Reims is the champagne capital of the world and the coronation city of France — a city in the Marne department of the Grand Est region, 144 km east of Paris, that holds three UNESCO World Heritage Sites (the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, the Basilica of Saint-Rémi and the Tau Palace, designated in 1991) and is the historical site where 33 French kings were crowned from 816 AD (Louis the Pious) to 1825 (Charles X) — a thousand-year tradition of French monarchy linked to a single city and a single cathedral. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims (1211-1275, Gothic, 81 m towers, 7,500 square metres of stained glass including Marc Chagall's blue rose window installed in 1974) is considered the finest Gothic cathedral in France and possibly in the world — the west façade (800+ sculptural figures, the most sculpted Gothic façade in existence) was called by John Ruskin "the cathedral of cathedrals." The champagne connection: the chalk subsoil of the Champagne region (the limestone and chalk that creates the distinctive mineral character of the wines and the 250 km of underground chalk quarry galleries — called crayères — beneath Reims) was discovered to be perfect for storing and ageing sparkling wine at constant 10°C temperature; all the major champagne houses (Veuve Clicquot, Taittinger, Ruinart, Mumm, Pommery, Lanson, Moët & Chandon in nearby Épernay) offer cellar tours through their crayère galleries — some with dramatic underground architecture. Reims was almost completely destroyed in World War I (1914-1918) when it was on the front line for the entire war — the cathedral was bombed by German artillery in 1914 and burned for days; the reconstruction (1919-1938) used American Rockefeller funding and is one of the most complete post-WWI urban rebuilds in France.
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims (1211-1275, Gothic, 81 m towers, west façade with 800+ sculptural figures — the most sculpted Gothic façade in the world, the "Smiling Angel" of Reims the most famous individual sculpture) where 33 French kings were crowned; the interior has 7,500 m² of stained glass including the Marc Chagall blue rose window (1974, the ambulatory chapels, commissioned by Chagall at age 87 specifically for Reims) and the original 13th-century rose window; Joan of Arc attended the 1429 coronation of Charles VII here.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Palais du Tau (adjacent to the cathedral, 816 AD origin, current structure 17th century, UNESCO Heritage) is where the kings of France spent the night before their coronation and hosted the coronation banquet — the Salle du Tau (the throne room, 17th century, with the original Gobelins tapestries depicting the life of Clovis and the coronation ceremony), the Treasury (royal ceremonial objects including Charlemagne's talismans and the coronation chalice) and the original stone sculptures removed from the cathedral façade (replaced by replicas to protect from pollution).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe champagne house cellar tours of Reims are among the finest wine tourism experiences in the world — Taittinger uses the Roman chalk quarries (crayères, 3rd century AD, 18 m high cathedral-like chambers carved in chalk, a constant 10°C year-round) to store 5 million bottles; Veuve Clicquot (founded by Nicole-Barbe Clicquot in 1805, the widow — veuve — who invented riddling to clarify champagne and created the first vintage-dated champagne) has the largest chalk cellar network; Pommery has the most dramatic architecture (Art Nouveau above ground, Gothic arches in the chalk).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Basilique Saint-Rémi (11th century, Romanesque with Gothic choir added in the 12th century, UNESCO Heritage) is the oldest surviving church in Reims — Saint-Rémi was the bishop who baptised Clovis (the first Frankish king to convert to Christianity, 496 AD, the defining event that made France a Catholic kingdom); the church contains the tomb of Saint-Rémi and the original Holy Ampulla (ampule of holy oil) used in coronation ceremonies; the adjacent Musée Saint-Rémi (former abbey buildings) has Merovingian and Carolingian archaeological finds.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Reims dinner tradition — kir royal (champagne with blackcurrant liqueur, the aperitif of Champagne) at a terrace bar facing the cathedral (the night illumination of the façade is one of the finest light shows in France), followed by the regional Champagne cuisine: jambon à la champenoise (ham cooked in champagne), andouillette de Troyes (the tripe sausage of the region, an acquired taste) and the biscuits roses de Reims (the pink sugar-dusted sponge biscuits sold in pink boxes, the most famous biscuit in France, traditionally dunked in champagne).
Épernay (25 km south of Reims, 30 min by train, the second champagne capital) has the Avenue de Champagne — 1.5 km of champagne house facades representing €34 billion worth of champagne maturing in the chalk cellars below (more champagne value underground than any other street in the world): Moët & Chandon (the largest champagne producer, 28 km of cellars, home of Dom Pérignon vintage), Perrier-Jouët, Pol Roger (Winston Churchill's preferred champagne), De Castellane and Mercier (with its 120,000 litre wine barrel that toured Paris in 1900).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHautvillers (5 km north of Épernay, the hilltop village above the Marne Valley vineyard) is where the Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Pérignon (1638-1715) worked as cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers and is credited with perfecting (if not inventing) the méthode champenoise — the secondary fermentation in the bottle that creates champagne's bubbles; the abbey church has Dom Pérignon's tomb (a simple stone slab); the surrounding vineyards of Premier Cru and Grand Cru Champagne are at their most dramatic in autumn golden light.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Montagne de Reims (the wooded plateau between Reims and Épernay with Premier Cru and Grand Cru champagne vineyards on its slopes) has the Sentier des Vignes (the vineyard walking trail) through Bouzy, Ambonnay and Verzenay — the three Grand Cru villages of the Montagne; the Verzenay Lighthouse (a lighthouse built in a vineyard in 1909 as a marketing stunt by the Heidsieck champagne house, now the Musée de la Vigne) gives the finest panoramic view over the champagne country.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Reims champagne dinner — blanquette de veau à la champenoise (veal blanquette with champagne and cream, the definitive dish of the Champagne region), accompanied by a blanc de blancs (100% Chardonnay champagne, the driest and most mineral expression, ideal with food) from a small grower-producer (récoltant-manipulant — RM on the label, the wines made by the farmer who grows the grapes, more affordable and often more interesting than the grandes maisons); restaurants Les Crayères (Michelin 2-star, in a Belle Époque manor) or Brasserie le Boulingrin (1925 Art Deco brasserie).
Reims was 80% destroyed by German artillery bombardment 1914-1918 (the city was on the front line for the entire war; the cathedral burned for days in 1914 when German shells ignited the wooden roof scaffolding with molten lead) — the post-WWI rebuild (1919-1938, Rockefeller Foundation funding) created the finest collection of 1920s-30s Art Deco architecture in France: the Halles du Boulingrin (Art Deco covered market, 1929, the Ferret & Gutton reinforced concrete shell, restored 2012), the Place Drouet d'Erlon fountains and the broad rebuilt boulevards.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Musée de la Reddition (Museum of Surrender, Rue Franklin Roosevelt, Reims) is the schoolhouse where on May 7, 1945 at 2:41 am, the unconditional German surrender of all forces was signed — ending World War II in Europe; the original operations room (the war maps still on the walls, the chairs where Eisenhower's representatives, the Soviet general Susloparov and German General Jodl sat) is preserved exactly as it was that night; Stalin refused to accept the Reims surrender as final (demanding a ceremony in Berlin on May 8), hence V-E Day is May 8 in Western countries and May 9 in Russia.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideVerdun (80 km east of Reims, 1.5 hrs by car) was the site of the Battle of Verdun (February-December 1916, the longest battle of WWI, 300,000 killed, 400,000 wounded from both sides) — the Ossuaire de Douaumont (the bone ossuary containing the skeletal remains of 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers visible through the basement windows) and the Mémorial de Verdun (opened 2016 for the centenary) are among the most powerful WWI memorial sites in France; the battlefield landscape (Zone Rouge, permanently contaminated by explosives and chemicals, no civilians) still shows the shell-cratered terrain.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe final Reims experience — a visit to a small grower-producer (récoltant-manipulant) in the Montagne de Reims villages for a tasting of the wines they grow and make themselves: pinot noir blanc de noirs (champagne from black grapes with no skin contact, giving a richer body than Chardonnay), brut nature (zero dosage, the driest expression, the professional wine world's preferred champagne style), and the grower's own reserve wine story told by the family who has worked these vines for generations.