Avenue de Champagne, Épernay

The Avenue de Champagne in Épernay is a single straight kilometre of grand houses built by the champagne trade in the nineteenth century — Moët, Perrier-Jouët, de Castellane and a dozen others, each behind its own iron gate, gravel forecourt and clipped hedge. Beneath the roadway run more than a hundred kilometres of chalk cellars, which is why the street is sometimes described as the most expensive avenue in the world.

The photography works two ways. Down the pavement, the repeating gates, lamps and plane trees give a long receding line, best in early morning when the street is empty of traffic. Head-on at a single gate, the symmetry of a facade behind wrought iron is the frame — and here the light matters, because most of the houses face north-east or south-west and only half the avenue is lit at any hour.

The de Castellane tower at the eastern end is climbable and gives the only high view over the roofs and the vineyard slopes behind. Autumn puts the vines above the town into colour, and December strings the whole avenue with lights.

The street itself is public and free to photograph. Everything behind the gates — courtyards, gardens, cellars — is private property, and a shoot inside needs the house's agreement, arranged when you book a visit rather than asked at the gate.