Reims
Imagine the extravagance of a French royal coronation. The focal point of such pomposity was Reims’ resplendent Gothic cathedral, begun in 1211 on a site…
Must-see attractions in Champagne
Reims
A Unesco World Heritage Site, this lavish former archbishop’s residence, redesigned in neoclassical style between 1671 and 1710, was where French princes…
Troyes
Half-timbered houses – some with lurching walls and floors that aren’t quite level – line many streets in the old city, rebuilt after a devastating fire…
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Troyes
Housed in a 16th- to 18th-century bishop’s palace, this place owes its existence to all those crocodile-logo shirts, whose global success allowed Lacoste…
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Épernay
Épernay’s handsome av de Champagne fizzes with maisons de champagne (Champagne houses). The boulevard is lined with mansions and neoclassical villas,…
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Champagne
Bernard de Clairvaux (1090–1153), nemesis of Abelard and preacher of the Second Crusade, founded this hugely influential Cistercian monastery in 1115…
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Cathédrale St-Pierre et St-Paul
Troyes
All at once imposing and delicate with its filigree stonework, Troyes' cathedral is a stellar example of champenoise Gothic architecture. The flamboyant…
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Champagne
This museum is so outstanding that it’s worth planning your day around a two-hour tour. Assembled by a family that has been making Champagne since 1872,…
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Maison de l’Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière
Troyes
Worn to a sensuous lustre by generations of skilled hands, the 11,000 hand tools on display here – each designed to perform a single, specialised task…
Champagne
For the region’s best introduction to the art of growing grapes and the cycles of the seasons, head to the Phare de Verzenay, on a hilltop at the eastern…
Reims
This 121m-long former Benedictine abbey church, a Unesco World Heritage Site, mixes Romanesque elements from the mid-11th century (the worn but stunning…
Épernay
Everyone who visits Moët & Chandon invariably stops to strike a pose next to the statue of Dom Pérignon (c 1638–1715), after whom the prestige cuvée is…
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Troyes
This haunted-looking, Renaissance-style mansion shelters a twinset of unique museums. The Musée de l’Art Champenois is a repository for the evocative…
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Champagne
The impressive Mémorial Charles de Gaulle presents graphic, easily digestible exhibits, rich in photos, which form an admiring biography of France’s…
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Reims
Lodged in an 18th-century abbey, this museum's rich collection stars one of four versions of Jacques-Louis David’s world-famous The Death of Marat (yes,…
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Troyes
Off rue Champeaux (between Nos 30 and 32), a stroll along tiny ruelle des Chats (Alley of the Cats), as dark and narrow as it was four centuries ago – the…
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Champagne
You’re assured a warm – and English-speaking – welcome and a fascinating cellar tour at Albert Levasseur, run by a friendly Franco-Irish couple, which…
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Champagne
At the northern entrance to Cramant, this mammoth, Instagram-worthy Champagne bottle, emblazoned with the name of the village, is one hell of a magnum…
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Troyes
Troyes’ oldest and most interesting neighbourhood church has an early Gothic nave and transept and a Renaissance-style choir and tower. The highlights…
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Champagne
Featuring colourful and often gaudy objects associated with 19th-century marriage traditions, highlights include a tableau of newlyweds in their nuptial…
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Champagne
Many past, present and future Champagne makers learn, or are learning, their art and science at the Avize Viti Campus run by the Ministry of Agriculture…
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Champagne
Once the abbey church of a Benedictine convent, Église St-Nicolas mixes Romanesque, Flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance styles. There are no specific…
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Reims
The vaulted Halles du Boulingrin were a symbol of Reims’ emergence from the destruction of WWI when they began service as the city’s main food market in…
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Champagne
The Atelier Renoir has displays zooming in on the hallmarks of Renoir’s work (the female form, the vibrant use of colour and light), alongside original…
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Champagne
For insight into how crystal is made, visit the Musée du Cristal, where a 15-minute film highlights the different stages involved in crystal production. A…
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Troyes
Begun in 1262 by the Troyes-born Pope Urban IV, whose father’s shoemaker shop once stood on this spot, this church is exuberantly Gothic both inside and…
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Champagne
People flock by the coach-load to visit Charles de Gaulle’s vine-swathed home, La Boisserie, its elegant antique furnishings unchanged since he was laid…
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Troyes
Housed in the barn of the 18th-century Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte, this free museum dazzles with 25 works of stained glass reaching from the 12th to the 21st…
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Reims
The original Allied battle maps are still affixed to the walls of US General Dwight D Eisenhower’s headquarters, where Nazi Germany, represented by…
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Troyes
Faded with age and all the more enigmatic for it, this Renaissance-style, cruciform church, with its barrel-vaulted wood ceiling, is a great place to see…
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Champagne
The highest point in Châtillon-sur-Marne is crowned by a 25m-high statue of Pope Urban II, dedicated in 1887, a particularly successful local boy (1042–99…
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Volière des Cigognes Altavilloises
Champagne
Hautvillers is twinned with the Alsatian town of Eguisheim, which explains why several storks (including one rare black one) live here, an easy 500m walk…
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Reims
Housed in a 17th- and 18th-century abbey, this museum homes in on local Gallo-Roman archaeology, 16th-century Flemish tapestries, medieval sculpture and…
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Apothicairerie de l’Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte
Troyes
If you come down with an old-fashioned malady – scurvy, perhaps, or unbalanced humours – the place to go is this fully outfitted, wood-panelled pharmacy…
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Champagne
Part of a former Benedictine abbey, the Abbaye St-Pierre d'Hautvillers, founded in AD 650 by St Nivard, bishop of Reims, this church is liberally…
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Champagne
The Renoir trail in Essoyes begins at the Espace des Renoir, which also houses the tourist office. The centre screens a 15-minute film about the artist…
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Reims
A strangely expressionless statue of Joan of Arc, raised high on a rearing horse and bearing a sword, graces this square facing the cathedral. The so…
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Reims
For a quick trip back to Roman Gaul, check out the massive Porte de Mars, a three-arched triumphal gate built in the 2nd century AD. The gate was…
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Reims
Highlights in this 15th-century townhouse include a series of furnished period rooms (kitchen, smoking room, Napoléon III’s bedroom), some 50 wood…
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Reims
Thanks to a donation from the US-based Carnegie Foundation, the lobby of the Bibliothèque boasts gorgeous 1920s mosaics, stained glass, frescos and an…
