Veuve Clicquot: Chalk Cellars and the Widow's Chapel

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was widowed at 27 in 1805 and took over her husband's wine business herself. In 1810 the house took her name: Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. The chalk cellars you tour came later: the house bought them on Saint-Nicaise Hill more than forty years after she died. The UNESCO site body dates their pits to the Middle Ages and early modern times; 24 km of galleries join them. You can walk down a stair marked with vintage years, test the riddling-table story the champagne houses' own trade body tells as legend, and finish at her family's chapel in the Cimetière du Nord.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Do the Widow's Sum Before You Go Down History · Free

   Free, at the visitor centre door: two dates, one sum.

   One sum before the descent. She died in 1866. The managers of the UNESCO property date the house's purchase of the Champion cellars here to 1907; the house's own timeline says 1909.

   Where: the visitor centre door, 1 Rue Albert Thomas, on Saint-Nicaise Hill.

   What: work out how many years passed between her death and the purchase, once for each date. You get two answers, both more than forty years: the widow never owned the cellars you are about to tour. In her lifetime the house kept its celliers on rue du Temple in town, from 1822. Even the buildings in front of you came later: the site was destroyed in the First World War and rebuilt in the 1920s.

   How: free, from the street, any day.

   Backup: on open days the café terrace under the yellow umbrellas is open to all with no booking, and the boutique keeps the visitor centre's hours.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Count the Vintages on the Way Down Adventure · Price: moderate

   The Brut Carte Jaune tour, down a stair of vintage years.

   The way down is a timeline: on each step of the staircase to the cellars, a plaque marks the year of a great vintage.

   Where: the same door; the tour goes down into the crayères.

   What: book the Brut Carte Jaune tour (1h00; 36 € for adults, 17 € for ages 10 to 17, free under 10; in French or English) and, on the stair, find the oldest year. Below you: pits the UNESCO site body dates to the Middle Ages and early modern times, joined by galleries of the 19th and 20th centuries, 24 km in all.

   How: book ahead; tours run 9h30-17h30, Tuesday to Sunday until 1 November 2026 and Wednesday to Sunday from 4 November 2026 to 3 January 2027.

   Backup: if tours are full, the café terrace (11:00 to 17:00, no bookings) and the boutique.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Put the Riddling Legend on Trial History · Free

   In the cellars: her invention, or a story?

   The house tells the riddling table as her invention and dates it 1816. The story goes that she, prompted by her cellar master Antoine Müller, had a kitchen table drilled with angled holes to riddle the bottles. The Union des Maisons de Champagne, the champagne houses' own trade body, tells it as legend, dates it 1818, and records the first angled bottle rack in 1813.

   Where: in the cellars, on your tour.

   What: find the riddling racks (pupitres), ask your guide which year they give, and weigh it against 1813.

   How: no extra cost.

   Backup: if your route passes no racks, ask the question anyway.

   Log Memory
4. 4 Taste the Label She Never Saw Wine · Free

   The tasting that ends your tour.

   The yellow label came after her: it was registered on 12 February 1877 as "V. Clicquot P. Werlé", 11 years after her death.

   Where: the tasting at the end of your tour.

   What: the Brut Carte Jaune tour pours Brut Carte Jaune. Book the rosé tour instead (1h00, 60 €, free under 10) to taste Brut Rosé and Vintage Rosé Brut and hear the blend the house credits her with in 1818: a share of red wine from Bouzy in white wine, where rosé had been coloured with elderberries.

   How: included in your tour ticket; sipping is up to you.

   Backup: none needed.

   Log Memory
5. 5 Find the Poppies on Her Chapel History · Free

   Free: the family chapel in the Cimetière du Nord.

   She died at Boursault and was brought back to Reims, to the family chapel she had built.

   Where: the Cimetière du Nord, gate at 1 bis rue du Champ de Mars.

   What: the listed Sainte-Croix chapel (1788) stands just inside the gate. Behind it, in canton 2, the Chapelle Ponsardin covers the vault of the Clicquot-Ponsardin and de Chevigné families. Find the carved poppies among the acanthus leaves, fern crooks, palms and pine cones. Her father Nicolas Ponsardin, her only daughter Clémentine and her son-in-law Louis de Chevigné lie here with her.

   How: free, every day, 9:00-18:00 from 1 April to 31 October and 9:00-17:30 from 2 November to 31 March.

   Backup: none needed.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Tours start at the visitor centre, 1 Rue Albert Thomas, on Saint-Nicaise Hill, not at the head office on rue du Temple in town.

• The Café Clicquot takes no reservations and opens 11:00 to 17:00 on the visitor centre's terrace; the house may keep it closed when bad weather is forecast.

• From 4 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 the visitor centre opens Wednesday to Sunday; the 2026 season began on 7 April after a winter closure.

• The two longer tours, The art of aging and La Grande Dame, are not open to children; the 1-hour tours run in French and English.