Reims is the largest urban centre in France’s Champagne wine region.
Reims is in the northern part of the Champagne wine area and is one of its principal commercial and cultural centres. Many major Champagne houses maintain historic cellars beneath the city, carved into chalk quarries.
The city is also internationally known for Notre-Dame de Reims, where many French kings were crowned. That religious and royal history is separate from Reims’s later importance to wine production, although both helped make the city a major destination.
Épernay is another key Champagne town, especially famous for the Avenue de Champagne, while Troyes is the historic capital of the wider Aube department. Reims therefore should not be confused with the administrative capital of the Champagne-Ardenne area or with the region’s other wine centres.