The week wasn’t very eventful, we had our final for civilization due on Thurs so up until then I was busy doing homework. Thursday after class Claire, Maggie, Julia and I went to the Moose, our favorite spot to go chill since there aren’t very many French people! Then I went home for dinner and we had mini crepes with this creamy white cheese and ham and some pretty awesome green beans, I must say it’s a nice change of pace. After dinner I went back out and met some people at the Pont des Arts which is a pedestrian only bridge over the Seine packed with people just sitting and chilling, it wasn’t too late of a night because Maggie and I had to get up to catch the train to Reims.
So Reims, pronounced almost like “ronce”, is located in the Champagne region of France, a 45 minute TGV ride from Paris. Reims is important in French History because it is home to Notre Dame de Reims where all the kings of France were crowned. Maggie and I made our way from the train station to the Cathedral and it was lunch time so we grabbed a sandwich from a local boulangerie and went and sat on some benches with a nice view of the cathedral. It was really nice being away from Paris again where people are nicer and there’s more breathing room! After lunch we spent awhile basking in the sun which eventually led to the a nice sun burn. Before we left Paris I had ripped out a couple pages of my guide book on Reims and one had talked about being able to climb to the top of the cathedral so we headed to the Palais du Tau right next to the Cathedral to find that it was a museum with lots of history behind the cathedral. One interesting thing is that after WWI it had immense damage to the facade and the roof was no longer in existence so some of the cathedral is fairly modern including the stained glass windows. It was very interesting to see the contrast between Notre Dame de Paris which has traditional windows and the Notre Dame de Reims which features 20th century windows, there is also a series of windows designed by Marc Chagall that were installed in 1974.
Notre Dame de Reims is also unique in that it has one large rose window in the front and another smaller rose window just underneath. And it is also extremely tall, much larger than Notre Dame de Paris.
So after the museum in the Palais du Tau we bought tickets to ascend the 342 spiral steps up to the roof of the Cathedral. We were definitely out of breath when we reached the top! We got to go outside for a nice view of the city as well as inside to see the inside construction of the roof. It was really amazing to also see the designs of the stone so close, from the ground you get an idea of the different animals or gargoyles but up close it’s amazing the amount and the detail in each one. I found it really neat that since it was rebuilt the facade features many mythic animals like a unicorn, an elephant, a mermaid, some griffins and others. Not quite what you would expect on the top of a cathedral, more what I picture Hogwarts to look like. That was definitely a really neat experience and a well kept secret that we found out about thanks to my guidebook pages! So after the roof we went back down we went to a cafe to grab a drink and then we grabbed kebabs and ate them in a park before the train. It was a great day trip and a beautiful day for it.
This morning, however, came rather early after all day yesterday. We had to be at the Alliance at 8:30 to catch the bus and on the way I stopped at Thevenin, my favorite patisserie, for a pain au raisins. Versailles is only a 40 minute or so drive from Paris so we got there fairly early and had the whole day to explore. We had audioguides for the Grandes-Apartements in the chateau, which were overly crowded with Japanese tourists, and then we were on our own for the rest of the day. Our ticket included everything so we were able to walk around the grounds and visit the fountains and Marie-Antoinette’s domain, which was an English garden and several little buildings scattered around for her to go play in or whatever she did. We played a bit too.
We saw some sheep, it rained, there were fountains and classical music and that’s Versaille for you! Tonight I’m going to sleep and tomorrow I’m going to relax, the only plans for tomorrow are eating at Breakfast in America for a bit of that food we miss so much!
