Une Excursion à Reims (A Day Trip to Reims)

Like Rouen and Orléans, the city of Reims is a short train ride from Paris. It's the largest city in the Champagne region, so it's a popular choice as a day trip for tourists looking to tour a local winery. Even on a cool, cloudy day in February, most of the winery tours were fully booked (although there may have been more availability on a weekday), but fortunately I reserved a spot ahead of time.

I arrived around noon on a Saturday, so I had a shorter day for looking around the city, but Reims is a small city so getting around on foot took very little time.

The Subé Fountain on one of the main shopping streets was closed due to restoration work, so I only saw the upper section of the monument.

I started the day by visiting the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Reims, one of the more famous Gothic cathedrals in France (I'd say third after Paris and Rouen, maybe fourth if you count Chartres). As it was the tourist off-season, part of the façade was undergoing restoration work, so I didn't get a full view of the building's exterior.

The interior of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Reims looks very similar to its counterparts in Paris, Rouen and Orléans.

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame includes a variety of stained glass windows with different colour schemes. This set of windows also had a scale model of the cathedral just below it.

The Palais du Tau is right next to the cathedral, but it was closed until later in the day, so I took a 10 minute walk to the other side of downtown and visited the Abbey of Saint-Remi.

A sculpture in the Abbey of Saint-Remi. Like the cathedral, this abbey had detailed stained glass windows, but the pictures weren't as easy to view due to the cloudy weather and the fact that the rest of the lights were turned off for the day I visited.

Reims does not have any major rivers running through it, which is odd for a city founded in 80 BC, but there is a large canal running along the west side. I imagine the canal helps to irrigate the vineyards in the area.

I wandered around the southern part of the city and felt like I was in a newly built suburb of Paris. There were modern buildings and relatively plain parks everywhere. By mid-afternoon, I went to the Vranken Pommery champagne house, which is housed in a set of buildings designed to look like a new palace with a Gothic twist, which probably holds some appeal for tourists but I thought it seemed too campy for a 150 year old champagne producer.

The interior of the Vranken Pommery champagne house contains a giant blending barrel with a capacity of 75,000 liters. The tour takes visitors through the underground caves where the champagne is aged, but the lighting was too dark to take any good photos.

The tour of the production facility was very informative, highlighting the different grapes used and the fermentation process. Vranken Pommery's facilities also included some artwork that the owners have incorporated into the underground caves, partly due to their love of art, but I think also to add to the tourist appeal. A champagne was served at the end of the tour and it was by far and away the best champagne I've ever had (although I don't drink it often). A vineyard was not included in the tour as there wasn't much to see, but I walked further south after the tour and took a look anyway.

Southeast of the champagne houses is a vineyard operated by Vranken Pommery, although at this time of year nothing is growing.

By the time I got back to the northern side of downtown, the Palais du Tau was open. The palace along with the neigbouring Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Abbey of Saint-Remi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The palace was originally the residence of the Archbishop of Reims, but is now a museum displaying various historical artifacts related to the cathedral and to the coronation of French kings.

The Palais du Tau displays several items from the treasury of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Reims, including a talisman worn by Charlemagne. Another visitor thought the talisman was designed to refract a cross in the middle of the sapphire, but I think it's just a reflection of anyone looking directly into the gem.

Several rooms in the Palais du Tau display the original statues and tapestries of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. At the end of this room is the original display from the central portal of the cathedral.

After the Palais du Tau, I strolled around the city and took a quick look at some of the lesser known sites around the train station, such as the Porte Mars, the Chapelle Foujita and the Hotel de Ville, but the latter two sites were closed.

Reims is very modern compared to other French cities, so this was one of the few timber framed buildings in the area. There were various specialty shops on the ground floor.

So that was Reims on a short day trip. There were a couple of other museums in the city that I could have also visited, but none of them were highly rated by travel sites or provided a subject of interest for me. As a result, I feel like the city should only be considered as a day trip from Paris if you have a strong interest in champagne or if you have some compulsion to see every major Gothic cathedral in France. Still, the trip made for a laid-back Saturday with little cost, time or energy required.