DIY champagne tour?

For us the fun of the champagne region was driving from village to village through the vineyards. But you can concentrate instead on the two main towns: Reims and Epernay. There is a local train between them, takes about 45 minutes. Reims is larger and has some cultural and historical sites - particularly the wonderful cathedral - and several wine cellars. Epernay is basically champagne houses and little else. Epernay is the home of the most famous champagne house - Moet & Chandon - and their guided tour is terrific. The Epernay website is: http://www.ot-epernay.fr/spip.php?page=sommaire&lang=en You might also want to look at: www.moet.com

Thanks for the information.

Hello: Barbara and I have been to France two times with Rick Steves. On each of these trips we have spent time on our own using the French railway system. In Sept 2010 we participated in the Villages and Vineyards of France. After spending five days on our own in Paris we took the TGV to Remis to join the tour, 5:00 PM on Sept 13. On our own we scheduled a 2:00 PM tour of Mums the same day. It took about two hours and was very good. We visited Martel with the tour and it was ok, but not as good as Mums. The whole Rick Steves tour experience was perfect. I just did not like their champaign tour. To reserve a place in the Mums tour please go to their web site. I sent them an e mail asking for four places on the 2:00 tour. They responded the next day and confirmed. The only cost was for a tasting after the tour. We paid for this when we arrived at Mums on Sept 13. I thought the most expensive tasting was worth it. [email protected] May I suggest you consider taking the tgv from Paris Est to Remis Gare. The cost is 15 euros per person and this takes less than one hour. If you can arrive arround 11 :00am you could have lunch at one of the bistros in Remis. The big cathederal is worth seeing and is a 15 minute walk from the train station. After lunch you could do a champaign tour. Please consider taking a cab to Mums. We walked and it took 45 minutes from the train station because we got lost once. Best of luck.
James Foley If you want to see pictures please e mail me at [email protected]

Thanks. I appreciate the sharing of experiences. I am still undecided how I will do it. I've had a look at train times for Sunday or Monday and Epernay on Monday is looking like the winner. However, once I started adding up the small DIY costs it starts to become more competitive with the package tour who do door to do service. Tempting considering how much champagne I may have to pack in my luggage later!

We took a train from Paris to Reims and did a self-guided tour. We went to the Taittinger cellar, which uses caves originally dug by the Romans. Taittinger is built on top of an old monastery, so the ruins are visible in the caves as well. http://www.taittinger.com/visite-des-caves.html It wasn't expensive (10 euros maybe?) We also went to the WWII museum which is located in the maproom where the unconditional surrender was signed by Germany. Very interesting and well worth the walk. It's almost directly behind the railway station on the other side of the tracks. The cathedral and St Remi Basilica are great, and the Basilica is near the Taittinger caves. We spent one full day there and enjoyed it very much.

Thank you for the suggestions.