Reims
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
6
36
Trip End
Ongoing
Reims,
Champagne-Ardenne,
France
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Salut tout le monde! This weekend I went to Reims, the champagne capital of France. It is only 45 minutes east of Laon by train, so I am sure I will return. It is a decent sized town, with lots of shops, museums, and of course, champagne cellars. On Saturday I was there with 4 other girls, 3 from my town, a German assistant named Suzanne, a Spanish assistant from Venezuela named Isabel, and an English assistant from Canada named Nicole. The other girl lives in another town (Noyon), and I met her at the orientation. Her name is also Suzanne. I spent the night in Reims with this Suzanne. The other 3 girls just spent the day there. Suzanne and I needed to find a hotel, and the other girls wanted to wander around in the big park right across from the train station, so we decided to meet up at the Cathedral. Luckily we were able to find somewhere to stay and it was cheap. After we dropped our bags, we headed to the cathedral, which was of course beautiful. They have a set of stained glass windows in the church done by Chagall, and they also have a huge window that chronicles the wine/champagne making process which was pretty interesting. This cathedral was also where the majority of the kings of France were crowned from the 1200's on. There are many beautiful sculptures, both inside the church, and on the outside. We were hungry after that and found a small café that served tartines, which are pieces of toast with various ingredients on top of them. Mine had bacon, eggs, and pepper on it. We just hung out there for awhile and chatted. Afterwards we went to the art museum. The most famous work of art there is a painting of Marat, a very important figure during the French revolution. He was assassinated in his bathtub and this painting is of that scene. It was very important in inspiring people to continue the revolution. The artist's last name is David. After the art museum we went to another museum, the Hotel Vergeur. This museum is an old mansion, turned into a museum. We actually got a guided tour. That is the only way to see the museum. The last person to live in the house was in the 1930's but it was first built in the 13th century. There was a beautiful garden, as well as many interesting rooms. The kitchen was the cutest. The museum also owns 2 complete series of prints from the artist Albrecht Durer. When I was in an art history class we studied a few prints of this artist, so it was cool to see them up close and in person. Across from this museum there was access to the old crypts, which are no longer crypts, just a short underground passageway. They had an abstract art exhibit going on. Afterwards the girls had to get back to the train so we all walked back together. Suzanne and I headed back to the hotel to drop our excess stuff and went out to dinner. After dinner we had a few drinks, one in a Latin bar, and one in an Irish bar. Then we went back to the hotel and fell asleep.
The next morning we decided to go to another museum, but this one was all the way at the south of the town. First we got some pastries for breakfast. I had one that was still warm and it was heavenly. So after that, we walked, and walked, and walked. When we got there we realized the museum does not open until 2. There is a basilica right next to the museum and we popped in there, but a service was going on, so we couldn't really look around. It was about 11, so we decided to go check out the champagne cellar that was nearby, Tattinger. We took a tour, and I was surprised how many people were there, but it was really cool. All the cellars are super old; we even went in one area that was carved out by the Romans. We were 30 meters underground in the deepest part. We got a good explanation of how to make champagne, which is not very easy. The cellar that we saw was the smaller and original Tattinger cellar. Everything done there is done in the traditional manner, all by hand. Their main cellar is under the center of town and everything there is done by machines, and they have over 17 million bottles of Champagne there. Afterwards there was a tasting, which was quite yummy. I didn't buy any champagne while I was in Reims, because I most likely will come back for a day and didn't want to carry it for the rest of the day. We still had time before the museum opened (the tour was about an hour), so we went to a park where they were having a photograph exhibit. The photos were taken all over the world from a helicopter and had stories about effects on the planet, what we can do to help, etc. The artist spent 10 years taking these pictures. Some were shocking, some were beautiful, and some didn't look like photographs at all, but paintings. We were starving afterwards, and decided to skip the museum in favor of lunch. We wandered around a bit and finally ended up at a kebab shop. Although Reims is a big town, the majority of places were still closed for Sunday. Right now there is a big debate in France about working on Sundays. We took our time at lunch, but it was already 4ish, and our train was leaving at 5. We meandered back to the train station, but did stop to get some "biscuits roses," a specialty of the city. They are basically little pink rectangular cookies that taste like Biscotti. They were pretty good. We ate them on the train, and that was my weekend in Reims. I will definitely go back to do some shopping when I get paid and to see the other museums I missed. It is only 8 euros to go round trip.
Donc, a bientot,
Stephanie
