Reims

Today we did a day trip to the cathedral town of Reims. It is one of the main towns in the Champagne region and houses 150,000 people. Despite this it seemed very quiet to us although it was a pleasure to see trams similar to those we have in Melbourne. We chose Reims as our only out of Paris excursion, reluctantly eliminating Malmaison and Giverny that had been strong candidates for our tour.

When we left the station we thought we had quite a walk to Reims Cathedral, Notre Dame, which was bombarded and severely damaged in the First World War.
There was a religious community on the site from about the 400's but the church was begun in the 1200's. it is an inspiring building, particularly the symmetry down the side aisles because they have many arches making up the whole.
There was a sculpture of Jeanne D'Arc which was curious because of its dress and a sense that it is there for tourist purposes.
An unmistakeable triptych of windows has been done by Chagall.

The more interesting church building in Reims is the former abbey basilica Saint Rémi, which is somewhat away from the centre of the city but well worth the walk. It was built in the 1000's. It has flying buttresses on the outside and inside the walls are fairly rough rock, lacking the smooth sophistication of most churches. The inside has little decoration apart from a very large chandelier reminiscent of a crown. Again the symmetry is very pleasing as are the shape of the Romanesque arches as against the Gothic arches of the cathedral.
As we walked around we saw a wall plate of tiles depicting biblical scenes, possibly previously floor tiles. What was really interesting about this was that it was made of concrete and the objects/people contained in each tile were depicted using lead strapping as in leadlight.

Both buildings are world heritage sites, as is the Palais du Tau, which was the arch-episcopal and royal residence attached to the cathedral but is now a museum housing 16th century tapestries various pieces of clothing from the coronation of Louis XV as well as some of the remains of the bombed cathedral and models of the rebuilding process much of which was financed by J.D. Rockefeller.

The train trip took 50 minutes each way and allowed plenty of time for dinner at Nanashi which is fast becoming a favourite restaurant for us, partly because it is just around the corner from our apartment, but mainly because the food is fresh, simple and has a Japanese touch which is most enjoyable. Tonight we had soba noodles in a teriyaki sauce with beautifully cooked duck and salad leaves with a small amount of shitake mushroom. This was washed down with a Languedoc (red) wine and followed by a cheesecake which was not too sweet or rich.