I'm back in France for the beginning of this trip, in the wonderful city of Reims - Home of Champagne - and the first big question is "Why have I not been here before?" It's only around 45 minutes or so by TGV from Paris and so easy to get to, yet is not packed with tourists.
Even without the bubbly it would be a great place to visit. The main sight is the Notre Dame Cathedral, which is a Westminster Abbey type building, as it's the place where the French Kings were crowned. It has some stunning stained glass, both ancient and modern including some by Marc Chagall.
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| Chagall Windows |
If you know your Anglo French history - which many of us don't because its not really covered in school - you will know that during the Hundred Years War the English laid seige to the city of Orleans in 1429. Then along comes seventeen year old Joan of Arc leading an army who somehow sent the English packing many believe by divine intervention. This then led to a chain of events that cumulated in Charles VII being crowned king in Reims Cathedral with Joan of Arc at his side. Don't worry folks, us nasty English got our own back, burning Joan at the stake in Rouen two years later. She is of course now a saint and France's patron saint at that.
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| Joan d'Arc Chapel |
The city's wealth of course comes from the "liquid gold" made locally - Champagne. Many of the Champagne Houses offer visits, where they will explain the production process whilst taking you around the cellars carved out of the chalk rock on which the city stands, where thousands and thousands of bottles of Champage are maturing.
I visited Taittinger, one of the largest Champagne Houses but it's still family owned with the current members of the Taittinger family being fourth generation. I joined a group for superb tour of their cellars where there was quite a bit of graffiti carved on the walls because of course as well as storing Champagne they were used as a place of refuge in times of war.
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| Carving on the wall of the chalk cellars |
This was followed by a tasting of Brut Reserve and Prestige Rose - well you have to really don't you? It would be rude not to taste the product!
In the gift shop they had a range of Taittinger products including a Methuselah (equivilent to 8 bottles) at €470.
This is definitely somewhere to return one day, as I now want to visit the other "Champagne Towns" of Epernay and Ay.
