Reims is where French kings were crowned. Clovis was baptised here around 496, and from the eleventh century almost every French monarch was consecrated in the cathedral, including Charles VII in 1429 with Joan of Arc standing beside him, which was the entire point of her campaign. The cathedral is High Gothic, begun in 1211, with over two thousand statues on it and a Chagall window in the east end added in 1974.
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It is also the capital of Champagne, and the two facts are connected underground. The Romans quarried chalk here, leaving vertical pits called crayeres, and the champagne houses later linked them into tens of kilometres of cellars that sit at a constant 10°C to 12°C. Those cellars sheltered the population during the First World War, when the city was shelled for four years and about eighty per cent of it was destroyed. What you see above ground is largely 1920s reconstruction, much of it art deco, which is why Reims looks unlike other French cathedral cities.
What Makes Reims Different to Pack For
The cellars are cold, always
The crayeres sit at 10°C to 12°C year round, and a tour spends an hour or more down there, often after walking through a 30°C August afternoon. That twenty degree difference is the single most specific packing fact about Reims, and it is the thing visitors get wrong.
A merino wool base layer for women is exactly right for this: thin enough to carry in a bag through a hot afternoon, warm enough in a damp chalk cellar, and it handles the humidity down there better than a cotton cardigan.
Northern French weather
Reims is in the Grand Est, well north, and it is cooler than most of France. Summer runs 18°C to 26°C, winter 1°C to 7°C with frost and occasional snow, and rain is spread through the year. Spring and autumn are changeable.
The cellars have a lot of stairs
Descending 20 to 30 metres, usually on stone spiral steps, sometimes over a hundred of them, damp and worn. A few houses have lifts; most do not.
You will be drinking at eleven in the morning
Tours include tastings and they start early. Eating first and spacing them out is the practical advice, along with not driving.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Reims Packing List
Footwear
Flat closed shoes with grip, and this is a requirement rather than a preference: the cellar stairs are damp chalk and stone, worn concave by use, and several houses refuse entry in heels or open sandals. Closed toes also keep your feet warm in the cellars.
For the Montagne de Reims vineyard walks and the Faux de Verzy, a stand of naturally twisted beech trees on the ridge, waterproof hiking shoes are the right thing, since the vineyard tracks are chalk mud.
Clothing
Layers built around the cellar problem: something you can add underground and remove above. A light jacket or wrap that packs small, even in August.
A packable rain jacket year round, and proper winter clothing from November to March, when the wind across the plain is cutting.
Covered shoulders and knees for the cathedral and the Basilique Saint-Remi, both working churches. Reims dresses neatly; the champagne houses are not formal but they are not beachwear either, and a few of the grandes maisons expect smart casual.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat and sunscreen for the vineyard walks in summer, where the Montagne de Reims slopes are open and the chalk reflects. Less critical than in the south, and still needed on a July day among the vines.
Practical
Book cellar tours ahead, because the well known houses sell out and several require reservations days in advance. A bag that will take bottles, or the willingness to ship. Cash is barely needed. A refillable bottle. And a plan for getting between houses that is not a car, which is the recurring practical problem of a champagne trip.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Notre-Dame de Reims
The coronation cathedral, UNESCO listed, with the smiling angel on the west front, a rose window above the portal, and Chagall's blue glass in the axial chapel. The German shelling in 1914 burned the roof and melted some of the lead; the restoration took decades.
Practically: shoulders and knees covered. It is unheated and cold inside in winter, colder than the street. Free to enter; the tower climb is separate, seasonal and steep. The summer light show projected onto the facade is free and worth staying for.
The champagne cellars
The grandes maisons in Reims itself include Taittinger, whose cellars occupy Roman chalk pits and the crypt of a ruined abbey, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart, the oldest house, and Pommery, which has an enormous carved staircase down to its galleries. Epernay, half an hour south, has the Avenue de Champagne with Moet and Perrier-Jouet.
Practically: take a warm layer and wear closed flat shoes, because it is 10°C at the bottom and the stairs are damp. Book ahead. Tours run 60 to 90 minutes and include one to three glasses. Eat beforehand. The smaller growers in the villages, the recoltant-manipulants, give better and cheaper visits than the big houses, and many need a phone call rather than a website.
The Basilique Saint-Remi and its abbey
A Romanesque and Gothic basilica holding the tomb of Saint Remi, who baptised Clovis, with the Holy Ampulla that supplied the coronation oil. It is also UNESCO listed and it is far quieter than the cathedral.
Practically: a twenty minute walk or a tram from the centre. Shoulders and knees. The nave is long, dim and Romanesque at the west end, and the museum in the old abbey next door is good on the city's Roman and medieval past.
The Montagne de Reims and the vineyard route
The forested ridge between Reims and Epernay, ringed by grand cru villages: Verzenay with its lighthouse and windmill, Verzy, Ay, Bouzy, Hautvillers where Dom Perignon is buried.
Practically: this needs a car, a bike, or a driver, and a driver is the sensible answer given the tastings. Vineyard tracks are chalk and turn to paste in rain. The Faux de Verzy beech wood is a short marked walk from a car park. Harvest is in September and the villages are working flat out then, so visits need arranging well ahead.
The Palais du Tau and the surrender museum
The archbishop's palace beside the cathedral, holding the coronation regalia and the original statuary taken down from the facade. Separately, the Musee de la Reddition is the schoolhouse where Germany signed its unconditional surrender to the Western Allies on 7 May 1945, with the operations room preserved as it was.
Practically: both indoor, both good for a wet day. The surrender room is small, sober and takes half an hour.
Eating and the art deco
Reims has biscuits roses, pink biscuits made for dipping in champagne, jambon de Reims, and a good restaurant scene for a city of its size. The 1920s reconstruction left it with a serious art deco inheritance, including the Carnegie library and the covered market at Boulingrin.
Practically: the Place Drouet d'Erlon is the main eating and drinking street and is lively into the evening. Book at weekends. Many kitchens close between 2pm and 7pm, which catches people out.
What Not to Bring
Leave heels and open sandals, which several cellars will turn you away for. Leave the assumption that August means you need no jacket.
Leave strong perfume to a tasting, which is discourteous in a room where people are smelling wine. Leave the plan to drive between houses. Leave the expectation that you can walk in without booking. And leave space in the case.
Essential Resources for Women in Reims
Emergency numbers in France: 112 is the European emergency number and works for everything. 15 reaches the SAMU medical service, 17 the police, 18 the fire service.
Tourist support: France has no dedicated tourist police force. A theft requires a plainte filed at a commissariat, which can be pre-registered through the pre-plainte-en-ligne service, and you need the report for insurance and for a replacement passport.
US Embassy: the US Embassy in Paris at fr.usembassy.gov covers France and is about 45 minutes from Reims by TGV, which makes this one of the easier French cities for consular help despite having no post of its own. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the CHU de Reims, centred on the Hopital Robert Debre, is the regional teaching hospital with 24 hour urgences, with the Polyclinique Saint-Andre as a private alternative. EU and UK visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card or the UK Global Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance.
Official health authority: the French Ministry of Health at sante.gouv.fr. Nothing seasonal here compares with the south, though winter cold and ice on the cellar steps and the cathedral square are worth noting.
US State Department travel advisory for France: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for France: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the national terrorism threat level and the drink driving limit of 0.5, which is the piece most relevant to a champagne trip.
Official tourism authority: Atout France at france.fr, with Reims Tourisme for the cellar booking service and the Champagne route maps, and the Comite Champagne for the growers' association and the harvest dates.
Solo women safety assessment: Reims is a comfortable and easy city for a woman travelling alone. It is a prosperous cathedral and university city of around 180,000, the centre is compact and walkable, the tram is clean and runs late, and crime against visitors is low and almost entirely opportunistic. Pickpocketing happens around the station, the cathedral square and the Place Drouet d'Erlon on a busy Saturday night, and the standard precautions cover it: a zipped bag in front of you, nothing in a back pocket. Walking alone in the centre in the evening is normal and the Place Drouet d'Erlon is busy with people until late. The areas around the Gare Centre late at night and the quieter residential blocks north of the centre are less pleasant but not dangerous, and a tram or taxi solves it. Street harassment is mild and infrequent. Cellar tours are a very comfortable solo activity: they are small groups, well organised, and the staff are professionals, so this is an easy place to do a wine trip alone. The specific risks are not criminal. The first is the stairs: cellar steps are damp, chalk dusted and worn hollow, handrails are not universal, and a fall on them is the most likely injury of your trip, which is why the closed flat shoes matter. The second is alcohol, and it deserves saying plainly: champagne tastings start mid morning, the pours are larger than they look, the cellars are cold so the effect is easy to miss, and three houses in a day is more than most people realise. Eat first, use the spittoons, drink water between, and do not plan to drive. If you are travelling alone, keep an eye on your own glass in a group tasting for the usual reasons. The third is driving in the vineyards, where the lanes are narrow, the tracks are chalk mud, and the legal limit of 0.5 is low enough that a single generous tasting can reach it. Take the tourist office's shuttle, a booked driver or the train to Epernay instead.
Reading On
Reims is 45 minutes from Paris by TGV, which makes it the easiest day trip in France that is worth several days. The France travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the France packing list for women covers a trip across it. West, the Paris packing list for women is the arrival city and the Normandy packing list for women and Brittany packing list for women continue to the coast. East, the Strasbourg packing list for women covers Alsace and its own wine route. South, the Bordeaux packing list for women is the other great French wine city, with the Loire Valley packing list for women and the Dordogne packing list for women between them, and the Lyon packing list for women, the Provence packing list for women and the Marseille packing list for women down the Rhone. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why a thin wool layer is the right thing to carry into a 10°C chalk cellar on a hot day, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
