Touring Two Champagne Mansions and Veuve Clicquot’s Cellars! 🍾

Welcome to the beautiful Hôtel de Crayer in Reims, the capital of the Champagne region of France, where Philippe and I are at the end of our couple of days away from my 50th birthday, and today we are heading back to La Lande. But before we go, I wanted to show you this amazing place where we've been staying. The château looks pretty 18th century. In fact, it was built in 1904 for a member of the Pommery family, and from that point on, it was the home of the directors of Pommery Champagne all the way up until the 70s, and in the 70s it became this just incredible hotel. And there's no more perfect place to explore Champagne than in the home of one of the directors of one of the great houses. I'm so sorry, the room's a bit messy now because we're about to leave, but this is what it looked like when we came in. I knew that I wanted to spend my birthday with my mother and everyone at La Lande, so we had a big brunch together, and so Philippe and I had to find somewhere that was under six hours drive from La Lande for our mini break, and we thought, where better than Champagne? Neither of us had been here before. And this is the incredible view that we've had from our little balcony as well. It's been a complete dream. Today we're heading home, but first I'm going to go down for breakfast. It is the prettiest sight first thing in the morning when you leave the room to go down to breakfast. We start on the smaller stairs, which is pretty much grander than the grand stairs at La Lande. This is the most extraordinary flocked velvet wallpaper on the walls. Just look at those views from every window. And this is the bit that leads to the main staircase. Doesn't that feel pretty perfect first thing in the morning? I must say, going down to breakfast has been a joy every day, even if I've only made it with one minute to spare before breakfast is closing each time. On the walls here, it's actually fabric. It's a chintz. Past the extraordinary tapestry and down the main stairs. The little prince of La Lande's been enjoying it very much, and he's the darling of the whole hotel. Philippe ran ahead to the conservatory to get breakfast for us because I was running a little tiny bit late. He just looks as though he belongs here, doesn't he? He just fits in. Yesterday when we're having breakfast in here, we were at one table and on the table next to us there was a woman with a huge Great Dane who was very beautiful, and the two of you together made quite the pair, didn't you darling? Thank you for doing this because I think Galahad and I would have been pretty devastated to get down to theirs and find no breakfast. This is exactly what I need to start the day. I demolished that embarrassingly quickly. Did they say what this was? Pioche. Oh, so pretty. Well, it was good in the first place, but it's even better. Slathered in homemade praline. Technically, I'm still on holiday and I'm making the most of it. Apparently, it's white chocolate with a black currant heart. Okay, I'm going to make a wish. And I also want to show you all how incredible this room is. It's actually the outside of the building. They've put the conservatory against it and they've just dressed it as a normal room with amazing portraits, a chandelier, a spectacular mosaic floor with these little grapes in it, and then that leads through to the bar which has got all of this dark tartan. It's really moody and wonderful. Look how good the frames of the paintings look against the green velvet walls. The thing I love the most about coming to beautiful places like this is that it gives us so many ideas to take back to Le Land and here I really enjoy the different scales of the tartans. So we have the huge tartan print on the sofa and then you don't notice it at first but all of these blinds are actually a tiny, tiny silk tartan. There's a sort of mid-range tartan on the curtains and if you look at the back they have this lovely chintz behind them as well. So you see the two patterns as you're walking through the rooms and then here is the portrait that Philip and I have decided is our favourite portrait in the entire hotel. Serious widow from the neck down, party in the bonnet. I really can't work out what was going on with that outfit but it makes me happy every time I look at it. And now I will take you to the bathroom with me which sounds weird but let's face it it's so nice to see how they're decorated when you're somewhere really beautiful. Oh and I love it so much. I couldn't wait to show you. I came here last night and look at this yellow and pink. It's not a wallpaper, it's a fabric and there are these beautiful parrot crystal lamps. Actually we have some like this in Le Land which I can't wait to put up. They're waiting to go somewhere. Even the taps are gorgeous. This is such a beautiful, beautiful colourway. I find this room very inspirational. And now we're going to go out for our morning walk with Galahad. So this is the view that I have every morning when I bring Galahad out for his walk. But we've come down to the end of the garden because I wanted to show you all this bridge. It seems to be maybe a concrete bridge but made to look like branches and these were really fashionable at the turn of the century and I think would look really, really good in the woods at Le Land if we ever changed that little tiny bridge over the stream. I think it's being propped up right now but again very inspirational. I love that. And there's a little grotto which actually Galahad found one day on the walk. I mean what garden's a garden without a grotto? This is really the ideal of the perfect romantic garden isn't it? Look with the ivy just sort of hiding the entrance. There's a little staircase just over there going back up that way. Oh look at that! It does everything. Everywhere you turn it gives ideas for the garden. Although we've only had two days here I feel as though I've had the best most relaxing break. In fact I thought that we'd spend all of our time visiting all of the champagne houses and discovering them but I just slept. But it does mean that today before going home we are going to go and taste some champagne. On one side of the terrace is the bar that we were just in for breakfast and on the other side it's the dining room. In fact I'm going to pop around and see if I can just have a peek in to show you because I didn't film the room where we're eating because there are lots of other people eating I don't want to disturb anyone. We've just filmed our food. They've been really sweet they've just let me in to show you all and the reason I wanted to show you is that hopefully this is the effect though unfortunately not with this taller ceiling as we'll have in the new downstairs dining room because we've got the same honey colored wood going into the dining room and what I noticed is when I came up close I realized just like the panelling we've bought this is painted it's painted to look like like natural wood so that they can get exactly the tone of natural wood that they want. So this is the effect that you get from that painted faux bois even though it is it's real wood painted to look like wood. I had no idea until we bought the panelling for the downstairs dining room that that is what they did in French Chateaus and it just looks incredible nothing is left to chance not even the shade of the wood. And now back up the grand staircase unfortunately to pack and now we have the route in reverse past the wonderful corridor of chintz which is actually probably more feminine than I'd have gone for and more bedroomy in a corridor but in fact I love it I think it works really really well and then through to the dark romantic flocked velvet paper. Before we go I'll show you it's like I came in I haven't taken my toiletry bag yet I'll show you the bathroom it has Eau Imperiale by Guerlain for all of the toiletries and they smell amazing this is an eau de cologne that was made by Guerlain especially for the empress Eugénie in the mid 19th century and that now they sell and this is the first time ever that I've been to a hotel and I have found the full bottle of cologne that goes with all of their toiletries in the room boxed ready for us to use that has been so luxurious and so lovely isn't it just the prettiest bottle with the little bees on it so we got here on Monday night we've had two full days in the area I brought the most wonderful books to read whilst I was here and of both of these books the total reading I have done in two full days is that I don't think I realized how tired I was by all of the renovations that have been going on at Le Land until I got here because the renovations are so exciting that I've been running on adrenaline loving every second of it when I got here with all these plans to explore the whole region and read all these books I just slept before we head back to Le Land we are actually going to go and visit one of the champagne houses which is actually just next door to the hotel our first stop today is at Villa Demoiselle which is practically next door to the chateau that we're staying in but this was built only two years later so the difference is extraordinary one was built in a neo 18th century style and this one was in the most bang up to date modern style of the time it's that period just between Art Nouveau and Art Deco so we should be seeing both influences inside wow this spectacular villa was built in the modern style by one of the directors of Pommery Champagne which is actually just next door to here so it's absolutely no surprise to see that grapes are given pride of place you can see them on all the decoration around the ceiling Vanier commissioned this building from the Parisian and just as the chateau that we're just at Pommery owned this building up until the 1970s and at the same time as they sold the other chateau which became the Hotel de Carrière they sold this one too but this one fell into ruin so by the time Rankin bought it in 2004 it was a total ruin inside and they had to find the finest artisans in France to be able to bring it back to its former glory and in fact it's now on UNESCO's world heritage list but what was very lucky is that the mosaic floors were intact so these have only been cleaned everything else needed to be redone but not the spectacular floors I must say the Brit in me is feeling quite at home seeing the amount of William Morris wallpaper that they've used for all of the exhibitions they're here on the pedestals and here behind the paintings as well there's another wallpaper by because of course the arts and crafts movement in the UK was heavily linked with the movement in France which was called art in everything interestingly even though the style couldn't be more different you can see similarities between this and the chapel at La Lente they were only created 50 years apart and just as at La Lente every single surface is covered with stenciling there's the heavy use of stained glass every inch is decorated so although the styles change the techniques haven't and the desire to have this complete work of art where everything is decorated in the same style that's remained the same over those 50 years the single most majestic object in the entrance hall is this extraordinary monumental fireplace carved by and in 1900 this was even exhibited at the Great Exhibition you could stare at it for hours you see how those branches are just rising up to the ceiling and using natural forms as the basis of architecture of columns everything in the home and there are more Art Nouveau jewels in the dining room because this furniture was commissioned by Vanier who had this house built by Emile Gallet the foremost Art Nouveau furniture designer in France and it takes your breath away this is his autumn sideboard and you can even still see some of the colours of the original marquetry here oh my goodness the handles I mean they almost look like cobwebs and just in the corner you can see Gallet's signature and the table is called edible herbs so I suspect that if we look closer we will find various edible herbs but it's quite hard to pick them out at the moment I definitely see butterflies imagine sitting at this tabletop for a meal and seeing that beautiful design in front of you almost the entire set of furniture that Vanier owned has been repurchased for this room only thing missing is the mirror which is apparently in a Japanese museum on the curtains you can see this iris design the iris is a symbol of the rank and champagne house and they had these made especially by Pearl now Pearl are one of the oldest silk manufacturers in Lyon they've made all the fabric for Marie Antoinette's bedroom in Versailles and here they've used that French savoir-faire to create these spectacular curtains that fit so well into this Art Nouveau room in this room there is a new addition to the decoration this is a chandelier from the 21st century and it's Philip Stark's design for Baccarat and it was to celebrate the fact that whilst the building was created in 1908 its renovation was completed in 2008 so there is something from that period in here as well and here we have the room that was the office of the director of Pommery nowadays it has this spectacular piece of furniture by Majorelle and the wall lights are spectacular too oh I didn't even realize it was a woman at first the furniture in here was very sober now it's holding lots of pieces of finance that were collected by Vanier and I love the banquettes built into it in a way it gives me the impression of a very luxurious railway carriage with its two banquettes facing each other entirely surrounded by panelling and this room was originally the billiard room the billiard table is gone and it looks as though it's set up for some pretty nice champagne tastings now but the standout feature in this room is a stained glass and you can see the same arching naturalistic decoration on the stairs which just gently curve all the way up two stories and that huge chandelier coming all the way down had to be remade by master metal workers and Saint Louis made all of the crystal for it well let's go up the glorious staircase and see what we find upstairs if you're wondering why Philip and Galahad aren't with me it's because dogs aren't allowed here so he's sitting outside and later we'll swap I'll sit with Galahad and he'll have a run around at the top of the stairs here there's another piece of furniture that looks so similar to the director's office downstairs again it's these wonderful banquettes built into the furniture itself with a cabinet above and to the side they are glorious there's even a little tiny ledge to put your drink on while sitting there here we have the large reception room that Rankin still uses for their dinners and receptions and what's exceptional in this room is the flooring because sadly this room had lost all of its original flooring and they wanted something very special to go in its place so they decided to use the wood from oak barrels that had been holding wine for well over a hundred years and the wine has stained the barrels so what you're looking at here is a history of wine that has been drunk for hundreds of years and the barrels that held it pretty fitting for a champagne house and in every room there are such spectacular Art Nouveau pieces because although a lot of the original furniture was missing they've been buying pieces by the finest names in Art Nouveau so that this has become a museum to the glories of that era. Next we have the cabinet of curiosities that holds some of the collection of faience collected by Madame Pomery next we're hoping to go to Veuve Clicquot she was the first great female businesswoman in Champagne but Madame Pomery was certainly the second and it looks as though quite a lot of the money that she made from that she spent on lovely vases I think Philip's going to approve when he comes up here and the final room on this floor is a little salon with another extraordinary piece of Art Nouveau furniture that wonderful jardiniere with a mirror behind it and lamps I mean talk about functional you have a plant pot a mirror and a light fitting in one and this room has walls that and they give this warm honey glow to the room but there's still one more floor to see and I think that it has his and hers bedrooms upstairs which way is which oh there's another one of those amazing jardinières this one without lights shall we go around this way no I've hit the lift so it must be over here oh gosh that's a beautiful table it's so light it feels as though it's just made out of branches so through here yes I have found the bedroom and again an extraordinarily useful piece of furniture function and form were intertwined in Art Nouveau so here you have the wardrobe on one side and then the washstand on the other all attached there's even a little breakfast in bed tray just two eggs some salt everything you need for a delicious breakfast and there is even a bathroom through here oh and a shower my goodness they put all mod cons in when they restored this house I love the high Art Nouveau style panelling as well I think this is the gentleman's bedroom so let's go and look for the lady's bedroom ah is in here la chambre de madame another beautiful Art Nouveau bed this time with lovely curtains around it a little kidney-shaped dressing table in the window so there's beautiful light here and another bathroom of course these bathrooms were added at the time of the restoration they wouldn't have been quite this elaborate at the but I think my favourite thing in this room is actually the fireplace it's so delicate it has the same forms as the wooden furniture downstairs but somehow having it in stone like this so delicately painted makes it very light and fresh so there we have it the beautiful villa demoiselle and now I'm going to go downstairs to look after Galahad while Philip looks around and I'm going to try a glass of frankincampagne because it would be wrong not to though wow I have just been stopped in my tracks by the sheer beauty of the light coming into that staircase it's funny because when we came here I thought that we'd be comparing all of these different champagnes and having taste testings in fact we didn't really do that and we ended up comparing the early 20th century architecture of two of the most beautiful buildings in Reims and I think for me that's been even more enjoyable and it's a part of it that I wasn't expecting at all if you ever come to Champagne I really really recommend coming to both of these buildings now the hotel it's really for special occasions it's really beautiful but you don't have to stay there you can go for lunch you can go for dinner you can go and sit there for tea in the afternoon or a coupe of champagne in the bar it's absolutely worth going to see the staff are lovely and then come here to villa demoiselle which is really nearby you can see the different approaches to creating beauty at exactly the same time in history in the same place they're literally walking distance one from the other they're on neighboring lots and it's also walking distance from vertical and we're going to go there for lunch now she says have you just devoured cheese philip that was a snack that wasn't lunch that was a snack for me and for galahad whilst we're waiting for you like soak up the champagne we're on our way to vertical which we didn't choose because of my orange dress but because you just walk out of the hotel straight down the road and it's right there and i think galahad in particular is very excited about the champagne he's looking forward to very much so it's strange because we're in the middle of town there's cars going past on a pretty busy road and yet this feels like a country path and on the other side of this wall this is vineyards here we are i do love the orange i must say ah la grande dame i think i tasted that once 20 years ago and never since oh wow we're starting by going straight down into the caves where the champagne is kept i'm loving the orange lighting honestly i feel more excited about the champagne i'm more excited about everything being orange i don't know it'd be great for a party that's the normal that's not even the normal one over there that's the maximum it was 15 meters the big one 15 15 so i think enough for me your aunt and maybe a little bit for you oh my goodness this is unbelievable we have had the most fabulous tour going down into the cellars learning more of the history of berkeley core and the extraordinary she found herself a widow of 27 and realized that if she kept the status the legal status of widow which meant agreeing never to marry again for the rest of her life then she could have the same or at least similar rights to a man at the time which meant that she could take over the firm and she just took it to stellar heights and invented a lot of new processes and when talking about that we discovered a few of the things that i had been very confused about for example i don't know if any of you have noticed but if you go to the supermarket there's a bottle of champagne and a magnum of the same champagne the magnum is usually more expensive than two of the normal bottles even though it contains two of the normal bottles and it's only one bottle so you think it would be slightly cheaper one of the clues to that could be an invention made by berkeley herself and that's that when you make champagne it's part of the process of the yeast eating lots of sugar and turning into alcohol eventually the yeast dies in the bottle and all of that yeast would stay in the bottle so in the past champagne was always a very cloudy drink there's always residue of the yeast and she discovered a way of making it because she said champagne must be as much a pleasure for the eyes as the palate she discovered that if you turn the bottle upside down and turn it regularly you could get all of that yeast to come off the sides of the bottles and into the very tip after that you can just remove the tip of the bottle top it up with some clear champagne and there you have a clear bottle and to this day all of that sediment in a bottle of the size of a magnum and above it's turned by hand because the magnums don't fit into the new machines there are machines for all of the actual bottles almost all the bottles are done by a machine nowadays but not the magnums also the magnum is a better shape for all of the yeast to do its job so the same champagne should probably taste just a little bit better in a magnum than in a normal bottle i agree you just like it for the size we're trying two different champagnes over a lovely lunch here one is like armadam this is the greatest champagne that ferb makes they only make it when they have a wonderful vintage and this is the 2018 and it's mind-blowing and this one we ordered it's called the rich i don't know if it's literally made to be had with an ice cube so the world over will be lie down in the dark and dream it's like a cocktail a cocktail we ordered it because this has 50 55 grams of sugar this one like most of those champagnes have has six grams of sugar and in fact the one that we fell in love with tasting here is the extra dry that we're taking back so that has only three grams of sugar in a bottle but the reason i wanted to try the 55 grams was because in the early days of champagne when berglicourt started to export to russia and to the rest of the world there was upwards of 200 grams of sugar in bottles that were going to russia because they liked it so incredibly sweet and even for the british market it was about 35 to 50 odd grams of sugar so here in this we're tasting the champagne of the 18th century it was much sweeter than it is today actually it is delicious even though i do prefer i do prefer dry ice cream it's pretty fun i'll stick to the dry one though darling the vintage sweet one and now i'm enjoying it with a cheese platter and philip's gone for the burger and actually there's even posters i don't know if you noticed but inside of like the bottle of that next to a burger really yeah they really say it's delicious with a burger i'm going to find it has been lovely and i very very much hope we'll be back one day maybe something to look forward to for my 60th birthday well we've made it we are home i am so happy because when i got back i started automatically walking up to the temporary kitchen and i can't believe it i just somehow forgotten when we came back that this has all been done and it's all marvelous and we're all reunited and he is so happy to see you almost as happy as i am marie so much it's been awful without him he has been marvelous he's been uh champagne tasting in veuve cliquot yeah he's been sitting in the garden of champagne houses he's been wandering everyone in the hotel loved him so much everybody they gave him a special foot stool when we were having the fancy dinner so he could sit at the table it's so good to be back it's the first time i've seen the trolley come into the new kitchen are you using it then for the breakfast things oh my and it's working it's working and i don't have to break my back so it's really wonderful should i help you with uh one of those calves see if it pours into a glass how about some cold wine instead yeah all right cheers marie it's good to be home so good to have you home this is marie doing the hand turning of the magnums at veuve cliquot you'd be very good you've got the knack but imagine all day every day just turning bottles oh my goodness it would drive you insane yes only and you know but still i think every time we drink a magnum of we have to think of the people who are doing that in the cave absolutely