The luxe, five-suite country inn Manoir Henri Giraud launched in June 2020, in Aÿ, one of only 17 Grands Crus wine villages in the Champagne region, where the Giraud family dates to 1625. Claude Girard, 12^th-generation family member and owner of Champagne Henri Giraud, opened the intimate inn and wellness spa to offer hospitality to winery guests.

© Champagne Henri Giraud

He reconfigured a neighboring three-story, stone-fronted, traditional 19^th-century manor house and constructed a modern, wood-faced, window-walled addition, to house the spa’s indoor, heated pool and a new reception area. The lodgings are exceptional: Our suite (No. 2) featured a decorative, floor-to-ceiling, Starry Night blue plastic wall in the large bathroom, with its stand-alone tub; blue reappears on upholstery and in a painting of a ridgeline that contrasts with the large, gilded dome over the bed.

Furnished with armchairs, a desk, kitchenette and 5-star amenities (flat-screen cable TV, internet, robe, slippers, safety deposit box and ironing facilities), the décor includes dining tables, indoors and outdoors, on a balcony overlooking a garden and vineyards. The blue mosaic-tiled walled spa houses the pool, medical offices, a hammam (steam room) and treatment cabins for the signature service, Craÿothérapie, ideal for couples. After a mud wrap with pure soothing chalk, there’s a bubbly bath in a double-sized hydrotherapy tub and a full body massage.

Guests can tour the cellars, do tastings (on a table constructed out of one long piece of Argonne Forest oak) and enjoy the house specialty: a private table experience (for two to 12 guests). Ours was a seven-course dinner paired with Champagne Henri Giraud wines, which Ebby, the manor’s chef, custom-curated, cooked and served in front of us.

Visitors can reach Reims from Paris on a 45-minute TGV train and a taxi.

Manoir Henri Giraud

83 Bd Charles de Gaulle
51160 Aÿ-Champagne, France
tel 33 3 26 55 75 85