Champagne: Bubbles, Beauty & French Charm
There is a particular hush that settles over Champagne in early autumn, when the vines turn to gold and the chalk cellars beneath Reims hold centuries of quiet patience. This journey invites you into that hush — not as a visitor passing through, but as a guest welcomed into one of France's most closely guarded regions.
Champagne is too often reduced to a hurried cellar visit and a glass raised without context. Aime Voyages believes it deserves better: slowness, access, and the company of those who have devoted their lives to it. Over five days, the journey moves from grand maisons whose names have traveled the world to the quiet villages where a single grower still tends a single Grand Cru slope by hand.
It begins at a château in Reims whose parkland and Michelin-starred table set the tone, draws deeper through UNESCO-listed cellars and private domains, then shifts register entirely at a hilltop retreat above the vines, before closing, fittingly, in the sky above the very landscape you have come to know.
What distinguishes this journey is access — the kind built through relationships, opening cellars, tables, and conversations closed to travelers without introduction. Gastronomy threads through every day, from an art-of-blending table to a private lunch at the Jacques Selosse estate. Craftsmanship finds its place in a glassware tasting that reveals how a single vessel transforms what you taste. And always, the human element remains central: a morning spent beside a winemaker himself, in his own Grand Cru vineyard.
This is Aime Voyages at its essence — journeys built around meaning, not itineraries.
Highlights include:
- Two nights at Domaine les Crayères, a Relais & Châteaux in Reims
- A private glassware tasting with Maison Lehmann
- Commented visits and tastings at Ruinart and Taittinger
- An exclusive lunch at Les Avisés, on the Jacques Selosse estate
- A guided cellar tour and tasting at Billecart-Salmon
- Two nights at Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, above the vines
- A private day with a winemaker in the Grand Cru village of Cramant
- A sunrise hot air balloon flight over the Montagne de Reims
This is a journey for those who have tasted Champagne many times, yet never quite like this.
Itinerary
Arrival in the Heart of Champagne
As Paris recedes and the countryside softens into vineyard-covered hills, you arrive at Domaine les Crayères, an early twentieth-century château set within seven hectares of parkland outside Reims. Elegant, individually decorated rooms and a two-Michelin-starred table set the tone for the days ahead. Tonight, there is no itinerary — only the quiet grandeur of the château, a glass of Champagne, and the first, unhurried taste of a region about to reveal itself.
Grand Maisons and the Art of Glass
Descend into the ancient Crayères cellars of Ruinart, the oldest Champagne house, a UNESCO-listed labyrinth carved from Roman chalk pits. Lunch follows at Taittinger's Polychrome, where each dish mirrors a cuvée, before a private visit to the house's own domain. The day closes with Maison Lehmann, exploring how glassware itself shapes aroma and character — a sensory education closing over five expertly chosen flutes.
From the Selosse Table to the Hills Above the Vines
Lunch at Les Avisés, the intimate restaurant of the revered Jacques Selosse estate, offers Champagne through a singular, terroir-driven lens. The afternoon leads to Billecart-Salmon's historic cellars in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ for a guided tasting, before the journey's dramatic turn: arrival at Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, perched above the UNESCO-listed vineyards, where your suite terrace overlooks the Marne Valley at sunset.
A Private Day Among the Vines
A private chauffeur-guide leads a full day through Champagne's finest panoramas, culminating in a personal visit with a winemaker in the Grand Cru village of Cramant — his estate, his philosophy, his table. Lunch is served among the vines in true Champagne hospitality. The afternoon unfolds freely at Royal Champagne: spa, pool, electric bicycles toward Hautvillers, or simply the terrace and its view.
Above the Vines, Champagne from the Sky
Before dawn, a hot air balloon lifts silently above the Montagne de Reims, revealing in a single sweeping view everything tasted and discovered over four days — vineyard rows, chalk cellars, and hillside terraces resolving into one panorama. A final breakfast at Royal Champagne precedes the journey home, leaving behind not simply memories of exceptional Champagne, but of a region that opened itself completely.
What if this journey became yours?
Every journey tells a unique story. Let this itinerary inspire a tailor-made trip, thoughtfully designed around your wishes, your pace, and your travel style.