Tuesday July 4th

It feels good to be back in the beautiful and Champagne-thematic town of Épernay. It has been a while now, due to Covid-19 travel restrictions but also due to other things happening in my life. This time only for two nights before heading to Paris, but hopefully enough to reconnect to this beautiful place on earth.

Not much has changed – most of the restaurants and Champagne tasting showrooms remain. I will cover my favorite tasting places in a separate post.

Even if you have not been to Épernay before it is very easy to get a grip of. There is a big roundabout in the centre of town, from where Avenue de Champagne starts. That is where most of the Champagne activity happens.

The town hall has a calm garden. One secret is that the tourist agency – which is in the building next to the town hall – hosts two producers for free tasting nearly every day. Most often small and very local ones.

The town is right next to Champagne vineyards, so it is only 15 minutes walk from the city centre and then you are amongst grapes waiting to be harvested, pressed and bottled.

This also includes a beautiful view of the town.

As an example of the sudden transition from streets to vineyards, look at this time lapse video i took.

The town is easily explored in half a day, including the main church which has some beautiful glass paintings that adds colorful lighting to the church floor.

You can easily spot that this is a wealthy town, and some of the Champagne houses have impressive buildings, such as this big tower of the Castellane Champagne house.

It is also hard to ignore the garden and event house of Moët & Chandon. Before an invitation lands, one can only peek through the fence. Perhaps one day…?

This time I did not prioritise doing any tours or visits, I just wanted to walk around and taste good Champagne with both old and new Champagne loving friends.

There was also the opportunity to visit the best restaurant in town, La Grillade Gourmande. An ex-Michelin multiple star chef jumped of the band wagon and decided to open a place that would not get the pressure Michelin gives. So he opened up a place with only grilled food – all seasonal, vegetables, fish but first and foremost meat.

One of his tricks to scare Michelin guide inspectors away is to only serve baked jacket potatoes with créme fraiche with all the dishes. Works perfectly, and tastes wonderful.

To finish it off they served a perfect apple tart, all of this went down with a good bottle of Blanc de Noirs Champagne from Louis Nicaise,

An unforgettable night in Épernay!