Reims is the capital of the Champagne region of France. And yes, by Champagne I do mean the bubbly stuff. It is also home to another gorgeous gothic cathedral. The largest of the cathedrals we visited on this trip, Reims cathedral is actually recently restored: after damage in WWI, Rockefeller (yep, the American) actually funded a massive restoration of the place. The western facade towers above you:
And the interior is no less imposing:
Like the others, this cathedral possesses a long central nave:
Which culminates with the altar at the east end. This picture was taken from behind the altar, looking back down the nave toward the west end:
Which bore this spectacular rose window:
This rose window, positioned on either the north or south end of the transept, was particularly clean and, therefore, easy to photograph:
The ambulatories (the aisles on either side of the long nave, which are quite a bit shorter than the nave) I especially liked in this cathedral. They were taller than most other cathedrals I've seen, and they consequently were much better lit:
The stained glass throughout was beautiful:
But especially cool were the Marc Chagall, modern windows... Very different from the traditional gothic stained glass, but (I thought) very moving:
This was particularly fun for me because I had never been here... Always fun to see new things. And, of course, my parents loved it!
Oliver (who napped through most of the visit to the cathedral's interior) woke up a happy camper:
The stonework on each face was well-restored and cleaned:
And though the views were not quite as well crafted as those of Notre Dame (which is particularly breathtaking because the river leaves your sight lines clear), we managed a pretty nice view nonetheless:
And even got a glimpse of the flying buttresses:
After the tour of the cathedral, we were FREEZING, so we took lunch inside a bakery, where sweet Oli enjoyed his baguette:
That afternoon, we had a 2:30 tour of some champagne caves, so we had about an hour and a half to kill... We found a neat little park (with some sunshine to warm us up!), and had a blast. Oliver and Nana played on the seesaw:
And, for those of you who care about photography, the sunlight was perfect... All these pictures had totally natural lighting - no editing - how fun is that?!?!?!
And they enjoyed some time on the merry-go-round:
I do wish we had playground equipment like this at our parks in Paris... And having Nana around to play with Oli's not too bad either. ;) After our little jaunt in the park, though, we headed to the caves. After a little informational video on how champagne is made, we took a LOT of stairs down underground into caves that were originally hewn for stone. At some point several hundred years ago, though, people realized that those caves were the perfect atmosphere for storing and aging wine, so they've been employed as such for centuries. The particular caves we visited are actually no longer in use for production; they are more like a museum, housing old-fashioned wine-making tools (sorry for the black-and-white; the lighting was super weird down there):
We got an informative lecture and tour, and poor little Oliver (who was missing his nap) even cooperated sans stroller (which we left upstairs):
After the tour, we were given a tasting:
After three different champagnes, fun informative explanations, and good company, all we could do was say "salut!":
And then run back to the station to catch our train. Overall, a super easy and fun day! And for those of you who live in Paris, I totally recommend it... If you book early enough, you can get TGV tickets (direct, 45 min each way) for ~15euros each way. Totally worth it.
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