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Roman floor mosaics with Gladiators of Thrace
Saint-Rémi: the Chevet - Nov 2010
Looking west
Gothic façade of Saint Jacques - Nov 2010
My husband and I will be visiting Reims later this year. We will be traveling by train and don't plan to have a car. We would like to visit some of the champagne houses for tastings, but from what we can tell, many of the champagne houses are 2-3 kilometers from the city center (for example, Pommery, Veuve-Clicquot, and Ruinart). Are there any organized tours in Reims that visit several of the houses, or perhaps visitng both Reims and Epernay, providing the transportation to them? (I know there are day tours from Paris; ideally, we'd like to find something similar in Reims.) If not, is it practical to visit them by taxi?
There are several champagne houses in Reims. They would be easy to visit using taxis or city buses. Here's a web site.
http://www.reims-tourisme.com/indexhtml_br.php
BTW, don't miss the cathedral in Reims. There is a Chagall stained glass window in the back that is absolutely amazing!
Have a good trip.
The main attraction of Reims is its cathedral "Notre Dame", a masterpiece of french gotic architecture. They began to build it in 1211 ..... and no wonder that the UNESCO has put it on their World Heritage list. It is absolutely worth to see ......
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The two gothic towers were richly decorated with lot of wonderful gothic ornaments. You will see this magnificance if you click on the picture!
Here are some other great cathedrals: The Cathdrale Notre Dame in Paris, the Stephansdom in Vienna, the cathedrals in Strasbourg, Ulm, Bordeaux, not to forget the Westminster Abbey in London. The list is not complete ....
This is the same photo, but here I photographed a little bit lower, so you can also see the lighters in the fore front of the picture ...
During the Hundred Years' War between England and France, Joan of Arc, Jeanne D'Arc in French, inspired and rallied France to eventual victory. In 1429, she brought Charles VII, the Dauphin, to Reims to be coronated. She was tried as a witch and burned at the stake by the English in 1431. Almost 500 years later, she was canonized as a saint. An equestrian statue next to the Cathedral commemorates France's heroine.
Writing this is making me think of the song "Joan of Arc" by OMD.
The cathedral is, of course, the most outstanding monument in Reims.
It is one of the masterworks of Gothic art. Everyting in this building is a praise to the vertical line, meaning a connexion between Heaven and Earth. The two unfinished towers have become a part of its profile. The building was seriously damaged during WWI but it was rebuilt in its original form and it has not lost its magnificency.
This basilica is the oldest (and seemed to me to be the biggest, but I guess I was wrong here) church in Reims, dating from 1007. Though now is pretty awkwardly situated in the modern quarter of Reims, this complex began as a Carolingan basilica in 5th-6th centuries, and was already then dedicated to St. Remi.
Despite being an example of medieval French masonry at its most classic, it's more frequently than not missed by the travelers eager to see the famous Reims Cathedral. Within the complex is the former royal abbey of St-Rémi, who was the guardian of the holy ampula used to anoint the kings of France. The abbey now functions as a museum with an extensive collection covering the history of Reims, regional archaeology, and military history. It’s also a kind of a mausoleum, having been a burial place for the kings of France for a long period of time.
Architect Louis Duroché designed the majestic ornamental front of the main quadrangle and the Grand Staircase (1778), where you can admire one of the portraits of the young Louis XV in his coronation robes. It also contains a Romanesque nave leading to a magnificent choir crowned with pointed arches. The nave, the transepts, one of the towers, and the aisles date from the 11th century; the portal of the south transept is in early-16th-century Flamboyant Gothic style. Some of the stained glass in the apse is from the 13th century. Much of the stained glass, however, is more modern, but it still looks fine enough. The tomb of St. Rémi is elaborately carved with Renaissance figures and columns.
Admission is free, but you have to remember that the complex is closed during service hours.
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Address: 28, boulevard Joffre, Reims, Champagne-Ardenne, 51100, France
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