The Cru Crew
The mission? To get a handful people from the grey pavements of west London to the lush green vines of Champagne, a) without killing anyone on the road, b) without killing each other, and c) making it home with a car full of something very French and very bubbly. Despite one of our party’s valiant attempt at securing the latter via a sweet (slightly confused) waitress, and an almost missed ferry thanks to “just one last tasting”, we made it there and back. Just.
Drive: The Saab 9-3 SportWagon is the perfect choice for a group getaway. Plenty of room for all five pairs of legs, and a more than generous boot for overnight bags and obligatory cases of champagne. The 2.8 V6 engine had us overtaking lumbering trucks on single-lane A roads, and despite the Saab’s sizable hatchback status, it happily cornered tight, wending roads of small wine-making villages. The satellite touchscreen GPS meant no fighting over rues and l’avenues. (From £31,230, www.saab.co.uk)
Stay: Reims may be where the action is, but for a more authentic experience – and higher concentration of indulgent locals to patiently decipher your garbled Gallic verbs – stay in one of the smaller hamlets. Vertus is a pretty, flower-strewn village, 12 miles from Épernay’s champagne houses and cobblestone streets. You won’t find much five-star accommodation here, but you’ll certainly be made to feel very welcome. The garden-view rooms of Le Mont-Aimé (www.hostellerie-mont-aime.com) will leave you in no doubt that you’re in provincial France. As for a budget option, Logis Hostellerie De La Reine Blanche on Louis-Lenoir more than fits the bill.
Eat: The plat du jour at Brasserie le Progrès in Épernay on our visit was an apt poulet au Champagne – a proper leg joint in a creamy, tart sauce, which was utterly delicious – while the steak tartare’s glossy, mustardy goodness more than made up for its somewhat unappealingly heaped aesthetic. Logis Hostellerie’s restaurant serves the rich, garlic-butter dishes de rigueur for any Gallic getaway; definitely try the oeuf a vin rouge et jambon, a local delicacy of eggs and ham in a red-wine sauce – it’s a grown-up fry-up, French style. Most enjoyable, though, is simply picking up a baguette, a sharp Roquefort and some finely sliced cured meats, and heading to Parc de Champagne. (A cool bottle of bubbly won’t go astray, either.)
See: Well, as many champagne houses as you can. You’ll find the big ones in Reims: Pommery, Veuve Clique Ponsardin, Taittinger and G.H. Mumm; Épernay is home to Moët et Chandon, de Castellane and Richard Bonnaire. All offer guided tours with tastings (Mumm’s is a good one), and they’re very interesting, but one is probably enough – and few houses seem to offer tastings without the obligatory lesson. It’s also worth visiting Champagne mid-week, to catch the smaller wineries – we found most of the ones in Vertus shut on the weekend. Outside of the bubbly, visit Notre-Dame de Reims: the 13th century gothic church is one of the great masterpieces of the Middle Ages.