Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa

The Hotel

Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa opened on 25 June 2018 as the most ambitious new luxury opening in the Champagne region in three decades — built on the bones of the historic Royal Hotel Champillon, an 18th-century relais de poste (coaching inn) on the Côte des Blancs ridge between Reims and Épernay where Napoleon Bonaparte stopped en route to his coronation in Reims Cathedral in December 1804. The site sits at the highest point on the ridge between the two Champagne capitals — 50 metres above the Marne valley with unobstructed views over the working vineyards of Hautvillers (the village where Dom Pérignon worked between 1668 and 1715) on the opposite slope. The architectural commission was Reims-based Giovanni Pace with interior architecture by London-based Sybille de Margerie; the brief was a contemporary five-star resort that integrates the heritage coaching-inn building with a contemporary 35-suite addition wrapping behind the original facade. The property was admitted to Relais & Châteaux on opening — making it Champagne's principal Relais property.

The 49 suites — uniformly all-suite, no standard-room category — divide between 14 Heritage suites in the original 1804 coaching inn (with restored period parquet and stuccoed ceilings) and 35 contemporary suites in the 2018 architectural extension. Standard "Vineyard" suites at 45 sqm; Premier "Marne Valley" suites at 60 sqm with the unobstructed valley view; the Royal Suite at 130 sqm is the milestone unit, with a private outdoor terrace overlooking the working vineyards. Bathrooms are travertine and brass; bath products are Cinq Mondes.

Le Royal — the named fine-dining restaurant on the principal terrace — is run by chef Jean-Denis Rieubland and has held one Michelin star continuously since the 2020 guide. The wine programme is the headline operational feature: the 8,000-bottle cellar holds the most extensive single-property Champagne collection in the region, with deep verticals on every grande marque (Krug, Pol Roger, Bollinger, Salon, Dom Pérignon, Cristal, Comtes de Champagne) plus the principal grower-Champagne producers (Selosse, Égly-Ouriet, Chartogne-Taillet, Pierre Péters). Bellevue is the all-day brasserie programme on the lower terrace. The Spa Biologique Recherche — opened with the resort as the first Biologique Recherche hotel-spa partnership in France — runs eight treatment rooms, the indoor 18-metre lap pool, and a hammam-and-sauna programme. The three outdoor pools (the main infinity pool over the Marne valley, the family pool, the Spa indoor pool) and the private chauffeured-car programme to the principal Champagne houses (Krug, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart, Pol Roger, Moët et Chandon, Bollinger) complete the wine-region operational layer.

The Champillon position is the booking proposition. From the property it is 12 minutes by car to Épernay (Avenue de Champagne), 18 minutes to Reims (Place Royale), 25 minutes to Reims-Champagne TGV station (50 minutes from Paris-Est), and 90 minutes by car to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. The Côte des Blancs Champagne route is at the door. For travellers wanting the flagship Champagne-region wine resort with the Relais & Châteaux service register, Royal Champagne is unambiguous. Domaine Les Crayères is the in-Reims-city alternative; Royal Champagne is the wine-country flagship.

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