Plan Your Visit to Champagne France
Champagne is a wine region, not a gate, so no single ticket opens it. Each house sells its own cellar visit, the vineyards and the cathedral in Reims are free, and a tour's fare already covers the tastings it pours. If you are pricing Champagne France tickets, choose the town you arrive in first, then set a house's own price beside a tour's fare.
Reims or Épernay: which town to arrive in
The region lies about 150 km north-east of Paris, and two towns hold its big houses. Reims has Reims Cathedral, free to enter every day, and the cellars of Veuve Clicquot, Pommery, Taittinger, Ruinart and Mumm. Most grower half days leave from its station square, so Reims suits you if you want family growers in a morning or an afternoon.
Épernay has the Avenue de Champagne, 1.5 km of house fronts with about 110 km of cellars beneath it, where Moët & Chandon and Mercier stand. The short formats start there: the e-bike, the jeep, the open-top bus and the private half days. Hautvillers, the village where Dom Pérignon is buried, is on the route of most days from either town.
If you only have a day, you need neither: champagne tours from Paris collect you in the city and drive about two hours each way. To sleep in Champagne, compare tours that start in Reims with tours that start in Épernay.
Trains from Paris
Reims Tourisme puts Reims 45 minutes from Paris by TGV. The city has two stations: Reims-Centre in town, and Champagne-Ardenne TGV at Bezannes, outside the centre and linked to it by tram. Aim for Reims-Centre if you are joining a shared tour, because most meet on its square.
For Épernay, Moët & Chandon puts the direct train from Paris Gare de l'Est at 80 minutes, and the station is five minutes' walk from the Avenue. Check times and fares with SNCF for your own date, because the timetable changes. Shorter answers on trains and meeting points are in the FAQs.
Booking a house visit yourself
You book a big house's visit on its own website, for a set time slot. The cheapest start at EUR 20 at Nicolas Feuillatte in Chouilly and EUR 25 at Mercier, and run to EUR 90 at Ruinart, whose visit takes 12 people. Veuve Clicquot starts at EUR 36, Mumm at EUR 30 and Moët & Chandon at EUR 48. Taittinger runs tastings all year; check its price on its own booking page.
| House | Where | Cheapest visit | Adult price | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veuve Clicquot | Reims, 1 rue Albert Thomas | Brut Yellow Label, 1 hour | EUR 36 | Up to EUR 260 for 4 hours; closed in winter |
| Pommery | Reims, Domaine Pommery | 2 hours, 2 tastings | EUR 48 | Opened to visitors in 1878, the house says |
| Taittinger | Reims | Tastings all year | See its booking page | Cellars 18 m down in Gallo-Roman chalk quarries |
| Ruinart | Reims, 4 rue des Crayères | 2 hours, 12 places | EUR 90 | EUR 50 aged 7–17 |
| Mumm | Reims, 34 rue du Champ de Mars | Cordon Rouge, 1 hour 30 | EUR 30 | Almost 25 km of cellars |
| Lanson | Reims, 66 rue de Courlancy | About 2 hours | EUR 32 | EUR 20 aged 13–17, EUR 15 aged 7–12 |
| Moët & Chandon | Épernay, 18 avenue de Champagne | 1 hour 30 | EUR 48 | 28 km of cellars; up to EUR 460 |
| Mercier | Épernay, 68 avenue de Champagne | Cellars by driverless train | EUR 25 | EUR 12 aged 10–17; a lift for wheelchairs |
| Nicolas Feuillatte | Chouilly | 75 minutes, 1 glass | EUR 20 | Booking only; shuttle packages from Épernay station |
Book before you travel. Every house runs its visits at set times, and some close on certain weekdays or for the winter, so you should not count on walking in. Each house's visit, cellars and calendar are set side by side on the champagne houses page.
Where the tours start
Reims has two tourist offices, and it matters which one you walk to. The main office stands beside the cathedral. The second is an information point on the Reims Centre station square, and that is where most shared tours meet. À La Française's days leave it at 9:00 or 9:20 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon.
| Office | Where | Hours this autumn |
|---|---|---|
| Reims main tourist office | 6 rue Rockefeller, beside the cathedral | Monday to Saturday 10:00–18:00 to 23 November; Sundays 10:00–18:00 to 30 September, then 10:00–17:00 |
| Reims station information point | Cour de la Gare, the Reims Centre station square | Monday to Saturday 8:30–12:00 and 13:00–17:00, September to February; closed Sundays and public holidays |
| Épernay tourist office | 7 avenue de Champagne | Check with the office: +33 3 26 53 33 00 |
In Épernay, the tours meet in front of the tourist office at 7 avenue de Champagne: the e-bike day at 9:35 and À La Française's Épernay start at 8:30. The walking day between three houses starts at the Moët & Chandon front desk. Private tours collect you from your hotel or a station, within 6 km of Épernay for one operator and within 30 minutes' drive of Reims for another. From Paris, the days collect you at your hotel, or leave a café in the Ternes district at 7:00 sharp.
Getting between the towns and the villages
A regional TER line, the Ligne des Bulles, runs between Reims and Épernay. Wine Tours Paris says trains run about every 30 minutes on weekdays, and its day ends 150 m from Épernay station, so you can start in Reims and leave from Épernay.
The growers are in the villages on the hillsides, and that is where a car, or a tour's van, earns its place. If you drive, Reims is on the A4, and part of the city is a low-emission zone, so check your car's Crit'Air class before you go in. On a tour, nobody in your party has to drive after tasting, which is the other reason people book one.
What to wear in a cellar at 10–12 °C
The cellars hold 10 to 12 °C in every season, with 90 to 100% humidity, according to champagne.fr. So bring a warm layer even in August, when the average afternoon high in the vines is 24.5 °C (Météo-France, Mailly-Champagne). Ruinart's chalk pits go down about 40 m, and Mercier's 18 km of cellars lie 30 m under the Avenue, toured by a driverless train.
Wear shoes with grip for the cellar stairs and the rows. On the e-bike days, dress for the weather: À La Française advises gloves in the cold months and sun cream in summer, and in bad weather the day runs by minibus.
Ages, drinking and children
Each operator sets its own minimum age, and they run from none to 18. Check the one on the tour you want before you book a family day.
- All ages: the jeep and the open-top bus in Épernay.
- From 10: À La Française's shared days and half days from Reims.
- From 16: GO GO Tours' day from Paris, which pours grape juice for under-18s.
- Adults only: Sparkling Tour's days, the e-bike days and the city tasting.
- Uncork takes children on its days and serves no alcohol to anyone under 18.
At the houses, Ruinart charges EUR 50 for ages 7 to 17, Lanson EUR 20 for 13 to 17 and EUR 15 for 7 to 12, and Mercier EUR 12 for 10 to 17.
Wheelchairs and strollers
Veuve Clicquot takes wheelchairs and strollers down to its cellars on request. Mercier has a lift, and Mumm's visit reaches only its first level. Among the tours, Uncork's Pommery, Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot days, À La Française's private growers day and the Épernay open-top bus say they are wheelchair accessible. Most others do not, so ask the operator before you book.
When a tour is worth it
For one big house, book it yourself: the train and a cellar visit cost far less than any tour. A tour earns its fare when you want the family growers in the villages, a house and a grower in one day, the day from Paris without trains, or a driver so nobody drives after tasting. The table sets the ways to do a first day side by side.
| The day | What you pay | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| On your own by train | Your train fare, plus EUR 20 to EUR 90 for each house visit | One house's cellars and tasting per slot; the vineyards and the cathedral are free |
| Grower half day from Reims | $140 to $152 per person | Two family growers and six glasses, from the station square |
| E-bike day from Reims or Épernay | $228 per person | The vineyards by bike, an estate visit, four glasses and lunch |
| Shared full day from Reims or Épernay | $228 to $386 per person | A house and a grower on most, lunch in the fare on some |
| Small-group day from Paris | $263 to $400 per person | The drive both ways, a house and a grower, lunch on some |
| Private day | $525 to $848 per person | Your party only, pickup, and a route built on what you ask for |
The house prices are the houses' own, in euros. The tour fares are the operators' own, in US dollars as each listing shows them, with the tastings already inside. Most private days need two people to book.
Would you rather someone else drove?
The grower half days leave the Reims station square, the e-bike and jeep days leave Épernay, and the days from Paris collect you in the city.
Frequently asked before you go
Do you need a tour to visit the champagne houses?
Where do Reims champagne tours start?
Where do Épernay tours start?
Which station do you arrive at from Paris?
Is Reims Cathedral free?
How cold are the champagne cellars?
Next: see when to visit Champagne for the houses' calendars, compare every tour on Champagne France Tours, or read what travellers said in the reviews.