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Published: July 24th 2017
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The Market Was Going in Reims The Day We Went
so took a wander over - quite a large permanent space As mentioned in a previous blog entry we made the decision to take the train from Chalon-en-Champagne to Reims. It saved us 4 days of travel time by boat and it only took us about an hour.
Reims is known as the unofficial capital of the Champagne growing region and as a result has plenty of Champagne houses. We decided that we had seen a number of them already so didn’t put them on the list of places to visit leaving us time to do other things.
The one place we knew we had to see was the Reims Cathedral. Yes, anyone that has followed us knows we have been in numerous on our travels, but we had heard that if you were going to see one in France, this one was it.
This gothic Cathedral is known for having crowned 33 kings here starting in 1179 with Philippe II Augustus ending with Charles X in 1825. One of the most famous being Charles VII when Joan of Arc brought him here to be consecrated in 1429. Prior to this event Henry V, King of England defeated Charles VI army resulting in Reims and most of northern France
falling into the control of England. England held Reims and the Cathedral until it was liberated by Joan of Arc in 1429 allowing Charles to be crowned King.
As with all cathedrals there have been numerous changes due to the need to rebuild due to periods of destruction. This one is located on the site of a basilica that was here in 496AD and prior to that the site had been a Roman bath. Needless to say there is a lot of history here.
Over the centuries various wars have caused damage, but none as much as WWI. German shells caused extensive damage to the Cathedral and the French used photos of the damage to tell others about the atrocities caused by the Germans in 1914. Restoration work began in 1919 and it was reopened in 1938 with help financially from the Rockefellers. Work is constantly being done as we could tell the day we were there as there was some scaffolding around part of the front of the Cathedral.
With the Gothic design of this Cathedral there were high sweeping arches with plenty of stained glass windows letting plenty of light in. It has windows that
were from the 13
th century, up through the 20
th century. They are particularly proud of the quality of their rose windows in a very traditional design, which contrast with the more modern windows of the 20
th century.
Another feature that is widely recognized is the number of detailed sculptures on the Cathedral – There is only one other Cathedral in Europe that has more. These are truly impressive especially when we have seen so many cathedrals with their sculptures destroyed and not replaced. One statute that is pointed out in the audio guide is that of the “Smiling Angel”. It was carved between 1236-1245, but in 1914 a fire developed as a result of a German shell. The head fell off the angel and broke into pieces, but they were all saved and put into storage. In 1926 the pieces were put back together to create a mold so that it could be made again and returned to its rightful place on the angel’s statute. There has been numerous comments about the expression on the angel’s face. With Reims being the “unofficial” Champagne capital, of course the story got started that she is smiling because of the champagne!
We had read about a museum that might be interesting so went to the Le Vergeur Museum. It is housed in two homes; one built in the 13
th C and the other in the 16
th C. which were owned by prominent members of the community. During WWI they sustained a large amount of damage resulting in a Mr. Kraft deciding to restore them as near as he could to the original. He bequeathed them to live on as a museum. You can see some items from his travels to India and Asia, Renaissance furniture as well as some of the rooms were left as they were used in the early 1900’s. In the courtyard there is a section of the building that was not repaired showing the fire damage and destruction caused by the bombing during WWI. One of the most impressive gifts to the museum however is a complete, original series of prints of Apocalypse and the Large Passion by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), and many other etchings. One whole room was dedicated to his work. Quite a find in such an unusual and small museum. This is a museum that did not allow photos to be taken inside so
can’t include any from here except the outside.
Wanting to see something different as you can get burned out if you aren’t careful with what Bob says are “cute little French towns” we found that there was the Reims-Champagne Musee Automobile which was started in 1985. This would be something very different so found that we could take a bus to the edge of town to visit. It holds over 200 cars and motorbikes produced between 1908 and today. As we are in France a large majority of them were Citroen’s, but there were many others represented. One car that had been produced for a short period of time near Reims was the SCAR. There were only a few produced and they are proud to have one on display here. Having been to the WWI museum in Meaux we knew about the Marne taxis and their role in the war so knew the story of it when we saw one on display here. Reims produced a motorbike known as the MotoComptoir which of course was displayed proudly. Even if you aren’t into cars that much, it is worth a visit to see the variety of cars that are in
the collection. The museum is run by people that lovely care and maintain them which can be seen by the excellent condition of the displayed vehicles. It was a nice break from walking the streets of town.
One place that has limited opening hours is the Gallo-Roman cryptoporticus. This was found through archeological work done here and discoveries are still being revealed. There are three galleries that are under one of the squares in the city. These galleries were used for the storage of grain and were built around 200 AD. We were allowed to walk through part of the area, but continuing research is being done to discover more about the settlement of the time. They have determined that there are only a very few of these storage galleries in the world, with this being one that is in quite good condition.
It is ironic that even though Reims received quite a bit of damage during WWI from the Germans and they saw more during WWII, Reims was the town where General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Germans on May 7, 1945.
There is plenty to see and do in Reims but with only
allowing one day for our visit we felt that we got a good cross section of the town as well as enjoyed another train trip to see another part of France that we wouldn’t get to by boat.
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