Day 22 – Reims (Champagne-Ardenne)

We left Strasbourg in the morning and drove for 3 1/2 hours to Reims, the Champagne region.  We did not stay here long, our purpose for stopping being to split up the long drive to Paris.  We tried to make the most of our time.

Our hotel, as usual, was centrally located so that we could walk to most of the sites we wanted to see.  Pete did a great job selecting the hotels for their locations.

The Les Templier hotel was a museum in itself decked out in. . .

. . . really old school style.

The breakfast room looked like something out of a Monet painting.

Le Petit Dejeuner (the continental breakfast) was generous and the décor, . . .

. . . quirky.

Reims was one of the cities almost totally destroyed during WWI, so it was rebuilt in the 1920 and remains France’s number one town for Art Nouveau style (which was very prevalent in the ’20’s).

Our first stop was the Andrew Carnegie Bibliotheque (library), an excellent example of Art Deco style, which can be seen on the columns and . . .

. . . on the planters and . . .

. . . in the ironwork and . . .

. . . on the doors and floors and . . .

. . . on the ceiling and  . . .

. . . in the lamps and . . .

. . . on the wall.  Many mosaic tiles are inlayed in the marble walls.

The old card catalogue. The Dewey Decimal System is still spoken here!

Next we visited Notre Dame Caththedrale de Reims, which looks a lot like the one in Paris with its flying buttresses.

It also had been restored as a result of war (WWI).  The Carnegie Biblioteque has an account of its destruction.

A protest against animal vivisection was occurring during our visit.  All these people dressed alike and stood stone silent before a bloody symbol.

As we trekked through the city, we learned that it also has one of the first cubist (copying the style of Cubist artists like Mondrian, Brancusi & Picasso in its architecture) buildings, which sits alongside buildings of yore, . . .

. . . such as this one.

The downtown area was full of shoppers on the holiday weekend. Very modern street car (trains) are in constant use.

This store had flowers growing above its sign.  How do they do that?

The Opera House = more Art Nouveau.

We stopped to try some of Reims’ champagne in a restaurant that dates back to the Art Nouveau Era.

We sat down in opulent red chairs and . . .

. . . sipped some of Reims’ famous product, Champagne!

Cheers! A Vos Sante.  We were off to Paris the next morning. Tomorrow will be the end of our 23 day, 4,000 km, automotive odyssey driving through France.

P&J