The occasional travellers: Reims

Reims was a respite after the bustle of Paris, quiet and orderly. And only one steep winding staircase to get to our little apartment! Luxury.

Reims has one of the three main Notre Dame cathedrals in France. Having seen the damage from the 2016 fire in the Paris cathedral and the extensive rebuilding taking place there, it was something special to see the beauty of Reims Notre Dame, risen from rubble after World War I (athough there were still many headless angels from the anti-religious frenzy of the French Revolution two centuries before). Amongst all that beauty, a lead light window by Marc Chagall stood out, positioned so it could be seen the full length of the Cathedral.

We made the most of 3 days with a rented Fiat 500, and zipped through the vineyards to visit the town of Chalons-en-Champagne, where we went on a small electric boat ride through the town canals with special effects through the long tunnels - dragons, monsters, and some interesting 60s psychedelia 😀

In keeping with the champagne theme, we went to Epernay and promenaded up one side of the Avenue de Champagne and back down the other. The Avenue is supposed to be the most expensive street in France - not just because of the spectacular champagne houses above ground, but also the xxxx million bottles of champagne stored in kilometres of tunnels below the street. We'd visited the house of Mumm in Reims, and had an excellent tour there, so just found ourselves a nice cafe and a glass of bubbles with lunch - which happened to coincide with my lovely book club friends raising a glass over dinner in Brisbane.

We also took advantage of our little Fiat for a day trip to the medieval town of Bouillon in Belgium, only 90 mins away. We clambered all over the castle, watched a raptor show, heard about the local hero of the Crusades (still not convinced they were a good idea ;<) and ate gelati (had to make up for the broken streak). Lovely day.

One more thing about Reims - in an old red school house, now the Museum of the Surrender, we visited the room in which World War 2 in Europe officially came to an end. The event was a day before a second signing in Berlin, which Stalin insisted on. The walls of the former classroom were still covered in the original maps - transport routes, weather, troup movements, major battlegrounds; and straight-backed chairs stood around the big wooden table like soldiers themselves. Quite extraordinary to think what happened in this very ordinary classroom.