TOURING CHAMPAGNE PROVINCE Sumptuous Hotels, Stellar Restaurants, Idyllic Countryside, Unspoiled Towns, Cellar Tours and Tastings
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INSIDE: NEW DISCOVERIES & OLD FAVORITES IN FRANCE’S CHAMPAGNE REGION + LOS ANGELES BOUTIQUE HOTELS JUNE 2019 SINCE 1979 Traveling the world in search of truly enchanting places Junior Suite terrace at the new Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, Champillon TOURING CHAMPAGNE PROVINCE Sumptuous hotels, stellar restaurants, idyllic countryside, unspoiled towns, cellar tours and tastings he pop of a Champagne cork signals and several of the country’s best hotels — softened it by adding honey. It wasn’t Tcelebration and promises pleasure. including a superb new one — Champagne until the Benedictine monk Dom Pierre The world’s most joyous drink was born today is a more alluring destination for Pérignon began working with the wines around 350 years ago on the wind-swept oenophiles, gourmets and history buffs of Champagne in 1668 that the drink chalk plains of eastern France. Just than ever before. so prized today was invented. He was 45 minutes east of Paris by high-speed The region first acquired its wine- the first winemaker to understand that train, the Champagne region has long making vocation when the Romans grapes grown on different plots of land been popular with travelers fascinated by planted vineyards on the rolling slopes could have very different characters, the history and taste of this elegant wine between Durocortorum — the city now a seminal idea that led to the cuvée, or with its signature effervescence. Endowed known as Reims — and Épernay. Their the carefully studied blending of grapes. with a constellation of great restaurants pale-pink wine was highly acidic, so they He also perfected the best technique for Hideaway Report editors travel anonymously and pay full rate for all lodging, meals and related expenses. Since the launch of the Hideaway Report in 1979, featured hotels and restaurants have been selected on a completely independent basis. For comments and inquiries, please email [email protected]. RIAL: MICHEL JOLYOT MICHEL RIAL: AE lounge on the first floor, where the high- Sacy is a quiet, friendly and intimate place ceilinged space is furnished with plum in which to relax. Our only misgiving is velvet armchairs, bronze overstuffed that while the young staff members are sofas, potted palms, antique étagères and friendly and eager to please, their service crystal sconces. can be lacking in polish. Our Sun King Suite, and exterior, Château de Sacy, Sacy All rooms at the Château de Sacy are Following an excellent breakfast, we XTERIOR: MICHAËL BOUDOT E 6˚W 3˚W individually decorated. Our spacious0˚ Sun drove to Reims, a charming3˚E and walkable THION ANNE-EMMANUELLE RESTAURANT: AND ROOM 6˚E the méthode champenoise, the second King Suite came with a chandelier, parquet city that lies 20 minutes to the northeast. fermentation that occurs inside the bottle floors, a mirrored writing desk, armchairs, Its cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims, one on the addition of yeast. an antique armoire and a canopy bed. of the great gothic masterpieces of France, We were in the mood for a flute of The bath provided a large round tub is often known as the royal cathedral, as 6˚W bubbly by the time we arrived at the with a hand-held shower attachment and more than 30 French kings were crowned 12-room Château de Sacy in the charming two sinks set into basalt-topped wooden there. Having visited the cathedral and village of Sacy, which is a five-minute cabinets. (Some other accommodations admired its magnificent stained glass, we drive from the Champagne-Ardenne have walk-in showers.) walked to the adjacent Palais du Tau, the train station. This handsome four-story The hotel’s restaurant, Les Vignes, former home of the archbishops of Reims, 51˚N limestone villa with a steep slate roof and has become popular with locals, which is which has a rich collection of medieval art ROOM PHOTOS: HIDEAWAY REPORT EDITOR fretted wooden eaves is set on a hillside invariably a good sign. There, we enjoyed and surrounded by vineyards. It was an excellent chicken-and-foie-gras pâté built in 1850 for the wealthy Monnesson en croûte with cabbage-and-lentil salad family, textile merchants in Reims, and in white miso sauce, followed by yellow FRANCE 48˚N after extensive renovations, it opened as pollock with caramelized endives with BELGIUM a hotel in June 2017. orange essence and Champagne sauce, and veal with celery root gratin and REIMS The château is part of the Bordeaux- PARIS SACY based Millésime Collection, a new hotel romanesco (green cauliflower) purée. CHAMPILLON ÉPERNAY and restaurant group that specializes in Other amenities at the château include MARNE R. small, distinctive properties catering to a small gym, a spa cabin and two wine- CHAMPAGNE independent travelers. Like many of the barrel hot tubs on a terrace overlooking the -ARDENNE company’s hotels, this one was decorated vineyards. Electric bicycles are available SEINE R. by Marie-Christine Meloen, an interior to rent for anyone wanting to visit some TROYES designer based in southwestern France. of the local Champagne producers on Her approach is to study the history of a two wheels. building and then use it for inspiration. At Overall, we enjoyed our brief stay. A 0 40 MI stylish country-house hotel rather than the Château de Sacy, Meloen reinvented the 0 40 KM 48˚N plush Napoleon III style in the restaurant- a true luxury property, the Château de 2 HIDEAWAY REPORT JUNE 2019 45˚N 45˚N 42˚N 42˚N 0˚ 3˚E 6˚E 9˚E and tapestries. We then headed to Racine. shower, double vanities and Hermès the creativity and freshness of our lunch The city’s most talked-about restaurant products. As we settled in, I couldn’t help at Racine, and aside from the charming holds one Michelin star and has an open but reflect that Domaine Les Crayères is sommelier, Martin Jean, formerly of kitchen where Japanese chef Kazuyuki like a genteel time capsule, since it has three-star Maison Troisgros near Roanne Tanaka prepares wonderfully inventive changed so little from our first visit 30 in the Loire, the staff members were not contemporary French dishes with a years ago. In many ways, this sense of always as attentive as one would expect Japanese sensibility. continuity is refreshing in a world driven at a restaurant of this caliber. After lunch, we made our way to by evanescent trends. Here, the old-school Les Crayères is a lovely hotel that offers Domaine Les Crayères, set in a 17-acre codes still prevail, including a cordial but an increasingly rare dose of traditional park on the city’s southern outskirts. An formal style of hospitality. French luxury, but the property needs elegant limestone mansion, it was the However, there can be a downside some fine-tuning and updating, both RIAL: MICHEL JOLYOT MICHEL RIAL: AE home of the Polignac family until becoming to this. The rigidity of the service we in terms of its hospitality style and the a 20-room hotel in 1983. Having stayed at experienced during our stay made it interior of the hotel itself. the property many times before, it was hard to actually relax and enjoy the From Les Crayères it was a five-minute a pleasure to pull up once again at the place at times. And the black-and-white drive to Ruinart, which was founded head of the long lawn framed by cedars photographs in the elevator of famous in 1729 and today offers one of the best of Lebanon. Oddly, however, there was chefs in 1980s France were also rather cellar tours in Reims. Everything about no bellhop on duty, so we unloaded our telling, as several of these luminaries are this experience (which must be booked in bags and then parked our car ourselves. deceased and many are now of retirement advance online) was elegant and gracious, Inside, we received a theatrical greeting age. The hotel has stood still in other ways, from the refreshments served while we from the woman at the front desk, who too, with amenities that have come to be waited for everyone in our group of 10 to then propelled us upstairs to our Deluxe standard elsewhere being nowhere to be arrive to the well-spoken young guide who Room. This came with a separate sitting found (an in-room espresso machine, for began the tour with an excellent primer room with wall-to-wall cream carpeting, example). The hotel also has no pool, spa on the history of Champagne, including XTERIOR: MICHAËL BOUDOT E ROOM AND RESTAURANT: ANNE-EMMANUELLE THION ANNE-EMMANUELLE RESTAURANT: AND ROOM an area rug, a writing desk and a sofa. The or gym. The last major innovation at Les an explanation of how its popularity at bedroom contained a baldachin bed and Crayères was the opening of Brasserie Le the French court in Versailles first made a built-in wardrobe. A spacious, well-lit Jardin, the hotel’s second restaurant, in it fashionable. bath provided a separate tub and walk-in an outbuilding on the property in 2009. From Reims it was a 30-minute drive On our way to dinner downstairs at to Champillon, a village on a hillside Clockwise from top: Le Parc restaurant, aerial view, and room, Domaine Les Crayères, Reims chef Philippe Mille’s Michelin two-star overlooking Épernay and the location Le Parc restaurant, we also noticed that of the Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, in the long corridor leading to the elevator which was once a coaching inn where the the Brussels carpet was worn. We had a kings of France would stay en route to very good meal at Le Parc, but it lacked their coronation in Reims.