Champagne beyond bubbles
Champagne is waking up. Since being listed as part of Unesco World Heritage in 2015, there has been a flurry of new high-end holidays and wine tourism offers, making the region even more enticing for tourists.
Champagne has been shedding its dusty old image and coming up with some unique experiences that are attracting a growing number of visitors. New accommodation offers, in both hotels and guest houses, are popping up everywhere and these, in turn, are driving a demand for related activities that allow visitors to explore the local area with its heritage, Champagne Houses and producers.
The chef is pleased to see that the Champagne Houses and growers are stepping up and developing various complementary offers, both luxury – with exclusive access to Champagne Houses such as Krug or Dom Pérignon – and craft - with the small, independent producers, the shining lights of the appellation, also opening up to tourism.
The number of visitors to the Cité des Sacres is growing and exceeded the 3.5 million mark in 2017. Some people have been quick to spot the potential of the town and the region and Céline Songy is among them. Céline opened the ‘Demeure des Sacres‘ in a hôtel particulier on the Rue Libergier (a unique location in the town centre) in 2013. This town house, built of cut stone in 1895, is now a charming guest house, with a ‘City Break Luxury‘ quality label, where guests can enjoy the use of two rooms, two suites, an Art Deco drawing room, and a newly-fi tted spa. Céline herself welcomes guests into the lodgings which are a tasteful mixture of fi ne woodwork, mirrors and period windows and open out onto a long garden where guests can enjoy a hearty breakfast or a glass of champagne.