Epernay is perfectly placed for exploring the rest of Champagne. Hautvillers, the village where Dom Perignon is buried, sits in the hills five kilometres to the north. Reims, with its coronation cathedral and its own set of major champagne houses, is half an hour away by train. The Cote des Blancs villages — Cramant, Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger — start a few kilometres south of town and reward an afternoon of slow driving.