Reims

Exterior of cathedral with double
windows.

The Monday after our weekend in Versailles, we took the train from Paris to Reims (pronounced "rance"), the biggest city (but not capital) of the Champagne-Ardennes region ("the upstate New York of France" - this marks my ninth region of France and Lisa's thirteenth). It's actually pretty close to Paris and only about a 45-minute high-speed train ride. The most exciting part was that, while transferring between train stations in Paris on the Metro, the metro line just stopped at a station for about ten or fifteen minutes. This added the suspense of "will we make our train or won't we?" In the end, we made it with about ten minutes to spare!

Bibliothèque Carnegie!

The city of Reims was almost entirely destroyed by German shelling in World War I, as it was a key French defensive position on the road to Paris. This means that most of the city is fairly new and there's a lot of 1920s Art Deco buildings constructed after the war. There's even a Carnegie Library in Reims built after the war, complete with a bust of Andrew Carnegie out front and an American eagle and flag on the facade! Unfortunately, it was closed for lunch when we tried to go in, but the historical marker outside made it sound like a beautiful interior with mosaics and stained glass windows.

Interior details with sculptures, looking
out the windows.

Three rows of windows.

The main draw in Reims (as in most northern French cities) is the Gothic cathedral. But this one is a bit different from the other ones we've seen, both historically, architecturally, and decoratively. The cathedral in Reims is where the coronation of the French kings traditionally took place because Reims is the city where Clovis, first king of the Franks, converted to Christianity and was baptized in 496 AD. Architecturally, there are a lot of peculiarities. Among the most obvious and interesting ones are that it has more exterior sculptures than any cathedral other than Chartres. They're everywhere! Above the front doors, there are no relief carvings (as is usually the case); instead, there are three windows directly above the door. On the inside, around the front doors, there are rows and rows of carvings of Biblical figures - the only time we've seen interior carving like that.

Chagall windows.

Because parts of the church were damaged in World War I, most of the stained glass windows are modern. There are a couple by a German artist that were just installed ten years ago and are meant to symbolize German-French reconciliation. The windows in the main chapel behind the altar were done by Marc Chagall in 1974 and remind me of his famous windows at the Art Institute in Chicago. There's also a window commissioned in 1954 by the wine-growers of the Champagne region, in imitation of medieval guilds that would commission windows. One of the side chapels is dedicated to St. Joseph and it has scenes of his life inlaid in lead on the floor, something we haven't seen elsewhere. It was definitely a very distinctive and unique church.

Effect from the windows.

Also unique about the church - we were given an amazingly friendly welcome as we entered. There were two volunteers near the door who handed out brochures to tourists. The woman asked us if we had any questions and gave us a capsule history of the church. It was something we haven't experienced at any other church!

We saw another church in Reims, too, the Basilica of St. Remi. It was originally built as an abbey church to house the relics of St. Remigius, the bishop who baptized Clovis, but was enlarged in the twelfth century. It's a pretty big space without a lot of interior decoration (although the stained glass rose windows are nice). The tomb of St. Remigius is a big stone sepulcher behind the altar. There's also a huge crown-shaped chandelier in the middle of the church with 96 candles in it, one for every year of St. Remigius' life.

Windows in Saint-Remi.

Basilica of St. Remi.

Biscuit rose.

Most things were closed for lunch, so when we had some time to kill, we bought the local Reims specialty - "biscuit rose" which are very similar to lady fingers, but pink.

Inside the Mumm caves.

Mumm tasting room.

The other major attraction in Reims is the champagne caves (underground storage and production facilities). In the mid-afternoon, we took a tour of one them, the G.H. Mumm company. The tour was all in French (they have English ones, but the only availability was later in the day, after our train back to Paris left) so I didn't understand all of it, but Lisa did which is good because she LOVES champagne. Actually, the start of the tour was funny because the guide said, in French, "Some of you might be English and I want to remind you the English tour starts in one hour." Then he said the same thing in English. Maybe it's just me, but I would think he should have started with the English announcement in case they didn't speak French! Anyway, it was interesting to see the underground storage areas which have over 15 miles of passageways on two different levels. It was also interesting to see some of the old machinery that was used in champagne production in the 19th century. The tour finished with a tasting. We bought two different kinds. They were good, but we had to gulp them down because by the time the tour ended, we only had 40 minutes to get to our train! We bought a bottle of champagne to share with Jean-Claude and Corinne when we got home that night then ran to the bus stop to get back to the train station. Much like the start of the day, we ended with the suspense of "will we make the train or won't we?" but we made it with about 15 minutes to spare.

Once back in Versailles, Jean-Claude picked us up at the train station to bring us home. Corinne made another wonderful meal, capped with Jean-Claude's excellent fruit crumble and the bottle of champagne we bought. We then watched "Singing in the Rain" because Jean-Claude was appalled I had never seen it and Lisa hadn't seen it since she was a child. He, however, has seen it hundreds of times because he shows it to his classes every year so he went back to the bedroom to read! Still, it was a nice way to end our three days in Versailles. We had such an excellent time with Jean-Claude and Corinne, and they were so generous and kind to us.  We hope to see them again before we return to the States and then to welcome them to our home someday!

Bonus picture: rockstar bish from Saint-Remi.