The idea of spending 2 nights at the sites heading south was to re-charge our batteries after a travel day. Well, we did just that with a very pleasant “at leisure” day. A standard caravan morning of tea and reading in bed, breakfast omelette and ablutions - very nice. We left the site at about 12.30 for the half hour drive into Reims. We avoided the motorway and drove through some interesting French countryside driving by Champagne vineyards / producers and French war graves - this area saw some fierce WW1 fighting. There were 3 Battles of Aisne over a 4 year period as this area sat right on the Western Front between Germany and France.
We parked in a very scary underground car park in the centre of Reims. There wasn’t a lot of room so the Volvo’s cameras / bleepers were going off constantly! A quick walk round and a very nice coffee and cake at Columbus - a French coffee house chain.
We wanted to buy some local Champagne so we went to one of the many Champagne shops - this one was right next to the Cathedral. After spending ages serving a couple of very annoying American middle aged women, Bertrand was delighted to be rid of them and help us! He sold us a very nice bottle assuring us it was one of the more local of the 5000 producers! He said this would be good to “lay down” - should be good for Kim’s 60th or my 70th!!?
We looked around the very impressive Reims Cathedral. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reims_Cathedral It dates back to Roman times but the main building is 13th century with a lot of 20th century re-building after the war. It’s a fascinating place as it was the site of every French Kings coronation for hundreds of years.
We visited the next door Palais de Tau. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Tau So named as it is shaped as a letter “T” and houses lots of historical royal stuff. It confirmed how little I/we knew of French history! How about you? Question: who was the last French King crowned (I did put coronated but sounds like something you do to a chicken!!?) in Reims in 1825? Answer below.
We fancied something nice to eat and found a very pretty wide street with dozens of eating establishments. It turned out every one didn’t serve food until 7 - 2 hours from when we wanted to eat! After nearly giving up and heading for the Frite van we found a nice place called L’Edito (
I had moules in curry and frites, Kim had a veggie burger - very tasty.
Before heading out we went to a huge Carrefour on the edge of the city - it was huge, it took me 20 mins to walk around all the cheeses! We have a long journey tomorrow and after sampling the delights of French motorway services, we plan to be more self sufficient this time.
Back hone to Brunnehilda for another episode of The Wire, a cup of tea and blogging. A big day of travelling tomorrow- and it’s our wedding anniversary!
Answer: Charles Xth. Don’t about you but I thought it was Louis XVIth!
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