The short version
- Reims is about an hour from Paris Gare de l’Est by TGV, 46 minutes on the fastest direct trains, 14 a day from 7:06, into Reims Centre station in town. The last train back leaves in the early evening, 19:45 on the day we checked. The other station, Champagne-Ardenne TGV, is out at Bezannes on the tram line.
- Our Veuve Clicquot Day Tour meets at the tourist kiosk outside Reims station off the 7:45 train: the cathedral with the guide, the Veuve Clicquot cellars and tasting, the Avenue de Champagne in Épernay, Hautvillers where Dom Pérignon is buried, and lunch with blind tastings at a family grower, nine champagnes in all, $440 per person with lunch and every entrance included, daily from mid-March.
- The cathedral is free and open all day. The towers, 249 steps, are €9 on a guided climb booked online in advance, Tuesday to Sunday, and closed from November 16 to February 14. The Palais du Tau next door is closed for renovation and reopens in 2027 as the Musée des Sacres.
- The grand houses let you in on a booked, timed tour only, and in summer the tourist office calls booking ahead “imperative.” Veuve Clicquot starts at €36 for an hour, Mumm at €30, Taittinger at €40, Pommery at €27, Ruinart at €90 by appointment, and Moët in Épernay at €48. Mumm is a 20-minute walk from the station; the others sit on the Saint-Nicaise hill on the far side of the center.
- Épernay, 34 minutes from Reims by TER, has Moët & Chandon, Mercier and Perrier-Jouët on the Avenue de Champagne, five minutes from its station. Hautvillers, Dom Pérignon’s village, is 6 kilometers up the hill with no station and no bus that we could find, and the vineyard shuttle through the Montagne de Reims villages runs from May to September only.
- The Musée de la Reddition, the map room where Germany surrendered at 2:41 a.m. on May 7, 1945, reopened this May, €5.50, closed Tuesday. The Saint-Rémi basilica reopened in June after roof repairs. In Épernay, Habits de Lumière lights the avenue from December 11 to 13, 2026.
What to see
The cathedral was begun in 1211 on the spot where Saint Remi baptized Clovis, and 25 kings of France were crowned in it, from 1223 to Charles X in 1825. The Smiling Angel is on the left portal of the west front. German shells gutted it in 1914, Rockefeller money rebuilt it, and it reopened in 1938; Marc Chagall’s blue windows in the axial chapel came in 1974, and UNESCO listed it in 1991 with the Palais du Tau and the Saint-Rémi basilica. The tower climb runs hourly from 10:00 in summer, five times a day in spring and autumn, and not at all from mid-November to mid-February; the reduced €7.50 rate takes a TGV ticket under five days old.
The crayères are the point of Reims for champagne: Gallo-Roman chalk pits under the Saint-Nicaise hill, 18 to 30 meters down and a constant 10 degrees, where the houses age their bottles. Taittinger’s, with the remains of a 13th-century abbey, reopened in July 2024 after 18 months of works, about an hour for €40 to €100, Tuesday to Sunday. Pommery’s were opened to visitors by Louise Pommery in the 1870s and now hold a contemporary-art show, €27 to €145, daily from April to December. Ruinart, the oldest house, founded 1729, takes 12 people at a time for two hours at €90, by appointment from late March to late December, behind its new Sou Fujimoto pavilion. Veuve Clicquot, on the same hill, runs an hour at €36 up to four hours at €260 for La Grande Dame, closed Monday, and Wednesday to Sunday only from November 4 to January 3.
In the center, Mumm at 34 rue du Champ de Mars is the house you can walk to, 20 minutes from the station, €30 for the Cordon Rouge visit, every day from May to October; the Foujita chapel next door, frescoed by the painter in 1966, opens May to September, €5.50. The Porte de Mars is a third-century Roman arch by the Boulingrin market hall, Place Drouet-d’Erlon is the café street, and the Art Deco center, the Carnegie library and the Opéra, is what went up after 1918. The Musée des Beaux-Arts is closed until 2027. Eat a biscuit rose from Fossier dipped in your glass, and jambon de Reims, pressed ham in parsley jelly.
Épernay’s Avenue de Champagne is 1.5 kilometers of mansions and gates on a UNESCO list since 2015, with some 110 kilometers of cellars and 200 million bottles underneath. Moët & Chandon at number 18, founded 1743, has the Dom Pérignon statue at its gate and 28 kilometers of galleries, visits from €48 for 90 minutes, daily 9:30 to 17:00, closed Tuesday and Wednesday from November 16 to December 30. Mercier at 68 runs a train through its galleries 30 meters down, €25 to €45, and closes from January to June 2027. De Castellane’s 66-meter tower is the climb with a flute at the top.
Hautvillers is the village on the slope above Épernay where Dom Pérignon, cellarer of the abbey from 1668 to 1715, is buried under a slab in the choir of Saint-Sindulphe, open and free every day; the abbey buildings belong to Moët and are not visited. The lanes carry 140 wrought-iron signs and the belvedere looks over the Marne and the vines. This is the stop on all our days, with lunch and the tastings at the family grower, usually Le Clos Corbier in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. On the Montagne de Reims side, the Verzenay lighthouse is a museum in the vines, from €3, and the Faux de Verzy are twisted beeches on a free 3-kilometer walk.
Getting there and around
TGVs leave Paris Gare de l’Est from 7:06, 14 a day to Reims Centre, about an hour, 46 minutes on the fastest direct trains and longer on the ones that change at Champagne-Ardenne TGV. The last train back on the day we checked was at 19:45, into Paris at 20:31; the last one varies, so check your date. From the station the cathedral is a walk through the center, or tram A or B to Opéra. The tourist office is on the cathedral square at 6 rue Rockefeller.
The houses do not take walk-ins: every visit is a timed, guided tour booked on the house’s site, and Veuve Clicquot books out about three weeks ahead in summer. Mumm is 20 minutes on foot from the station; Veuve Clicquot, Taittinger, Pommery and Ruinart are together on the Saint-Nicaise hill by the Saint-Rémi basilica, half an hour on foot from the center or bus 4 and 11 and the Citybus. Épernay is 34 minutes by TER, up to two trains an hour, and the Avenue de Champagne is five minutes from its station.
The vineyards are where the train stops helping. Hautvillers has no station and no bus that we could find; it is a 10-minute taxi from Épernay, 30 from Reims, if you find one at the rank. The Grand R shuttle through the Montagne de Reims villages leaves Rilly-la-Montagne station from May to September only. The rest of the year the slopes above the Marne are reached by car, by bike from Épernay, or with us.
Our days meet at the kiosk outside Reims station at 9:00 and put it all in order: the cathedral, the cellars with the tour already booked, the Avenue, Hautvillers, lunch at the grower, and back for the train. The Private Veuve Clicquot day does the same for two with rare vintages in the tasting and first-class rail, and the Private Champagne Day Trip collects up to six at your Paris address for two houses, daily except Sunday.
When to go
The cellars are 10 degrees in every month, so bring a layer in August. The vines are bare from November to March and the harvest runs from late August into September. Our Veuve Clicquot day runs daily all year, the Mumm day Monday to Saturday all year except December 25 to February 10, and the Moët day Friday to Sunday all year.
Plan around the closed days. Veuve Clicquot is closed Monday, and Monday and Tuesday from November 4 to January 3. Mumm drops to Thursday to Monday in November and December and Thursday to Saturday in January and February, closed December 25 to January 15. Moët closes Tuesday and Wednesday from November 16 to December 30, Mercier from January to June 2027, and the cathedral towers from November 16 to February 14. Some Épernay houses close from 12:00 to 14:00 in low season.
Habits de Lumière, December 11 to 13, 2026, dresses the Avenue de Champagne in light with champagne bars, fireworks on Friday and Saturday evenings and a parade of 400 old cars on Sunday, from €20. Champagne Day falls on October 23. In summer, book the house tour before the train.
Reims is continental: warm summers, grey cold winters with frost, and rain through the year. The Grand R vineyard shuttle and the Foujita chapel are May to September; the Montagne de Reims walks are best in the harvest weeks of September.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Reims a day trip from Paris?
Yes, the easiest one there is. The TGV from Gare de l’Est takes about an hour, 46 minutes at the fastest, the first leaves at 7:06, and the last one back leaves Reims in the early evening, 19:45 on the day we checked. Our day uses the 7:45 train out and the evening train home, with the cathedral, the cellars, Épernay and the grower’s lunch in between.
Can you visit the champagne houses without booking?
Not the grand houses. Every visit is a timed, guided tour with a tasting, booked on the house’s site, and in high season the tourist office says booking ahead is imperative; Veuve Clicquot fills about three weeks out in summer. Moët sells unbooked places when it has them. A few bars on the Avenue de Champagne pour by the glass without a reservation. On our days the cellar tour and all nine tastings are already booked.
Reims or Épernay?
Reims has the cathedral, four of the grand houses on its hill and Mumm in the center; Épernay has the Avenue de Champagne with Moët and Mercier, and sits under Hautvillers and the vines. They are 34 minutes apart by TER. Our day does both, plus Hautvillers and the grower, which is the piece neither town gives you on foot.
Can you reach Hautvillers and the vineyards by train?
No. Hautvillers has no station and no bus from Épernay that we could find; it is a 10-minute taxi, and the vineyard shuttle on the Montagne de Reims runs May to September only. Without a car you get the towns and the cellars but not Dom Pérignon’s church, the slopes or lunch at a grower in the vines, which is the half of the day our van covers.
Is there a tour from Paris?
Yes, several. Our Veuve Clicquot Day Tour is the flagship, $440 or $560 with second-class rail, eight guests, daily all year. The Moët & Chandon day runs Friday to Sunday at $330, the Mumm day Monday to Saturday at $330, the Épernay and Pommery day at $315, and the Taittinger half-day Tuesday to Friday at $135. The private Veuve Clicquot day is $2,160 for two, and the private van from Paris $2,775 for up to six.
Our Most Popular Day Trips From Paris
Moët & Chandon in Épernay, Hautvillers, and a family house. Seven tastings, lunch included.
