Reims is small town. The main drag (seen above) cuts the central area in two after starting at a perpendicular park at its base. The street (Place Drouet-d'Erlon) is closed to vehicles and lined with shops, movie theaters, and pubs. The picture above shows part of the bazaar that was occupying the inhabitants while we were there despite very blustery, umbrella-killing winds and light but persistent rain. (What did we expect in December? This ain't Houston, after all). A 50 foot helium Santa waved in the wind in the morning but had collapsed by noon.
The town is old, pre-roman, settled by a Gaulish tribe called the Remes. The park near the train station contains a third century Roman triumphal arch called the Gates of Mars. As the empire deteriorated, the town became a key military outpost as the Romans tried to stem the invading mobs from the East. WWI saw a repeat performance as the Germans destroyed over 80% of the the town. This gave the inhabitants a chance to rebuild using the fashion of that time.
Most buildings have a Parisian kind of feel to them similar to our neighborhood. Although rare, here's an art nouveau building we found that reminded us a little of Prague:
I couldn't get the full picture since it was crammed onto a crowded street. But here's a close-up of its uppermost level.
We filled in the long lunch hours of closed museums by buying choclates and the pink biscuits that somehow got to be famous here. By 6pm we ran out of daylight and museums (and a little energy) so we killed a time drinking English beer (in the heart of champagne country) until our evening restaurant opened. We continue to find that in small French towns, picking what the Michelin considers to be the best restaurant often provides a meal as good as any in Paris. This time Reims's Le Foch Restaurant did just that.
The next afternoon we visited the only open champagne cellar we could find at Mumms; many of these cellars coexist together just northeast of the downtown area.. We've been on wine tours in California so knew some of the mechanics. What is unusual about this area is that huge cellars, miles-and-miles in length, have been dug out of the soft chalk below the city. These contain millions of bottles of ripening champagne.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Sunday morning we drove through the Champagne countryside. Please join us by clicking here.
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