May 31-June 10 Travels in northeast France - Intro & Reims

May 31, 2010

Frustrated note: I have been doing battle with blogger and I'm just not getting how to manage the order of posts and the links for navigating between them. Look for links at the ends of posts to help - that's my rigged solution. Perhaps Becky will be able to figure out a better way.

Frequent flyer tickets got us to Paris. A Citroen CR4 rental got us to a region of France full of wine and good food and beautiful countryside and awe-inspiring architecture and a lot of history.

View northeast France - 2010 in a larger map

Why did we pick northeastern France? Aside from the fact that it's easily accessible from Paris, and some vague recollections from high school French class, we're not sure. But it turned out to be a good choice. It also turned out to have some interesting resonances, echoes of Jimmy's parents Ted and Florence, something we hadn't really thought about beforehand.

Our first stop was Reims (also spelled Rheims; in English it is pronounced Reems, while its French pronunciation is a real challenge to those of us who don't speak French). Reims is one of the major cities of the province of Champagne-Ardenne (yes, that Champagne), the capital of the Marnes department (administrative region; named for the river Marnes and perhaps a familiar name from World War I history). Reims is a modest-sized city with a central pedestrian plaza called Place Drouet d’Erlon.

The plaza, where our hotel was located, is lined with cafes and restaurants, people having a "coup de champagne"

and, well,...

Why Reims? Well, champagne, yes, but besides, this very historic city is dominated by one of the most famous Gothic cathedrals of Europe (next post).