Reims, Champagne
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Les Crayères is one of the great hotel addresses of France, and its name, translated plainly, means the chalk pits. Few grand hotels would admit to being called after a hole in the ground. Fewer still have such a good excuse.
Reims stands on chalk. Centuries ago, quarrymen dug deep pits into it, cut out the stone for the city above and moved on. Much later, the champagne houses discovered that those abandoned holes kept a steady, cool temperature all year round, which is exactly what sleeping wine likes. The hill of Saint-Nicaise is now riddled with them. Across the road from the hotel, Madame Pommery, the widow who taught the world to drink its champagne dry, joined some 120 of them with galleries thirty metres down, where millions of bottles wait in the dark.
Above all this, in 1904, the Pommery family built themselves a château on a scale that left no doubt about how well the cellars were doing. In the 1980s the Gardinier family turned it into a hotel, and the chef Gérard Boyer made its dining room one of the most celebrated in Europe; the Gardiniers still run it today. It is a country estate that happens to be in town, seven hectares of lawns and old trees around a lake, with a reputation that travels a long way ahead of its guests.
The twenty rooms and suites are classic French through and through, with painted panelling and soft florals, and windows onto the courtyard or the park. Les Crayères is not a design hotel and has no intention of becoming one. Its great modern luxury is simpler: the Pommery cellars are across the road and several other great houses a short stroll away, so the tastings can be done entirely on foot.
Evenings begin at La Rotonde, the bar, where the champagne list runs past six hundred names. Some of those bottles spent years asleep in the chalk a few hundred metres away, which must make this one of the shortest journeys a great wine ever takes to the table. Dinner follows at Le Parc, where Christophe Moret carries on the house's great tradition, or at Le Jardin, the relaxed brasserie with a garden terrace. Afterwards the château glows against the dark of the park, while under the street outside, millions of bottles go about their quiet work.
This is grandeur in the traditional key, polished and correct, and a touch formal for some tastes. With only twenty rooms, it pays to book early, especially around the harvest. A Guerlain spa and four garden suites are planned beside the lake, which should give the house the wellness side it has so far lacked. Les Crayères rewards champagne lovers who want the cellars on their doorstep, and for those who expect a château to behave like one.
The quarrymen who dug these pits wanted the stone and left the holes behind. It took Reims a long time to see that the holes were the real treasure. Les Crayères is the proof: a château named after the empty spaces beneath it, and one of the most famous addresses in France. Not bad for a hole in the ground.
Twenty queens
No room has a number: each is named after a European empress, queen or princess.
The château faces a lawn edged with clipped yews and hedges, and the terrace below its windows is set with white parasols in fine weather. It was inaugurated in 1904 as the house of Madame Pommery's daughter, the Marquise de Polignac, with steep slate roofs and tall windows. The twenty rooms and suites are divided between the château and the cottage beside it.
Le Parc is the gastronomic restaurant inside the château, about fifty seats beneath a crystal chandelier between tall carved wooden doors and panelling. Christophe Moret has led all of the estate's kitchens since March 2024. For a private dinner the house has two further rooms, the Salon Alexandrine and the Salon Boisé. The head sommelier tastes each dish in advance to propose its pairing.
Brasserie Le Jardin stands apart from the château, in a contemporary, loft-like building at the edge of the park, with brick walls, an open bar and about 150 seats. Its terrace looks onto the lawns. The kitchen is also Christophe Moret's, and the house champagne selection is poured by the glass. It is open to diners who are not staying.
Park views belong to the four Prestige Rooms and the Imperial category; Superior Rooms look onto the château wings and the cottage suites onto the courtyard. The decoration is classical French throughout, with painted panelling, marble fireplaces, floral fabrics and heavy draped curtains. No room has a number: each is named after a European empress, queen or princess.
At a glance
Where
64 boulevard Henry Vasnier, 51100 Reims, on Saint-Nicaise hill, part of the UNESCO-listed Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars; opposite the Pommery estate; Paris 140 km; Reims Centre and Champagne-Ardenne TGV stations about 10 minutes by taxi
Why this one
Pommery and the houses of Saint-Nicaise on foot.
Houses and growers on one list.
Lawns and old trees around a 1904 château.
The Edit Notes
The view is fixed by the category, not left to luck at check-in. The hotel attaches a park view to the four Prestige Rooms and to the Imperial category. Superior Rooms face the château wings, and Deluxe Rooms either the park or the wings. The cottage beside the château holds two of the four Junior Suites, with private terraces, but their stated outlook is the courtyard. A first morning over the lawns therefore means Prestige or Imperial; a door of one's own means the cottage.
The hotel is generally closed once a year, from mid-December to mid-January, so a Christmas or New Year in Reims has to be spent elsewhere. The rest of the year the constraint is size: there are only twenty rooms, and only the four Prestige Rooms and the Imperial category face the park. Around the grape harvest, when the champagne houses are busiest, those few park-view rooms go first, so a harvest stay is best fixed months ahead.
The Pommery estate stands across the boulevard, and several other houses of Saint-Nicaise hill, part of the UNESCO-listed Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars, are within a short walk. Each house runs its own visits, which have to be booked with it; the concierge arranges them, together with Marne cruises and balloon flights. The vineyards themselves begin outside the city. A day on the slopes with a driver, and the evenings kept for the château's tables, makes the most of this address.
As things stand there is no spa and no pool. The hotel's own pages announce a spa of 1,500 m² by Pierre-Yves Rochon, with pools up to twenty metres long, a sauna, a hammam and treatment rooms, opening onto the gardens, and give the end of 2026 as its date. Press reports in October 2026 name Guerlain as partner and move the opening, with new garden suites, to early 2027. A wellness stay is best booked only once the spa can be reserved.
The price question
The money buys a small, classically run château in a park inside Reims, a gastronomic table and a brasserie under one chef, a list of around a thousand champagnes, and the cellars of Saint-Nicaise hill on foot. It does not buy vineyards outside the window, a spa or pool for now, or a design hotel's informality. Pay for it when champagne and dinner are the reason for the trip, and choose Prestige or Imperial if the park view matters.
Book it for a long weekend of cellar visits and two dinners, with a day handed to a driver for the vineyards and a room in the Prestige or Imperial category. Look elsewhere to wake among the vines, for a spa stay before the new spa opens, or for the turn of the year.
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Château de la Resle
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The Extra Edit
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