for the good fares.
- Tastings are expensive. €30–60 a head at the grandes marques is normal. Balance them with Côte des Blancs growers, where a few euros gets you grand cru.
- Base in Épernay, not Reims. Reims is the bigger city but Épernay puts the Avenue, the Côte des Blancs and Hautvillers all within a short ride.
- Bike hire is available in Épernay; hire locally rather than wrestling bikes onto Eurostar.
- Check sunset before you plan the last leg. Any day that finishes with a ride home wants an hour of light in hand, and that hour disappears fast either side of the equinoxes.
- Épernay Tourism — cycling routes — the five signposted circuits around Épernay and the Côte des Blancs
- Comité Champagne — the official body — the appellation, the houses, the growers
- Reims Tourism — for the Monday-morning option: cathedral and the crayères
- Eurostar — book early; fares rise steeply close to departure