Mosella Valley

The stops

1. 1 Tour · Price: low Reims's Porte de Mars, Read Vault by Vault In the 10th century the Reims historian Flodoard described this gate: the she-wolf suckling Remus and Romulus under the right-hand vault as you leave the city, the twelve months of the Roman calendar in the middle one. Seven of those months survive, among them the pressing of grapes. Reims's heritage service calls the arch, 32.4 m long, the largest known arch of the Roman world. In 1853 Prosper Mérimée wrote that the town council would rather it fell, and that he was told one word from Madame Clicquot, "queen of Reims", would save it. You can find the she-wolf and the grape pressing, sort Roman stone from restorers' stone, then taste growers' champagne 231 m away.
2. 2 Tasting · Price: high Reims Champagne Houses: Roman or Medieval Cellars? Taittinger, Ruinart, Veuve Clicquot, and Pommery all age Champagne in chalk quarries (crayères), and when they were dug depends on who tells it: Taittinger dates its oldest pits to the 4th century and Ruinart says its own were dug from the 5th century, while the UNESCO site body's own pages range from Gallo-Roman times to the 10th century and put Veuve Clicquot's pits in the Middle Ages and early modern times. These cathedral-like cellars maintain perfect temperature and humidity. Walk through the tunnels, now filled with millions of bottles.
3. 3 Adventure · Price: moderate Épernay's Avenue de Champagne, Gate by Gate Until 1925 this was Rue du Commerce; that year Épernay renamed it Avenue de Champagne. Along it, champagne houses stand behind high, ornate gates, and the town counts 110 km of cellars beneath them. Jean-Rémy Moët had his mansion built here in 1793; the bombing of July 1918 left only its façades. You can walk it end to end, find a Temple of Love modelled on Versailles' and a huntsman in Charles Perrier's courtyard, go down into Moët's 28 km of cellars, find Pol Roger's door on the street Épernay named for Churchill, and climb the 237 steps of the De Castellane tower.
4. 4 Adventure · Price: moderate 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.
5. 5 Tour · Price: moderate Cryptoporticus of Reims - Underground Roman Galleries Hidden beneath Reims' city center, these 3rd-century underground galleries were part of the Roman forum. Walk through barrel-vaulted passageways where Roman merchants stored goods - including wine. Above ground, these same cellars now age Champagne.
6. 6 Tasting · Price: high Montagne de Reims Grand Cru Villages The "Mountain of Reims" is actually a forested plateau surrounded by Grand Cru villages. Bouzy, Ambonnay, and Verzenay produce Champagne's finest Pinot Noir. Romans recognized this terroir - north-facing slopes with perfect chalk for vines they planted 2,000 years ago.
7. 7 Tasting · Price: high Côte des Blancs Grand Cru Chardonnay The "White Coast" produces Champagne's finest Chardonnay. Cramant, Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger - villages where Romans first discovered chalk slopes perfect for white grapes. Taste Blanc de Blancs Champagnes in cellars carved into the same chalk Romans quarried.
8. 8 Tour · Price: moderate Trier Day Trip - Roman Capital of the North Cross into Germany to visit Augusta Treverorum (Trier) - Rome's greatest city north of the Alps. The Porta Nigra (Black Gate) is the largest Roman city gate surviving anywhere. This was the capital where emperors ruled and Moselle wines flowed.

The story

Plan the trip

Insider tip The Champagne cellars are carved into Roman chalk quarries — the same underground spaces Romans used 2,000 years ago.

More trails in this chapter

• The Rhône Corridor
• Burdigala to Narbo
• Loire Roman Trail