Cycling through France’s Champagne and Burgundy wine regions
- Keira Proust
- Sep 7
- 7 min read
Galivanting through Europe has felt like struggling through an ultramarathon compared to five months of flight-free travel in Southeast Asia. I have been busily jumping between Europe and the UK, cramming in a ridiculous amount of stuff, for more than two months. It has been wonderful, but exhausting. Luckily, I was able to relax again once I set foot back in France. I spent eight days recovering in Paris, soaking up the sun and golden hour afternoons, before reconnecting with Paddy to continue our journey through Europe. Our first port of call: cycling through Champagne and Burgundy.
Rejuvenating in Paris
After two months of non-stop European travel, I realised I needed a break! I squeezed in a lot during the first two months (after an already jam-packed five months in Asia). I caught up with friends and my host family in Lyon, explored the famous prehistoric Lascaux Caves in Dordogne, marvelled at Mont-Saint-Michel near Rennes, caught several ferries between Europe, the UK and Ireland, went to a couple of music festivals, saw Stonehenge, embarked on a northern Ireland roadtrip with Paddy, reunited with friends in London, stayed with a beautiful family in their off-grid home near Glastonbury, and had time for some Scottish and Welsh fun too. So, it's safe to say I needed to catch up on some sleep.
I decided to reset in Paris for several reasons. Firstly, I had been there a few times before, so I didn't feel the need to "see" and "do" everything. Secondly, it allowed me to speak French again. And lastly, it genuinely is a perfect city to slow down and relax. People watching, cobblestone meandering, and wine tasting are among my favourite things to do in life, making Paris a perfect candidate for my break. I stayed in Montmartre, which was beautiful, particularly in the afternoons.
My days were filled with making some new friends, Eiffel Tower picnics, eating gelato or crepes, catching up on sleep and reading, attending a music festival and just a bunch of meandering. It was seriously great!! Once Paddy and I reconnected, we decided to head to some of France's most renowned wine regions, and they did not disappoint!
Épernay, Champagne
For our first stop, we decided to stay in Épernay, known as the capital of Champagne. And it lived up to its reputation! It took less than two hours on the train from Paris. We were staying in a cute Airbnb apartment that overlooked the city cathedral and was filled with golden light every evening. We booked it the day before, and it was only $50 each a night! Much cheaper than what the UK had on offer. The apartment was a couple of minutes away from the grandiose Champagne Avenue, home to famous brands such as Moët & Chandon, Mercier, and Pol Roger.
The highlight of our stay was cycling through the region's lush champagne vineyards. The area is UNESCO heritage-listed and is the only place in the world that can claim its sparkling wine as champagne. We spent an afternoon riding from Épernay's centre to the hillsides. Many of the vines were laden with fruit as the area was in the midst of its vendanges (wine harvest).
We rode along some emerald green canals connected to the Marne River and up into the hills of Aÿ, where Bollinger and other companies have their vineyards and Champagne houses. There are several cycling routes around the Épernay region. One 62km route connects many Champagne towns along the Marne River. We rode along a section of this as well as through random vineyards. The weather was beautiful and warm, a real delight after the grim UK climate I had sadly become accustomed to in the month prior.
After a couple of hours getting sweaty, we decided it was time to return to town for some proper Champagne tastings. The tourism office had two local producers providing free tastings, which we obviously had to indulge in! We were served the champagne in white wine glasses instead of your usual flutes. They said it was the best way to drink sparkling. The wine somehow felt smoother, and I think we've now been converted to drinking champagne/sparkling this way.
I wanted to focus on drinking wines from the smaller local producers, as behemoths in the industry (such as Moët & Chandon) are buying many of the vineyards. We were told that Moët & Chandon now produce 10 per cent of the entire Champagne market, leaving less room for smaller vineyards to grow!
Personally, I don't love Moët & Chandon champagnes. I often find myself gravitating to cheaper sparkling wines at home, such as the German brand Henkell. All the local wines we consumed in the region were much, much nicer than any Moët I've had! That's likely because they are smaller scale and focus on making a higher quality product instead of higher quantities.
We stumbled across a little champagne stall that let us taste six local wines for only 15 euros each! Some cocktails and other delights were also had, so you could say it was a successful day! I could have bought any of the wines we tasted, but we decided to buy a bottle of Beaumont des Crayers, which we had tasted at the tourist information centre earlier in the day. We took that bottle with us to Dijon, our next stop on the wine tour extravaganza.
Dijon, Burgundy
We hadn't originally planned to visit Dijon, but after a strong recommendation from one of the Champagne wine producers, we said, "Why not?".
It turned out to be an excellent decision on our part. Dijon is now one of my new favourite cities in France. The city centre is stunning, filled with historic wooden/stone houses and car-free cobblestone streets.
We spent four nights in an Airbnb here. On the first night, we stumbled across a free music festival in the historic town centre. The entrance provided another example of France's obsession with ridiculous security measures.
You are almost guaranteed to see hordes of big military men (the gendarmes) on any trip to France. I spotted them at every single city and cultural sight I visited. This free festival was no different. There were several barrier systems you had to get through, including a gendered security check, before you were able to enter the festival. I know why the French do this, but I don't believe it's the right approach to security. It's simply too much.
Once we made it through security, we had a great night. There were two stages showcasing a variety of French music, including EDM and rock. One of the older musicians kept jumping into the crowd and stealing the photographers' cameras to get some good shots. He was a lot of fun. We enjoyed some boogying among the historic buildings and on top of the cobblestones before calling it a night.
The next day, we indulged in one of my favourite European activities: going to a fresh produce market. Les Halles is a well-known market in this region. It opens about three times a week and is operated out of a structure built by Gustave Eiffel (also known for building a big telecommunications tower in Paris). We got very excited by all the French food and spent a small fortune on delicacies to cook back at the apartment for lunch. These included Burgundy escargots, local merguez sausages, olives, hummus, seafood tabouli and some crusty bread. We washed the feast down with our bottle of Champagne and had a very merry time.
Cycling through Burgundy
After enjoying the delights of Dijon, we made our way to Beaune, Burgundy's wine capital. From here, we spent a day cycling through some of the most lush countryside I have seen.
It was a short 20-minute train ride from Dijon to Beaune, so we made a day trip out of it. We hired some bikes near the start of the track and got ready for a leisurely ride. What we didn't expect was to spend the first hour essentially stuck in the mud! I would like to blame Google Maps, but it could have been avoided if I'd just listened to the woman we hired the bikes from. Instead, I blindly followed Google Maps and took us down a dirt path between the vineyards. This would have been fine, except for the fact that it had been heavily raining 10 hours prior, and the earth was of a clay variety.
We ventured a mere 50 metres up the track before realising the wheels of our bikes were no longer turning, and looked down to discover they had been devoured by mud.
We eventually were able to drag our bikes back to a mud-free path and then spent the next 30 minutes clawing the mud from our shoes and bike wheels.
"This has to be the stickiest mud ever seen," Paddy declared a couple of minutes into the clean-up ordeal.
It was indeed very sticky. Once most of the muck was cleared, and our hands thoroughly dirtied, we got directions from a local lady and made our way to the true cycling path. Alas, as I had previously read, it was paved and well signposted. Given our hour delay, we were unable to aim for our original destination and decided to just meander along the route for as long as we could.
This cycling route was elite compared to its Champagne counterpart. We spent several hours winding through endless hills of vineyards and medieval villages, passing dozens of harvest workers along the way. The sun dabbled in and out from behind the clouds, with a sprinkle of rain here and there. It was ridiculously pleasant and postcard-worthy. We decided to stop in Mersault, a highly regarded wine region, for some tastings.
For such a popular wine region, it was surprisingly difficult to find cellar doors open for tastings. I suspect this was because we arrived during the middle of the harvest, their busiest time of year. However, we were able to try a couple and explore some cellars at a wine producer that has operated since the 13th century. Mersault itself was very beautiful. It was filled with stony streets, mosaic-laden roofs and glimpses of the surrounding vineyards.
We returned to Beaune, another gorgeous medieval town, sweaty and very happy. To mark the end of our France adventures, we treated ourselves to a meal at a local restaurant, and of course, some more wine. All in all, it was beyond delightful to return to France after eight years and explore some new parts of the country. It's reignited a desire within me to come back to France on a working visa! Perhaps picking or sorting grapes in wine country wouldn't be half bad ;)
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