Reims - city of coronations and champagne

Reims is a 40 minute TGV (Train Grand Vitesse or very fast train) ride from Paris. It didn't seem to be travelling that fast from the inside, but waiting at Champagne-Ardenne station for the return trip, we were nearly sucked off the platform when another TGV whizzed past. I reckon all the graffiti along the train lines must have been done pre-TGV!

There was plenty to fill in the day and still some. We visited the Cathedrale Notre-Dame and Palais du Tau. The Cathedrale was commenced in the year 1211 on the site of previous churches and has been rebuilt a number of times after destruction by fire and bombing in World War 1. It contains a beautiful stained glass window by Marc Chagall and has a smiling angel at the entrance. Apparently angels don't usually smile - but perhaps that's only in architecture.



































The Palais du Tau is next door to the Cathedrale and is where the kings of France stayed and partied after their coronation. The coronation custom began in the 9th century and ended with Charles X in 1825. The treasure cabinets held relics such as Charles X' ermine cloak that he wore at his coronation (don't even think about how many ermines were sacrificed for a cloak as big as our Paris apartment) and Charlemagne's talisman (a sort of sceptre) from the 9th century. The party room was hung with floor to ceiling tapestries, some in their original 15th century condition.





















Finished the day with a tour of the Taittinger champagne house, which was more interesting for the history of the Benedictine monks who first built the cellars. Then visited the Musee des Beaux-Arts, which had selected works by Monet, Pissaro, Renoir, Matisse, Gauguin and a moving "La mort de Marat" by Jacques-Louis David. Learned that "still life" in French is "nature morte".

Very-fast-trained back to Paris-Est, metro to Chatelet and home to a chardy!