Where to Stay in Reims, Grand Est

What is Reims known for?

Reims is known for the cathedral where generations of French kings were crowned, and for the Champagne cellars cut into the chalk beneath it. The Palace of Tau stands beside the cathedral in the old ecclesiastical heart. Kings came here to be made.

The Basilique Sainte-Clotilde de Reims and the Musée Saint-Remi hold the deeper religious history, while the Museum of the Surrender records the city's role at the close of the Second World War.

What are the main landmarks in Reims?

Reims keeps its landmarks around the coronation cathedral and the old abbeys. The Palace of Tau adjoins the cathedral where French kings were crowned. Roman work survives too.

The Cryptoportique de Reims preserves an underground gallery from the Roman town, while the Basilique Sainte-Clotilde de Reims, the Ancien Collège des Jésuites de Reims, and the Museum of Fine Arts of Reims spread the city's heritage from antiquity through the Champagne age.

What is the history of Reims?

Reims began as a Roman town on the Vesle, and the Cryptoportique de Reims still preserves a gallery from that early city beneath the modern streets. Coronation made its name. For centuries French kings came to Reims to be crowned in its cathedral, and the neighbouring Palace of Tau served as the archbishop's residence and the setting for the coronation banquets that followed each ceremony.

The abbey of Saint-Remi, whose history the Musée Saint-Remi now keeps, tied the city to the earliest Christian kingship of the Franks. War marked the twentieth century as sharply as coronation marked the earlier one. The Museum of the Surrender records the schoolhouse in Reims where the German forces surrendered at the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Between the Roman gallery, the coronation cathedral, and the surrender room, the city carries a history that runs from antiquity to the modern age, all within a Marne town whose chalk beneath ripened the Champagne trade that still defines it.

Where is Reims?

Reims lies on the Vesle in the Marne department of the Grand Est region, northeast of Paris. The Vesle is a tributary of the Aisne, and the city sits in the chalk country of Champagne. Vineyards ring the town.

The gentle slopes around Reims carry the vines whose grapes feed the Champagne trade, and the chalk beneath the streets forms the cellars that store the wine.

What is the climate of Reims?

Reims has a temperate climate shaped by its inland position in the Marne. Winters run cold and grey without the deep freezes of the mountains, and summers stay warm enough to ripen the vines of Champagne. Seasons turn clearly here.

Rain falls across the year on the chalk country around the Vesle, feeding the vineyards that ring the city and giving Champagne its measured, cool-climate character.

How do you get to Reims?

Reims sits on the high-speed rail line northeast of Paris. Fast trains reach the city from the capital in well under an hour, making it an easy day's approach into Champagne. The station stands near the Vesle.

From there the cathedral and the Palace of Tau lie within a short walk, and roads run out across the Marne department toward the vineyards and the wider Grand Est.