Most first time visitors to Paris would probably head straight to the Louvre or the Eiffel tower. I embarked on a 150 km journey out of the city instead; My destination – Reims, the home of Champagne.
In less than an hour (courtesy the superfast TGV train network), I was in a historic region that made it to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites twice in two decades. Reims is not just the epicentre of France’s Champagne region but is also commonly referred to as the City of Kings.
Most visitors to Reims expect to see lush green vineyards where grapes for the world’s ultimate celebration spirit grow. That usually involves a 30 km drive, which can be difficult to cram on a half-day visit like the one I had planned.
The Champagne region covers about 300 villages and 32,000 acres. The region’s mix of continental and oceanic climates and its chalky soil lend the grapes its unique character.
Only 17 villages (out of 300) in the region are classified as Grand Cru with a 100 point rating while 60 villages are Premier Cru with a 90-99 point rating. The remaining villages are deemed Cru with an 80-89 point rating. Understandably, all the best Champagne houses make a play for the Grand Cru and Premier Cru grapes for their Champagnes.
My first stop at Reims was one of these historic Champagne Houses – Tattinger, that has been in business since 1734. Their caves (where their cellars are housed) are among the most historic in the region dating back almost 2000 years to the Greco-Roman times.
It’s impossible to visualise Reims’ intricate cellar network – my guide at Taittinger estimates that there are a staggering 200 million bottles located under Reims’ streets in a long network that measures almost 250 kms. The numbers started to make sense as I kept descending through multiple levels, stacked with rows of never ending bottles. Batman would probably get lost in this complex web of caves and cellars.
The Champagne region uses the méthode champenoise (After primary fermentation blending or assemblage and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle). The inside pressure of the average bottle of champagne (Around 620 kilopascals/90 psi) is much more than the air pressure inside your car tyre. It’s what allows you to ‘pop’ a bottle of champagne.
Most cellar tours in Reims give you a fabulous insight into the Champagne-making process and one of the things that amazed me is how a dedicated team of ‘riddlers’ or ‘remueurs’ hand turn bottles to gradually push the yeast sediment towards the neck of the bottle before this sediment is extracted in a process called disgorging.
The riddlers work on the bottles almost every day for a couple of months and literally ‘read the bottle’ using their experience to decide if the bottle has to be rotated left or right and whether it has to be turned a quarter, an eighth or a sixteenth! Many countries have their own versions of sparkling wines (like spumante from Italy) but only sparkling wines from the Champagne region are allowed to use the word ‘Champagne’. While all Champagne is sparkling wine, clearly not all sparkling wine is Champagne.
A two-kilometre walk after the customary Champagne sampling session at the end of the cellar tour, brought me to Reims’ other UNESCO recognised world heritage site – the Notre Dame de Reims (Our lady of Reims).
This 800-hundred year Cathedral has been the venue of 33 coronations of French kings including Charles VII who was crowned here in the presence of Joan of Arc. It’s impossible not to be overawed by this Gothic cathedral’s imposing façade and equally impossible to try and cram it into a single frame on most cameras. The cathedral suffered extensive damage during World War I, along with the rest of the city.
The entire city centre was rebuilt in Art Deco style, making Reims one of France’s most unique towns from a design perspective. I got lost among these striking art deco landmarks before finding a quiet corner to sip on a glass of bubbly (what else!) with one of Reims’ famous rose cookies.
I tried counting the bubbles in my champagne glass but quickly gave up – the average bottle of Champagne has about 47-48 million bubbles! I had to rush back to the Louvre in Paris. As I tried catching a glimpse of the Mona Lisa behind scores of camera toting tourists, I wish I had stayed back at Reims and spent more time gazing at Art Deco buildings with a glass of Champagne.
Getting there and around: Reims is under an hour away from Paris by train and about 2 ½ hours by bus. Cabs are expensive within town, you could use trams and buses instead. However it’s best to explore the town by foot.
Accommodation: You could stay in Paris and plan Reims as a half day or full day trip but if you are on a longer vacation you could easily spend a day or two here. The Hotel de la Paix (http://www.bestwestern-lapaix-reims.com) is a great option.
(Ashwin Rajagopalan enjoys communicating across boundaries in his three distinct roles as a widely published lifestyle writer, one of India’s only cross cultural trainers and a consultant for a global brand services firm. Ashwin writes extensively on travel, food, technology and trends)
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