Hautvillers: Read the Monk's Epitaph, Not the Legend

Legend says a monk in this village invented champagne. His gravestone never mentions it. Dom Pierre Pérignon was the abbey's cellarer for 47 years, until 1715, and the business he ran rested on still wine; the claim that he invented the sparkling kind was written more than a century after his death, and no text proves it. The Latin on his black marble slab, in the choir of the old abbey church, praises his stewardship and his love for the poor. Find it, hunt some 140 wrought-iron signs in the lanes, taste Chardonnay, Meunier and Pinot Noir apart before a blend, and end at the belvedere above the Marne.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Hunt the Signs with the Village Plan Adventure · Free

   Trades in wrought iron overhead, and a lane with two names.

   Trade signs over doors are a medieval custom, and Hautvillers brought them back: the tourist office says the mayor chose to revive the tradition in 1962, and the workshop that makes the signs says it relaunched them in 1972. The village now counts some 140.

   Where: start at the tourist office on Place de la République and take its village plan.

   What: walk the lanes looking up and see how many trades you can name; among them, look for a cooper, a blacksmith, a cellar master and a carpenter. Then find the Ruelle du Cul de Lampe on the plan: walk down it and it becomes the Passage des Bénédictins, the lane the monks took to their meals.

   How: free. The office opens Monday to Saturday all year, and on Sundays and holidays from 15 April to 31 October, 10:00–16:00.

   Backup: the signs hang on the house fronts, so the hunt works when the office is shut; the village plan is also linked from the office's website.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Read the Epitaph in the Choir History · Free

   The monk's own gravestone, its twin, and a second monk.

   Legend made Dom Pérignon the inventor of champagne. His epitaph, cut in Latin into a black marble slab in the choir of the old abbey church, remembers a steward instead: cellarer of the monastery for 47 years, praised for his care of the community's goods and his fatherly love for the poor, dead in his 77th year, in 1715. Nothing about wine or bubbles.

   Where: Église Saint-Sindulphe, Rue de l'Église. The abbey behind it is Moët & Chandon's private property and cannot be visited.

   What: find his slab, then its pair, the slab of Dom Royer, an abbot who died in 1527 and whose epitaph was remade in 1715. Then find the slab of Dom Thierry Ruinart, a Benedictine scholar who died at the abbey in 1709; it carries a long epitaph, and his nephew founded the Ruinart house in 1729. The story goes that the two monks met here in 1696. In all, the church holds some fifteen epitaphs from the 17th and 18th centuries.

   How: free, open every day: May to September 9:00–18:30 on weekdays and 10:00–18:30 at weekends; October, March and April 9:00–18:00 on weekdays and 10:00–18:00 at weekends; November to February 10:00–17:00. Restoration works are under way, so parts may be screened off.

   Backup: if the church is shut, the bronze Dom Pérignon by Juan Carlos Carrillo, unveiled in June 2022, stands outdoors in the nearby parc Pierre Cheval, and the tourist office (+33 3 26 57 06 35) can say when the church reopens.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Taste the Grapes Apart, Then Together Wine · Price: moderate

   Three single-grape flutes, then the blend.

   The monk is credited with careful blending of wines from many plots; his century also learned a gentler pressing that drew white wine from black grapes.

   Where: Au 36, 36 rue Dom Pérignon, which pours flights of champagne side by side.

   What: order the four-flute flight (€34): 100% Chardonnay, 100% Meunier, 100% Pinot Noir, then a blend. Taste the three grapes one at a time, then say which of them you find in the blend. The three single-grape flutes alone are €25 per person. If you are driving, taste and spit.

   How: April to October 11:00–18:00 (Sundays to 17:00); March, November and December 11:00–16:00, closed Tuesday and Wednesday; closed from 27 July to 6 August; no hours are published for January and February. Au 36 says weekends are busy, so book a table on its website.

   Backup: Champagne G. Tribaut, 88 rue d'Eguisheim, pours three wines of your choice for €5 to €15, waived if you buy six bottles; it opens every day except Sundays in January and February.

   Log Memory
4. 4 Name the Valley from the Belvédère Adventure · Free

   The listed hillsides, named from a viewpoint.

   Hautvillers' historic vineyard slopes are one of the witness sites of the Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars, on UNESCO's World Heritage list since 4 July 2015.

   Where: the Belvédère Dom Pérignon on Rue de Cumières, the first of the Panoramic Tour's 8 viewpoints.

   What: find the information terminals, then name what lies below: the village roofs, the vines running towards Épernay, the village of Cumières and the Marne.

   How: free and open-air.

   Backup: for a second angle, find the Ruelle des Quatre Frères on the village plan and climb its 90 steps to another view over Hautvillers and the Marne valley; by car, the Croix Joseph viewpoint is on the D386 towards Saint-Imoges.

   Log Memory
5. 5 Walk the Boucle de Bellevue Adventure · Free · Optional

   An 8 km loop through the state forest to the Bellevue viewpoint at Champillon, and back.

   This loop leaves the village for the state forest above it.

   Where: start on Place de la République, the main square, and take rue de Bacchus.

   What: follow the tourist office's Boucle de Bellevue leaflet, on its website: past the pond at the Pré Jaumé, into the state forest along the forest road of the Fontaine aux Fresnes, out of the woods to the village of Champillon, and on to the Bellevue viewpoint over the Marne valley and Épernay. Come back on the GR 14, past fountains, then along forest paths by the étang des Essarts.

   How: free; 8 km, about 2h40 on foot, of medium difficulty.

   Backup: for a shorter walk, the Circuit des Moines is 3 km, about an hour, from the Jard Kiedrich car park.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Leave the car at the Jard Kiedrich car park or along avenue de Chandon; the tourist office asks visitors to explore the lanes on foot.

• The abbey behind the church is Moët & Chandon's private property, with restoration works planned to run to the end of 2027 and a public opening planned for 2028; only the church is open.

• Clotaire, on rue de la Croix de Fer, says its bar is built into the village's grape press, there since the early 19th century; it opens Wednesday to Sunday lunchtime.

• Au 36 says it is busy all year, above all at weekends; book a table on its website.