I have never visited Champagne and would like to do a one day side trip from Paris. Obviously, I would to visit at least one grower and taste something like Krug. Suggestions?
Dom Ruinart has a fantastic tour. Make reservations for lunch at Les Crayeres, and budget 2.5 hours. Visit the cathedral. Stop in Caves du Forum. A brilliant day.
In spring 2017 we booked the one day trip through Viator…it is called “Champagne Region Day Trip with Two Champagne Tastings and Reims Cathedral”.
They pick you up at your hotel and drop you off that evening…perfect for us as we had no experience with the Champagne region and was a great introduction.
One tasting was a grower and the second a large house…in our case Moet. Driver was very knowledgeable and even took us to a store in Epernay where we could do our own tasting of grower champagnes. Downside to the Viator tour is that you have no input into which producer you will visit on your given day.
Avoid Mumm. We had limited options on the days we were there and this was within walking distance. Horrible tour.
Cathedral is a must, especially to compare to Paris. There is one amazing butcher we found but I doubt you care if it’s only a day trip. I think I can find it again if you do have an interest.
We did this in July. TGV from Paris to Reims is an hour or less. Very easy. Went to Taittinger and Ruinart. Loved the visits. But Reims is not an exciting town IMHO. Not like Beaune or even Bordeaux for example. Need a car or taxis to get around.
Agree with Ruinart
Fabulous tour and great Champagne
I"m also interested in going when we are in Paris in December. Keep the suggestions and info coming.
I was a fan of hiring a car, especially if you can get 4 people or plug into something from a local hotel. You get more flexibility with locations than TGV (i.e. bounce around Reims, Hautvillers, Epernay), can tell the guide where you want to visit (and they’ll set everything up on your behalf) and you don’t have to work your way through the train station. My kid’s school arranged a trip for 4 of us and I believe it was ~175 euros a head, decreasing again at 6 people. Clearly more expensive than a TGV ticket, but I was taking the day off and didn’t want to deal with the details 
Pick-up was at 9 AM and we returned around 6:30 PM.
In general, TGV is a good recommendation for a cheaper approach to hit 75% of what you really want to cover. Personally, I enjoyed the Reims cathedral visit, but my wife could have cared less (“hey look, it’s another cathedral!”). I don’t find the train stations in France too intimidating, at least as long as I have extra time built in to find English-speaking people (of which there are generally plenty, even outside of Paris).
I’m pretty sure I posted some notes in my “Adventures in Paris” thread, but do not recall the contact for the car. I can dig it up if you’re interested or you can just defer to a concierge.
I’ve done what you did and then took the TGV and had a driver pick me up at the Reims station. Never did the drive from Paris again.
Love the Cathedral. Have visited it at least three times.
The recs for Ruinart are right on IMHO. The cathedral is extra special especially if one has read “Champagne” by Don & Petie Kladstrup who first authored “Wine & War”. It took quite a hit or 3 during the wars and served to represent an internal strength that bolstered the spirit of the people at times when needed most.