Photo spot in Épernay & the Avenue de Champagne
The Verzenay windmill above the vines
A brick tower mill standing alone on a bare knoll of grand cru vines, with the Champagne plain running flat to the horizon behind it.
About The Verzenay windmill above the vines
Get directionsThe Moulin de Verzenay was built in 1818 on a small round hill above the village, and everything around it is vineyard. That is the whole picture: one dark tower mill with white sails on a green or gold dome of vines, and behind it the plain of Champagne running flat and hazy to the horizon. There is almost nothing else in the frame, which is rare and useful.
The mill sits on the north-facing flank of the Montagne de Reims, twenty-five minutes from Épernay. The slope means you can get below it and shoot up with the mill on the skyline, or come round the side for the mill with rows leading into it. Late afternoon and evening give warm side light on the brick; sunrise puts the mill against the light, which is a good silhouette if that is what you want.
The mill itself belongs to a champagne house and is not open to the public — it is a picture, not a visit. A kilometre east along the ridge stands the Phare de Verzenay, a 1909 lighthouse built as an advertising stunt in the middle of the vines, now a wine museum with a viewing platform, which is the other frame worth the drive.
The vineyard tracks around the mill are open to walkers but the parcels are private and worked. Stay on the paths, especially during the harvest fortnight from late September, when the tracks carry tractors and picking crews all day.
Best time to shoot
Late afternoon for warm light on the brick; sunrise for a silhouette on the skyline
Tips
The mill is privately owned and not open to visitors — photograph it from the surrounding tracks. Stay off the rows, and expect tractors on the paths through the harvest fortnight.
Other spots in Épernay & the Avenue de Champagne
The Avenue de Champagne
A straight kilometre of nineteenth-century champagne houses behind wrought-iron gates and clipped hedges, with the cellars running under the road.
The chalk cellars under Épernay
Galleries cut into solid chalk beneath the avenue, held at about ten degrees, with bottles stacked in the walls and lamps every few metres.
Hautvillers and Dom Pérignon's abbey church
A hillside village of wrought-iron shop signs around the abbey church where Dom Pérignon is buried, with the Marne valley spread out below.
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Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know The Verzenay windmill above the vines — free of charge.