The Côte des Bar, the champagne of the Aube between Les Riceys and Essoyes

Getting there

• From Troyes you head south on the D671, the old Dijon road, which runs down along the Seine to Bar-sur-Seine; from there the D452 takes you to Les Riceys, the D70 goes from Les Riceys to Essoyes, and for Mussy-sur-Seine you take the D79, the D117 and the D17. You return to Troyes on the D671
• At Les Riceys there is the municipal motorhome area in rue du Parc Saint-Vincent, near the town hall: you park for free on the large car park, and the service bollard takes 2 euro tokens, for an hour of electricity or 100 litres of water. Tokens are sold at the tourist office and at the town hall
• Also at Les Riceys, Champagne Walczak, at 7 rue de la Presle, welcomes motorhomes for free with water, electricity and grey water disposal, and the toilets during office hours; it belongs to the France Passion network
• At Essoyes the municipal motorhome area is in rue de la Gare, opposite the fire station, with water and waste disposal
• At Bar-sur-Seine the official sources give no motorhome area; at the Devaux cellar there is a car park for cars and coaches
• For the night before and after the tour there is the Troyes motorhome area, at Pont-Sainte-Marie, open all year

Practical information

This is a motorhome tour with stops in the villages, not a single visit: you pick one cellar, Renoir and one village, and check the day of the week first, because on Sunday and Monday many things are closed.

Contacts

Where it is

Les Riceys · Champagne

You set off from

Notes

• The tourist office is the Office de Tourisme de la Côte des Bar en Champagne, in Bar-sur-Seine, on place de la République (an older page puts it in rue Gambetta). From November to early April it is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 12:30 and from 14:00 to 17:30, except Tuesday morning; it is closed between Christmas and New Year and on public holidays. There, at the visitor sites and in many shops you can pick up the free Pass Côte des Bar: the first visit is paid in full, from the second on there is a discount, and one pass covers five adults
• The Route touristique du Champagne of the Côte des Bar is signposted: the tourist office gives it as 220 kilometres, to be done by car or by bicycle. Along the way you see the cadoles, the growers' dry stone huts
• Bar-sur-Seine: the church of Saint-Étienne, built between 1505 and 1606, Flamboyant Gothic with Renaissance parts, one of the largest in the area; the clock tower, the only remnant of the medieval castle, on a path up the hill; the half-timbered houses of the centre
• Champagne Devaux, at the Domaine de Villeneuve, at the southern edge of Bar-sur-Seine: the brand belongs to the Union Auboise, one of the largest cooperatives in Champagne, with 700 members and 700 hectares. Visitors are received in an eighteenth century manoir with a park that slopes down towards the Seine, and in front there is a seventeenth century dovecote. The shop is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 10:00 to 12:30 and from 13:30 to 18:00; the cellar says nothing about winter or annual closures, and its website gives two different phone numbers. The tasting workshops with a guided visit are by appointment and on quotation
• Les Riceys: three villages, Ricey-Bas, Ricey-Haute-Rive and Ricey-Haut, in a row along the Laignes for more than three kilometres, with three listed churches (Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens in Ricey-Bas, Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Ricey-Haute-Rive, Saint-Vincent in Ricey-Haut), two châteaux, six chapels, seven wash houses and a large covered market hall. The château of Ricey-Bas has a park of more than 25 hectares with French formal gardens. The churches' opening hours are not published
• Rosé des Riceys is a still rosé wine, protected since 1947, made by about twenty growers: you taste it in their cellars, in the village
• The viewpoint above Les Riceys, on the road to Mussy-sur-Seine, looks over the vineyards and the woods, and it is the start of the cadoles trail, on foot; the tourist office does not say how long it is
• Champagne Morel, opposite the church of Ricey-Haut, offers an hour and a half puzzle game in the cellar to "free" a bottle, with five tastings: 50 euros per person for two, 45 for three to four, 40 for five to six, 35 for seven or more, by booking only. The listing does not say whether children can play
• Essoyes, the Renoir trail ("Du côté des Renoir"): the cultural centre on place de la Mairie, with the permanent exhibition and a film, then the family house and the studio with the garden, in rue de l'Extra. The whole trail costs 12 euros, the house with the studio 10, the cultural centre alone 8; with the Pass Côte des Bar 9, students 5, free under 16. The price list does not give the year. The ticket office closes an hour earlier, last entry is half an hour before closing
• Renoir opening hours: closed in January and December. From February to April, and in November after the All Saints' holidays (which in 2026 end on 2 November), open on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays, only with a booked guided visit in French, at 10:30 and 14:30, two hours; those who do not speak French visit on their own with the audio guide. From May to the All Saints' holidays every day except Tuesday, from 10:00 to 12:30 and from 13:30 to 18:00, and in July and August on Tuesday too
• Essoyes, the village: Aline Charigot, Renoir's wife, was born here; the house was the painter's first property outside Paris, and the studio with its skylight dates from 1906 according to the tourist office, from 1905 according to other sources. Renoir is buried in the village cemetery, beside Aline: both had been buried in Nice, and were brought here on 7 June 1922. Along the Quai de l'Ource, with the covered wash house, there are the steps down to the water where the washerwomen posed for the painter. The church of Saint-Rémi was rebuilt in the nineteenth century
• Mussy-sur-Seine, with the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens and the Musée de la Résistance, three rooms on the Resistance in the Aube: in 2026 it is open from 4 April to 1 November, Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 12:30 and from 13:30 to 17:30; in winter it is closed, and the prices are not on the website
• The Drappier variant, at Urville, towards Bar-sur-Aube, twenty minutes beyond Essoyes: the cellars were dug in 1152 at the wish of Saint Bernard, the founder of Clairvaux. The visit with tasting costs 26 euros, at 14:30, the tasting alone 21; the price list does not give the year. The cellar is open Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 12:00 and from 14:00 to 18:00, Saturday from 9:00 to 12:00 and from 14:00 to 18:00, closed on Sunday and public holidays, and visits are by booking only
• The growers in revolt: on 19 March 1911 the sub-prefecture of Bar-sur-Seine was stormed, between March and May 227 municipal councils of the Aube announced their resignation, and on 9 April in Troyes people marched to the cry of "La Champagne ou la mort". The decree of 7 June 1911 made the Aube the "Champagne deuxième zone"; the law of 1927 brought it back into Champagne
• In winter: in December and January the Renoir trail is closed, the Musée de la Résistance in Mussy closes after 1 November, and the tourist office closes between Christmas and New Year. The cellars remain, by booking, and the villages; on Sunday nothing is sure to be open
• The right day is Wednesday, Friday or Saturday: on Sunday Devaux and Drappier are closed, on Monday Devaux too, and out of season Renoir only opens from Wednesday to Sunday, except Thursday. Whoever is driving does not taste

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