Reims, France

A few months ago I read the book "Jackdaws" by Ken Follett (a good book, by the way). It is a fictional book about the French Resistance during World War II, and the book takes place in Reims, France. While reading the book, I googled Reims to see where, specifically it was. Reims is about a three hour drive from our house (not too far), and the images which I found when searching Reims were beautiful. I wanted to put an image to the place, and thus began my desire to go there. I had been looking for a good hotel deal for Reims (without much success... then again, I didn't search that long or hard) when the base announced it was going to do a day trip to Reims. Sold.

The best part of this trip was the date on which was scheduled. As you may remember from my post last year, June 15th is my parents wedding anniversary, but it is also the anniversary of the date I had my heart surgery. This year is the 25 year anniversary of my surgery - a bit of a milestone. It also happened to fall on a Saturday, and on that day the base had a trip to Reims. Double sold. I found the way I wanted to celebrate. Reims is the center of the champagne region, so the base had scheduled a champagne tasting to go along with the trip. It sounded neat, but I honestly could have cared less. I'm not a huge fan of champagne (maybe it is memories of the horrible hang over I had the night after my reception where I consumed entirely too much champagne. Sadly, I was one of those brides). My focus was more on the seeing the city.

We left base in the morning and arrived in Reims around 10. We went for the champagne tasting first, which I will admit I was not enthused about. I'm all for enjoying myself, but drinking champagne at 10 a.m. seemed a bit extreme, even for me. We had a tour of the champagne "cave" as they call it. It really is like a cave - we were about 30 feet under ground in the old cellar where the champagne was made and bottled (the company we visited currently has moved their production out of the city). It was interesting to learn about how champagne is produced, and how the production has changed over the years. The inside of the cellar was interesting as well.

We did enjoy the champagne tasting. We tried four different kinds of champagne. Honestly... I couldn't tell much of a difference between them. I will say this: French champagne is completely different and 100 times better than the cheap crap most of us buy in the States. To this you are probably thinking, "Well, DUH." But, it is the truth. It is much better. Some people on the tour bought cases of champagne. I was happy to buy one bottle to remember the day by. Since Josh and I don't drink much champagne, I'm sure this bottle will be saved for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

After our tour we were free to roam about the city. We went to find lunch. Josh and a friend of ours ordered fried frog legs. I don't have any pictures of this, but I will tell you what... those frog legs came out still looking like frogs. I had no interest in trying out frog legs. Everyone told me they tasted just like chicken, but I had zero desire to try it out. My sense of adventure is not that strong.

One of the things I was most excited to see in Reims was the cathedral. It is called the Notre Dame Cathedral, and it looks like a smaller version of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Even though it is a smaller version, it is still stunning. So much detail. We were there at the perfect time of day where the sun was shining through the stained glass windows. It was stunning.

After the cathedral we made our way through Reims. Reims, like so many other places, has touches of Roman influence. There is an underground area which they believe was once a marketplace or an arcade. There is also an old Roman entrance to the city (which while we were there the circus was dominating the area near this gate). It did remind me of the Porta Nigra in Trier, which we've seen numerous times as it is only a half hour away.

After the Roman ruins, we went to the Museum of the Surrender. I didn't know this until I was planning a trip to Reims, but the start of the surrender of World War II started in Reims. German officials met with Allied officials in Reims to discuss surrender. The Germans wanted to surrender only the western front, but the Allies demanded they surrender on both fronts. In the early hours of May 7th, the Germans signed the official surrender on all fronts. The next day May 8th was when documents were signed in Berlin and the surrender was announced to the world. The signing of surrender in Reims took place in what once was a school. Now it is a museum. There are a lot of photos surrounding the announcement of the end of the war in France as well as the signing of the surrender itself. The room in which the surrender occurred has been preserved as it was. This was one of the things I really wanted to see on our trip.

After our time at the museum, we had time to wander around Reims (which has a great pedestrian walking area) and do some shopping. I think Reims would be a great place to go shopping with girlfriends. To add to my bottle of champagne I bought myself a bottle of perfume - so very French. We finished up our day and got back on the bus to head home. We learned from last week - we sat in the front of the bus where the A/C worked the best.

I really loved Reims. It was all I hoped it would be, and it was a wonderful way to spend my heart-a-versary.