Hotel du Marc, Veuve Clicquots Private Hotel in Reims, France

I’ve never wanted to share an adventure more than this. Last month I received a call from the head office at LVMH. Veuve Clicquot had invited me to stay at Hotel du Marc, the by invitation only hotel in Reims, France.  With just 6 bedrooms, I knew of only one other who’d been invited since the vast renovations a few years ago. Costas Voyatzis AKA Yatzer.

Before I spin off with everything I want to share, let me tell you why I am here. Every so often Veuve Clicquot will invite a handful of guests and influencers to spend the evening pow wowing about all things creative. For our evening, Ayako Suwa was invited from Japan to create the most spectacular evening I have ever experienced. 

There is so much to tell you, this may be my longest post to date. To give you a little background info on the building first, this place has quite the history. In a city that was mostly destroyed during the First World War it is quite incredible that the house still stands today. It literally has the war wounds to prove it, do you see the damage the shrapnel did to the building above. This former home of Madame Clicquot, has remained in the family since 1840.

Veuve Clicquot are committed to celebrating designers and artists, and that’s clear from the recent collaborations the brand has undertaken, Charlotte Olympia, Andrée Putman, the Campana Brothers, Karim Rashid, Tom Dixon, and Mathieu Lehanneur to name just a few.

There are few hotels, although Hotel du Marc can hardly be placed in the same category, it’s more like your staying in their home, that give their interior designers such artistic license. Bruno Moinard (former design partner of Andrée Putman and designer of the Cartier stores) has carefully connected the brands history in the most charming interpretations. Each bedroom is designed with a country, person and season in mind. My room used icy blue hues, and crisp whites to signify the cold winters in the region, with a nod to Russia, one of the first countries Madam Clicquot exported her champagne to. This is the hallway below, leading to the suites, with a contemporary interpretation of the famous family portraits.

I met my fellow guests at Gard du l’Est in Paris after a couple of days in Paris, and with a speedy TGV down to Reims we arrived just in time to settle in and have a glass of 2004 Rosé champagne before our instructions to meet in the biblioteque downstairs at 8pm. Whilst we wait for the photos to come through, you’ll have to make do with my iPhone snaps, but you get the idea…

Madame Clicquot always watching over us…

Quick dip before dinner? My room was vast, practically half the size of my new flat in London, with giant windows overlooking the courtyard and a beautiful fireplace, it’s one of the most beautifully designed suites I’ve stayed in.

Fast forward to the moment we were invited to each take an umbrella and walk outside through to the cigar and cognac room that had been transformed into a curiosity box

…before we walked into this… 

I went into full on sensory overload, and therefore failed to miss this dancing lady in the middle of the table until she popped up to do her thing (I have video, it’s quite incredible)…

The lights go off, and we are ushered one by one, in to the dining room. Ayako Suwa is a Japanese ‘food creator’. Our dinner was more of an edible art installation, the room fell into silence as our journey was about to begin, and our every move was being both filmed and photographed.

 “To eat is to live, to taste is to evolve…”

Our first course of edible petals and flowers

Branches were rustled over our heads for one course, full on crazy, full on amazing…

Do we eat the branch? Do we not eat the branch? This was pretty much how we had to deal with everything put in front of us. Turns out, no to the leaves, but yes the twigs were infused.

Have you ever tried to eat caviar with tweezers and a straw? I have. There’s a knack to it…

I did. I actually did. Snails taste tested.

Now this one, quite the challenge, but I did try. Unlucky for me the cameras caught me squealing in the process though…

Take him off his rock and you have yourself an edible treat hidden under his belly…

ah leaves, phew! No spatchcock frog to deal with, just heavenly aromatic leaves…

Understand that this went on for a long long time, course after course, paired with a different champagne, our laughter, our terror (that was me and the spatchcock frog) and surprise at Ayako’s creations, I think even Heston would be speechless. I wasn’t quite prepared for this. The idea that each mouthful was interpreting an emotion, a taste of happiness, a taste of bittersweet, a taste of love, nostalgia, confusion, contentment or delight. Quite incredible.

As we left the dining room, we took the lift to the basement cellar for one last course, and of course some more champagne…

Yes i’m wearing polar fleece…

Not everyone could stay, so after saying goodbye to our fellow friends, the lights went down and we hit the champagne wall. Note to self, I don’t want a Sub-Zero in my next house, I’d like one of these please…

Bed time, turn down and presents left on my pillow…

Foggy head in the morning? Oh yes, but with a private tour of the cellars down the road and lunch in Reims, my breakfast in bed worked a treat…

Let me tell you about the walls and carpet. From a deep purple signifying the hue of the Pinot Noir grape, fading to an off white colour, signifying the chalk under the soil from where the vines grow, isn’t this place just beautiful?

The Campana Brothers installation in the back gardens of the house.

A quick drive down the road to the cellars and bottling plant…

I’ll be sharing more of my morning at the cellars soon. In the meantime if you’re craving a trip to France, click on this link for a bit of inspiration…

With all thanks to the International PR & Press Manager, Veuve Clicquot and all at Hotel de Marc.

LWSY