Day 5
Before you start pronouncing this city name as if it rhymes with “rhymes,” let me assure you it doesn’t. It rhymes with “France.” Yep. Makes no sense to English-speakers. But that’s French for you.
Now back to the topic at hand. Travel from Dijon to Reims.
Our morning travel would take us through the Chablis region, with a mid-morning wine-tasting stop. Morning wine? Who doesn’t love morning wine?
As we were nearing Chablis, we stopped first for a scenic overview of the area. Vineyards as far as the eye could see. (Note the brilliant yellow field on the horizon to the right of the center in the photo. This is a rapeseed field, which will be processed into canola oil. These fields were in bloom all across the part of France we toured. Imagine how stunning they looked as we were approaching Lyon by air on our first day.) As we headed from the overlook down toward the winery, JJ started asking if anyone had a corkcscrew. It turned out the winery owner was out of town and had entrusted JJ to pour his wines for us and tell us about his operation. Now that’s trust!
The little village near the town of Chablis is Beine, and the winemaker Alain Geoffroy. (A video review I found.) Looking around Geoffroy’s showroom was a kick—to say the man collects corkscrews is an understatement. Every possible variation on a corkscrew lives in his collection. Kitschy, cute, simple, erotic. (Erotic? Yep. Use your imagination.) And the reason he wasn’t in the shop that day was a corkscrew auction in New York. Who knew there were corkscrew auctions?
Enjoying morning wine, from left to right: Ed, Michael & Nina; Evie & Victor; Joella; Christina & Bryan;
Susan & Dan. M&M and J&J out of range behind cameras. Jean-Jacques retrieving more wine bottles.
I may have mentioned I don’t drink red wine. My head[aches] won’t allow it. To my delight, this visit included several whites, one of which I loved. 
The pours were generous and we enjoyed the visit and bought a bottle of the white I liked to bring home.
We traveled the few miles back to Chablis for lunch. Our group chose a bistro near the bus stop, ate, as I recall, croque-monsieurs and croque-madames, followed by a walk around the town. (After that much morning wine, you don’t expect me to remember exactly what we ate, do you?!) And then on to Reims, with time for a nap in the bus on the way.
Another nice, clean, convenient Mercure hotel. With the same great showerhead we had in Lyon. A little time to settle in, then a jaunt to dinner. When we left the bus, we were able to walk around the center of Reims a little on our way to the restaurant. The point JJ kept making was that we were walking on top of millions of bottles of champagne. The champagne caves are underneath all the streets of Reims. Really.
Dinner at the highly rated Restaurant L’Antr’Act. Another delicious meal. The thing that stands out in my mind was the dessert, an ice cream made of the region’s famous pink champagne biscuits. These biscuits are typically enjoyed with a glass of champagne. Yes, they are pink. I saw them in a store near the cathedral the next day, but didn’t buy any, thinking I’d find them again later on or maybe in the duty free shop at the airport. Nope. Should have gotten them when I saw them.
The group walked home from the restaurant, snapping great pictures along the way. I rode the bus home and was asleep before they arrived.
Day 6:
This day’s morning was primariy church-related: Basilique Saint-Remi and Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims. [UNESCO World Heritage Sites.] Our guide was André.
These buildings are absolute treasures. When you have time, click the links in the previous paragraph and read about the buildings and their history, or do some googling on your own. The basilica is the traditional site of the anointing of the kings of France, dating back to Archbishop Rémi’s baptism and anointing of Clovis, the first king of the Franks, in the early sixth century. The beautiful tomb of St. Remi is located in the 9th century nave. After the basilica, we headed over to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The cathedral is the site of the coronations of the kings.
We approached the cathedral from the rear. It had been drizzling all morning, and to see those magnificent gargoyles spitting rainwater was memorable. It was sobering to see the sculptures, both interior and exterior, and to realize what they had endured, through weather and war, through eight centuries. Oh, to have an eidetic memory, to be able to recount to you the fascinating facts told to us by our guide.
I’m a pushover for stained glass, and the works in this building are simply incredible. The Chagall windows, of course, are stunning and—to me—a must-see. But the other windows that are breathtaking are the “champagne windows,” documenting the history of champagne in Reims and the regions. These windows were the work of Jacques Simon. [View the Medieval windows in the basilica and the cathedral.]
One more treat in this building is the astronomical clock. I had hoped someone would have filmed the striking of this clock and posted to YouTube. Alas. No such luck. It strikes on the hour and little people come out and run around. (Ah, such a technical description. Sorry.) If you visit this cathedral, make sure to be in the building at the top of an hour. [Another blogger’s account of Reims, with great pictures.]
[I know I’m overwhelming you with information, but one more informational page on the cathedral, and the cathedral’s website. And three beautifully produced videos by YouTube contributor MalcBilton. They’re long, but one gets a better sense of the enormity of this building and its treasures. Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3.]
Our next stop was lunch. We wisely chose Café du Palais. I had Salade avec Quartre Fromages, and that just hit the spot for me. Pictures of our lunch are below in the gallery. After lunch we walked back to our hotel to rest for an hour before we were to leave for Epernay and champagne tasting.
This tour, as you may have deduced from my account thus far, was very active. We were constantly on the go. Jas and I had decided we were going to skip the champagne tasting. For me, champagne is the strongest migraine trigger in my forty-five year history of suffering migraines. Jas—to this point—has not been a big champagne drinker. He’ll lift his glass and take a tiny sip, but has probably never drunk a full flute of champagne. But JJ, his ever insistent self, said this was not to be missed. We caved, and were ever so glad we did.
We rode out from Reims to Epernay, through acres and acres of beautiful vineyards. [Good description of how champagne gets to be champagne.] [How cool is this champagne chalk?!]
Soon we were in the town of Epernay, where the main street through town was lined with mansions and champagne bottlers’ headquarters. We were lucky enough to visit the headquarters of Moët & Chandon, where it all began. When we visited wineries, the personnel who guided us and helped us were just normal people, people who were very close to the process, the grapes, the vines. Not so at Moët & Chandon. These were highly trained tour guides, all dressed to the nines in expensive dark navy or black suits, ivory blouses, and dark pumps (with stockings–no bare legs here!). Most were sporting very large diamond studs in the earlobes.
One of the facts we learned on the previous evening’s brief walk through Reims was that 200 million bottles of champagne are sold worldwide each year. Two million of those are sold by Moët & Chandon. That said, the underlying fact is that there’s a lot of money to be made in producing champagne to support all those elegant champagne drinkers. All that money was flagrantly displayed in the houses and cars we saw in and around Epernay.
The number of bottles in that cellar was staggering. There were three levels of cellars; we were walking through the middle level. It went on and on. Each bottling was held in one—what to call this—”Massive cubbyhole”? “Cove”? Think of a room, dug into a wall of a cellar, that stretches back 25 feet or so. Imagine it seven feet tall and six feet wide, and stacked—floor to ceiling, front to back, with wine bottles. Staggering! In a couple of our pictures in the gallery, you can see a number on top of a row of bottles. 26, 25, 24, 23 … that’s how far back the bottles are stacked. Staggering!
Finally, after many facts and some stupid questions from other people on the tour (not our fellow GoAhead travelers, thank goodness!), we were ushered into the tasting room. We were each given one small glass of champagne. One. Not taste after taste after taste. No refills. One glass.
Jas—remember I told you earlier he really didn’t care for champagne—learned he really likes really good champagne. I was watching our friends to see which one of them would beg for my glass. Then I felt an arm snake around me from the back and saw Jas’s hand taking ahold of my glass. Hmmm. Guess I’ll be looking for sales on Moët & Chandon from here on out.
We departed paradise and headed back to the city. Mike, Marilyn, Jas and I walked the streets until we found what we wanted for dinner—crepes at Suzette & Sarazin. A galette (savory thin buckwheat pancake) filled with ham, eggs, mushrooms and tomato for Jas; eggs and spinach for Marilyn and me (the picture looks like there might have been goat cheese tucked in there also); then a crepe topped with Speculoos. Please tell me how I didn’t know about these cookies! Totally delish. A repeatable treat!!
That’s it for Reims. Back to our hotel to finish packing.
[One thing I haven’t mentioned throughout this account is the streetcars. Where years ago all cities had ancient streetcars, the decades passed and the city fathers decided the streetcars were outdated. Fast forward to the 21st Century, and city fathers realized cars and traffic weren’t cool, pedestrians were cool, and streetcars could enhance this coolness. All the major cities now have new, sleek streetcars that make getting around town much easier. Take a look below.]
Next: Paris!
