Page 212 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

6 Musée du Cloître de Notre- TOP TOP FIVE
Dame-en-Vaux
Châlons-en- "' ⌂ Rue Nicolas Durand 5 CHAMPAGNE
Champagne § 03 26 69 38 53 # 10am– HOUSES
12pm & 2–6pm Wed–Mon ¢ 1
! E2 ⌂ Marne £ @ Jan, 1 May, 1 & 11 Nov, 25 Dec Moët et Chandon
n 3 quai des Arts; www. Offers some of Epernay’s
chalons-tourisme.com 7 most elegant and
impressive cellar tours
Encircled by the River Marne
EXPERIENCE Champagne has a sleepy bourgeois charm Argonne Mumm
(www.moet.com).
and minor canals, Châlons
thanks to its half-timbered
! F2 ⌂ Ardennes &
Not far from the centre
houses and gardens mirrored
Meuse @ Châlons £ Ste-
of Reims, informative
in canals. Nearby are vine-
Menehould n 6 pl du la
tours take you deep into
yards producing Blanc de
République, Clermont en
chalk cellars (www.
Blancs (Champagne made
Argonne; www.tourisme-
mumm.com).
only from Chardonnay grapes).
From quai de Notre-Dame
East of Reims, the Argonne
there are views of old bridges
From an entrance hall in
is full of picturesque valleys
and the Romanesque towers argonne.com Pommery
Reims, 101 steps lead
of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, a and forests, dotted with down to Gallo-Roman
masterpiece of Romanesque priories, trenches and war cellars, decorated with
Gothic. Behind the church is cemeteries. As a wooded art (www.champagne-
a well-restored medieval border between the rival pommery.com).
quarter and the Musée du bishoprics of Lorraine and
Cloître de Notre-Dame-en- Champagne, the Argonne was Joseph Perrier
Vaux, containing the orig inal home to abbeys and priories. Based in Châlons-en-
Romanesque cloisters. Now a ruin, the abbey of Champagne, this family
Cathédrale St-Etienne is a Beaulieu-en-Argonne boasts house has 3 km of chalk
Gothic affair with a Baroque a 13th-cen tury wine press and caves to explore (www.
portal, Romanesque crypt has forest views. Just north is josephperrier.com).
and medi eval windows. Les Islettes, known for its
Beyond is Le Petit Jard, river- faïence pottery. The hilly ter- Tattinger
side gar dens over looking the rain here was a battleground Cellar tours in Reims
Château du Marché, and during the Franco-Prussian take you to Gallo-Roman
a tollgate built by War and World War I. The dis- quarries and a 13th-
Henri IV. River tours puted territory of Butte de century abbey (www.
are available from Vauquois, north of Les Islettes, taittinger.com).
the tourist office. bears a war memorial.
8
L’Epine
! E2 ⌂ Marne £ Châlons
@ n 3 quai des Arts,
Châlons en Champagne;
03 26 65 17 89
Surrounded by idyllic rural
scenes and rolling country side,
L’Epine is worth visiting if only
for a glimpse of the Basilique
de Notre-Dame de l’Epine,
surrounded by wheat fields.
Designed on the scale of a
cathedral, this 15th-century
Flamboyant Gothic church has
been a pilgrimage site since
medieval times. Even French
Gothic Cathédrale St-Etienne, kings have come here to vene-
sitting alongside the canal at rate a “miraculous” statue of
Châlons-en-Champagne the Virgin. On the façade, three
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