Best hotels in Champagne

Set high on the hills overlooking the exquisite Champagne region, the Royal Champagne Hotel and Spa is an elegant medley of curved terraces, pale limestone, and acres of glass. Modern, yes, but somehow this former coaching inn-turned-boutique hotel fits right into its surroundings, which are mere minutes from Epernay, Champagne’s capital, and close to Reims, Champillon and Hautvillers. A soothing golden and taupe colour palette is reminiscent of its namesake bubbles, and there are two swimming pools (indoor and outdoor) and a beautiful spa to spend the days. Many also come for the restaurant, Le Royal, helmed by Chef Christophe Raoux and renowned in a region where it's hard to have a bad meal.

Five bedrooms, on a street where the neighbours count their stock in millions. Épernay's Avenue de Champagne has been UNESCO-listed since 2015 and the great houses line it one after another, cellars running deep into the chalk below. Behind one of the doors, though, is a family townhouse rather than a monument: 18th-century bones, a fire in the hall, and a walled garden at the back that comes as a genuine surprise given what's on the other side of the building. The furniture the previous owners left behind has been kept and set against newer pieces. The wine house attached went biodynamic decades before anyone else in the region thought it sensible, and the tastings are correspondingly unhurried. Grand address, small house.