À la Française Champagne ! · From Reims
A local guide meets you outside Reims station at 2pm and drives you to two family-run wineries and Dom Pérignon's village of Hautvillers, back by 6:30pm. Pick it as the train-plus-guide answer to the van from Paris: the TGV takes 46 minutes, and the whole afternoon goes on growers, not motorway.
À la Française Champagne ! starts this tour outside Reims Centre station, in front of the tourist information office. A minivan of eight at most heads into the vineyards: a first family-run winery for 1.5 hours, 45 minutes in Hautvillers, where Dom Pérignon lies in the abbey church, and a second winery for another 1.5 hours. Three tastings at each, six in all, with a stop in the UNESCO-listed vineyard for the view. The listing doesn't name the wineries, and guests report meeting the owners.
This is the cheapest good way to do Champagne from Paris. Take a morning TGV from Gare de l'Est (46 minutes; advance fares from EUR 15, most around EUR 27 to 28 each way this autumn), see the cathedral before lunch, and be at the station for 2pm. With the $150 tour and a return ticket you spend roughly $150 less than on the 8 tastings day trip, and travel an hour and a half by train instead of four hours or more by van.
What it isn't: there is no big house, no lunch (eat in Reims first), no place for under-12s, and the tour needs two guests or the operator reschedules or refunds. You book your own train, and the operator warns that train booking mistakes aren't refunded. Cellars sit around 10°C, so bring a jacket even in August.
Trains from Gare de l'Est take 46 minutes. On our late-October sample the 10:28 left time for lunch and the cathedral; timetables change mid-December.
Outside Reims Centre station, in front of the tourist office, then 30 minutes by minivan.
About 1.5 hours with a family producer: vines, cellar and three tastings.
45 minutes in Dom Pérignon's village and its abbey church.
Another 1.5 hours and three more tastings at a second family estate.
Drop-off where you started, ready for an evening train to Paris.
★★★★★Great Tour, guided was very easy to talk to and knowledgeable on all things champagne. Would recommend!
★★★★★Emilie was wonderful guide. Great pace, differentiated what she shared in different locations so it's not repetitive. [...]
★★★★★Fabulous informative, knowledgeable guide. Small group. The history, tastings, meeting the owners seeing vineyards [...]
★★★★★Great afternoon. Our guide Zoe was super helpful and knew so much about champagne making. [...]
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By TGV from Gare de l'Est: the fastest trains take 46 minutes, with advance fares from EUR 15 one way. Our train guide covers times, fares and the station.
Two family-run wineries that the listing doesn't name; they can change from day to day. You won't visit a big house on this tour.
Not for children under 12, and not for wheelchair users.
Yes. A morning TGV, lunch and the cathedral in Reims, the tour from 2pm to 6:30pm, then an evening train back. It's the cheapest of the day-trip plans in our best champagne day trip guide.
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Take the 46-minute train to Reims, then an afternoon with two family growers and Dom Pérignon's village of Hautvillers.
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