Normandy, Brittany & the Best of the North_ With Paris (Fodor's) - Fodor's [78]
ÉPernay
Best Museum
Castellane. Some of the region’s deepest cellars—down to 130 feet—and, above ground, a museum with an intriguing display of old tools, bottles, labels and posters. There’s also the chance to see the bottling and labeling plant, and climb to the top of a 200-foot tower for a great view over Épernay and the surrounding Marne vineyards. | 57 rue de Verdun | 03–26–51–19–19 | www.castellane.com | €8 (incl. museum) | Apr.–Dec., daily 10–noon and 2–6; Jan.–Mar., by appointment only.
Best High-Tech Visit
Mercier. Ride an electric train and admire the giant 200,000-bottle oak barrel it took 24 oxen three weeks to cart to the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889. An elevator down to (and up from) the cellars is a welcome plus. | 75 av. de Champagne | 03–26–51–22–22 | www.champagne-mercier.fr | €8.50 | Mid-Mar.–mid-Nov., Thurs.–Mon. 9:30–11:30 and 2–4:30.
Longest Cellar Walk
Moët & Chandon. Foreign royalty, from Czar Alexander I to Queen Elizabeth II, have visited this most prestigious of all Champagne houses, founded by Charles Moët in 1743. The chalk-cellar galleries run for a mind-blowing 17 miles. The visit includes a glass of Brut Imperial; for €27 you can also taste a couple of vintages. | 18 av. de Champagne | 03–26–51–20–20 | www.moet.com | €14.50 | Mid-Nov.–Dec., Feb.–Mar., weekdays 9:30–11:30 and 2:30–4:30; Apr.–mid-Nov., daily 9:30–11:30 and 2:30–4:30.
Ladies’ Choice
Veuve-Clicquot. The 15-mile chalk galleries here were first excavated in Gallo-Roman times—back in the 3rd century AD! You can see and talk to cellar workers during the visit, and the souvenir shop has the most extensive range of gift ideas of any champagne house. This is Champagne’s most feminist firm—named for a woman, and still headed up by a woman today. | 12 rue du Temple | 03–26–89–53–90 | www.veuve-clicquot.com | €9 | Open by appointment Apr.–Oct., Mon.–Sat. 10–6; Nov.–Mar., weekdays 10–6.
Previous Chapter | Beginning of Chapter | Next Chapter | Contents
Main Table of Contents
Introducing Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine Planner
Getting Around
Nancy
Lorraine: Joan of Arc Country
Strasbourg
Alsace
Alsace-Lorraine In Depth
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Contents
Top Reasons to Go | Getting Oriented
Updated by Christopher Mooney
Only the Rhine separates Germany from Alsace-Lorraine, a region that often looks German and even sounds German. But its heart—just to prove how deceptive appearances can be—is passionately French. One has only to recall that Strasbourg was the birthplace of the Marseillaise national anthem to appreciate why Alsace and Lorraine remain among the most intensely French of all France’s provinces.
Yet no matter how forcefully the French tout its Frenchness, Alsace also has German roots that go deep, as one look at its storybook medieval architecture will attest. Its gabled, half-timber houses, ornate wells and fountains, oriels (upstairs bay windows), storks’ nests, and carved-wood balustrades would serve well as a stage set for the tale of William Tell and satisfy a visitor’s deepest craving for well-preserved old-world atmosphere. Strasbourg, perhaps France’s most fascinating city outside Paris, offers all this, and urban sophistication as well.
Lorraine, on the other hand, has suffered a decline in its northern industry and the miseries of its small farmers have left much of it tarnished and neglected—or, as others might say, kept it unspoiled. Yet Lorraine’s rich caches of verdure, its rolling countryside dotted with mirabelle (plum) orchards and crumbling-stucco villages, abbeys, fortresses, and historic cities, such as Art Nouveau-ed Nancy, offer a truly French view of life in the north. Its borders flank Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany’s mellow Mosel (Moselle in French). Home of Baccarat and St-Louis crystal (thanks to limitless supplies of firewood from the Vosges Forest), the birthplace of Gregorian chant, Art Nouveau and Joan of Arc, Lorraine-the-underdog has much of its own to contribute.
The question remains: who put the hyphen in Alsace-Lorraine? Alsace’s strip