Volière des Cigognes Altavilloises

Champagne


Hautvillers is twinned with the Alsatian town of Eguisheim, which explains why several storks (including one rare black one) live here, an easy 500m walk towards Épernay from place de la République. It's a great opportunity to get a close-up view of these majestic birds. In most years, storklings hatch here in late April and May.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Champagne attractions

1. Église Abbatiale

0.72 MILES

Part of a former Benedictine abbey, the Abbaye St-Pierre d'Hautvillers, founded in AD 650 by St Nivard, bishop of Reims, this church is liberally…

2. Église Notre-Dame

2.14 MILES

Crowned by a fairy-tale silver spire, this late-19th-century church bears Romanesque and Gothic influences and is lit from within by a rose window. It was…

3. Hôtel de Ville

2.26 MILES

In the neoclassical Hôtel de Ville built in 1850 under the direction of the French architect Victor Lenoir, you can take a peek at the ornate, Louis XV…

4. Dom Pérignon

2.32 MILES

Everyone who visits Moët & Chandon invariably stops to strike a pose next to the statue of Dom Pérignon (c 1638–1715), after whom the prestige cuvée is…

5. Avenue de Champagne

2.34 MILES

Épernay’s handsome av de Champagne fizzes with maisons de champagne (Champagne houses). The boulevard is lined with mansions and neoclassical villas,…

6. Cramant Champagne Bottle

6.17 MILES

At the northern entrance to Cramant, this mammoth, Instagram-worthy Champagne bottle, emblazoned with the name of the village, is one hell of a magnum…

7. Albert Levasseur

6.9 MILES

You’re assured a warm – and English-speaking – welcome and a fascinating cellar tour at Albert Levasseur, run by a friendly Franco-Irish couple, which…

8. Église St-Memmie

7.29 MILES

Behind the sturdy 13th-century Église St-Memmie, the panoramic churchyard is the final resting place of five members of a RAF air crew downed in 1944;…