Wine Tours from Paris

What Each Tour Includes

Every figure below comes from the tour listings themselves. Prices are the listed rates in dollars and cancellations are free up to 24 hours on all five. Four of the five exclude lunch, which is the single most common surprise for first-time bookers.

None of the tours includes hotel pickup except the My Winedays Champagne day, which collects you at your Paris accommodation. The minivan tours cap the group at 8 people. The City Wonders Loire coach day does not state a group size and runs on a coach instead. Minimum age on the three Blue Fox minivan tours is 7, so children can join even though the day is built around wine.

How to Read the Prices

The gap between the Champagne tours is about $109, and it buys you lunch, hotel pickup and at least two more pours. The Loire tours differ by about $158, and that difference buys one extra castle, a van of 8 instead of a coach, and an hour less on the road. The Chablis day sits in the middle at $269.50 and offers the highest tasting count outside Champagne, with more than ten wines across three wineries.

Every tour here can be cancelled free up to 24 hours before departure.

The Six-tasting Blue Fox Day

The Champagne Day Trip from Paris with Reims and Six Tastings costs $263.75 and runs 11 hours with Blue Fox Travel. You get a visit to Reims Cathedral, a guided visit of the Nicolas Feuillatte house, a family winery visit and Hautvillers Abbey, with six tastings spread across two wineries. The group is capped at 8 and the van leaves from outside 12 Avenue des Ternes in the 17th arrondissement.

Lunch is not included. You pay for your own food and drinks at the lunch stop, and tips are extra on top of the $263.75. The minimum age is 7, which makes this one of the few wine tours a family can book.

The My Winedays Day with Lunch

The Champagne Day Trip with 8 Tastings and Lunch is the most expensive wine option here at $372.69, and it is the only one that includes a meal. A traditional French lunch is paired with at least 3 champagnes, and a croissant and a bottle of water are also in the price. You visit one large Champagne house plus two small family vineyards or cooperatives and taste over 8 cuvees.

This is also the only wine tour with pickup at your Paris accommodation. If you are staying outside Paris the operator arranges a meeting point instead. The group is 8 at most, the day runs 11 hours, and cancellation is free up to 24 hours before.

Reims and Epernay, the Two Anchor Towns

Reims sits 45 minutes from Paris by TGV, arriving at Reims-Centre or at Champagne-Ardenne TGV in Bezannes, which connects by tram. Reims Cathedral is free to enter and the tower tour costs €9 for adults. The Palais du Tau is closed for renovation.

Epernay holds the Avenue de Champagne, where Moet & Chandon, Perrier-Jouet and Pol Roger all have houses, and the Champagne Wine Museum sits in the Chateau Perrier. Moet & Chandon's cellars are 28 km of chalk tunnels open daily 9:30 to 17:00. The house advises warm clothing because the cellars stay cool.

Why the Region Is Listed by UNESCO

Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 4 July 2015. The listing covers three ensembles: the Mareuil-sur-Ay hillside vineyards, Saint-Nicaise hill in Reims and the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay.

The numbers behind the listing are large. The region counts 370 chalk crayeres, 25 km of galleries under Saint-Nicaise hill and 110 km of cellars under the Avenue de Champagne. Cellars hold a constant 10 to 12 degrees Celsius with 90 to 100 percent humidity all year, which is why a jacket matters underground even in August.

The Coach Day with a Tasting at Chenonceau

The Loire Valley Castles Day Trip from Paris with Wine Tasting is the cheapest wine tour from Paris at $123, and it runs 13 hours with City Wonders. Skip-the-line entry to the Chateau de Chambord and the Chateau de Chenonceau is included, and the wine tasting is attached to the Chenonceau visit. For context if you went alone, Chenonceau tickets cost €19 with a leaflet and Chambord costs €21 for EEA residents or €31 for other visitors.

Lunch is not included. The schedule builds in free time in Blois for you to eat, and guided tours inside the castles are not part of the price either. Hotel pickup is not offered, and the meeting point is at the Catacombs entrance on Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy in the 14th arrondissement.

The Small-group Wine and Castles Day

The Loire Valley Wine and Castles Small-Group Day Trip costs $280.95 and runs 12 hours with Blue Fox Travel in a minivan of 8 at most. The big difference is coverage: entrance tickets to Chambord, Chenonceau and Amboise are all included, and a wine tasting is also part of the price. Amboise matters because its Chateau Royal charges €17.30 for an adult with a Histopad if you visited on your own.

Lunch is again your own cost, with free time in Amboise built in for it. Drinks beyond the tasting are extra, as are gratuities. The van leaves from outside 6 Avenue de Wagram near the Arc de Triomphe, and the minimum age is 7.

What You Taste and How Far It Is

Neither listing names the exact appellation poured, so treat the tasting as a regional Loire wine rather than a promised cru. What the price clearly covers is access: one tasting on the $123 coach day and one tasting plus three castle entries on the $280.95 van day.

On your own, the Loire is reachable by train. Blois-Chambord station is about 1 hour 24 minutes from Paris Austerlitz, and Amboise is about 1.5 hours away with its station a 10-minute walk from the chateau entrance. TGVs from Montparnasse also stop at Saint-Pierre-des-Corps near Tours, from where Chenonceaux is a 25-minute TER ride with the station 400 m from the ticket office.

The Chablis Day with Blue Fox

The Burgundy Wine Tasting Day Trip in Chablis costs $269.50 and runs 12 hours with Blue Fox Travel. All entrance fees are covered, with visits and tastings at 3 wineries and more than ten wines poured across the day. The van holds 8 at most, it leaves from outside 6 Avenue de Wagram about a 1 minute walk from the Arc de Triomphe, and the minimum age is 7.

Lunch is not included and its price is extra, along with gratuities. If you compare tasting counts, this day beats both Loire tours and the six-tasting Champagne day, though it lacks the lunch pairing of the My Winedays Champagne option.

What Chablis Is

Chablis is a village appellation in the Yonne department near Auxerre, white only and made entirely from Chardonnay. The appellation dates to 13 January 1938. Four levels exist: Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru and Chablis Grand Cru.

The scale is worth knowing before you taste. Village Chablis covers 3,715.99 hectares across 20 communes, while Chablis Premier Cru covers 772.32 hectares with 40 climats across 11 communes. Grand Cru is tiny at 99 hectares on the right bank of the Serein, split into 7 climats including Les Clos and Grenouilles. The soil is Kimmeridgian limestone about 150 million years old, rich in fossil oyster shells, and Grand Cru is one of the rare French appellations to cite its geology in its rules.

The Train to Epernay

Trains to Epernay leave Paris Est, and Moet & Chandon puts the journey at about 80 minutes. The TER timetabled at 1 hour 29 minutes runs up to 8 round trips a day, so a same-day return is realistic. Fares on this mainline route are dynamic and set by SNCF, so no fixed price is quoted here.

The Avenue de Champagne starts a short walk from the station, with Moet & Chandon at number 18. The Champagne Wine Museum in the Chateau Perrier is on the same avenue.

What the Houses Charge

House visits in Epernay cost far less than a day tour, though you handle your own transport and only see one cellar per booking. Book ahead, because both houses below require or strongly advise it.

At Moet & Chandon, the Imperial Moment tour costs €48 for 1 hour 30 minutes, Signature is €65 and Grand Vintage €85, both 1 hour 30 minutes. Collection costs €190 and Haute Oenologie €220, both 2 hours. The cellars open daily 9:30 to 17:00, with closures on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 16 November to 22 December. Contact the visits team at [email protected].

Mercier charges €25 for The Founder tour of 45 minutes, Duo is €30 and Golden Bubbles €35, both 1 hour, and Bubble Talk is €45 for 1 hour 30 minutes. Its cellars run 18 km and were built in 1870. Booking is required, tours run daily from 6 April to 15 November and Wednesday to Sunday from 18 November to 27 December. Teenagers aged 10 to 17 pay €12 and children under 10 are free.

Booking Ahead and Who Can Join

Reserve cellar visits online before you travel, especially on weekends. Moet & Chandon advises warm clothing because the tunnels stay at cellar temperature all year. If you want a structured walk through Epernay's wine story first, the Hautvillers tourist office runs guided village tours in the footsteps of Dom Perignon, and a free viewpoint at the north exit of Hautvillers looks over the Marne valley all year.

Age rules are looser on your own than on a van tour. Mercier welcomes children, charging teenagers €12 and nothing under 10, while the Blue Fox tours set a minimum age of 7. A full comparison of booked days and train-only days sits in the guide to day trips from Paris.