FOODIE fanatics and champagne champions stop your holiday search now.
When in Reims, you’ll find delicious gourmet feasts on glamorous French streets. Bon voyage!
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GET FIZZY WITH IT
In a city known for champagne, you must treat yourself to a glass, or three!
At Champagne Pommery, embark on a subterranean tour of the cellars, which are filled with huge works of art at every turn.
A one-hour tour and tasting costs £23 per person (Champagnepommery.com).
Or try sabring your own bottle of fizz at Pol Couronne, where you can pop the cork off using a sword, then drink the rest with a mate, £44 (Champagne-polcouronne.com).
Lastly, the Taittinger experience offers a slick new visitor centre, tours of its ancient cave cellars and a tasting to finish things off nicely, £34 per person (Taittinger.com/en/visits-reims).
SPLURGE-WORTHY STROLLS
Rue de Vesle has the high-street brands covered, but veer off to Rue de Thillois for cult fashion faves at Maje (Fr.maje.com) and chic secondhand finds at Accessible Depot-Vente (@Dressing_accessibledepotvente).
For foodie gifts, like beautifully illustrated tins of sardines in olive oil, hot-foot it to Épicerie Madame on Rue de l’Arbalète (Epiceriemadame.fr).
If you need delicious, cheap eats on the go, grab a croque monsieur, £4, and a Kiss of Reims, £4 – a joyous hit of vanilla crème brûlée sandwiched between two rose biscuits – over at Case à Pain (Case-a-pain.fr).
After some French classics? Tuck into beef tartare, £16, and snails with parsley butter, £7, at Brasserie du Boulingrin (Boulingrin.fr).
Then, on bright days walk it all off with a stroll through Les Hautes Promenade park to spy the playful water fountains – it’s also host to the glorious Reims Christmas Market come December.
ART DECO discovery
After WW1, much of Reims was rebuilt in the 1920s.
For a free history lesson, head to the Art Deco Carnegie Library, with its stunning hanging lantern and elegant stained-glass windows (Bm-reims.fr/patrimoine).
Later, tour the sumptuously decorated Villa Demoiselle, finishing in style with a glass of crisp Vranken fizz (Vrankenpommery.com/visites).
Alternatively, mix food with sightseeing at Café du Palais, taking in its quirky interiors, antiques, artworks and an epic glass ceiling.
The succulent duck confit, £18.50, is excellent, too (Cafedupalais.fr).
A fun factory
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Visit the oldest biscuit factory in France for a tour and a taste of Fossier’s delicate pink biscuits – these creations have been in production since the 18th century.
Tours cost £4.60 per person (Fossier.fr).
For something more spiritual, step inside the gothic Reims Cathedral.
It’s free to visit, larger than the Notre-Dame in Paris and boasts more than 2,000 statues (Cathedrale-reims.com).
Finally, at the Surrender Museum, bedecked with maps, war stats and displays, you can stand in the War Room itself, just metres from the very table where 34th US President Dwight Eisenhower’s team received the official Nazi surrender to end WW2 in Europe.
Entry costs £4.60 per person (Musees-reims.fr/fr/musees/musee-de-la-reddition).
BREAKFAST BUBBLES
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Kip in modern rooms at Best Western Hotel De La Paix Reims. Despite its super-central spot, you still bag a garden, pool, solarium, sauna and a chic restaurant serving up treats such as champagne biscuit jam for breakfast.
Double rooms cost from £135 (Bestwestern-lapaix-reims.com).
FYI
Reims is known as the Coronation Capital – more than 30 kings have been crowned in the city.
Flights from the UK to Paris cost from £29. Reims is then 50 minutes away by train.
Plan your trip Plan your trip at Reims-tourisme.com.
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