Last Friday I got to spend the day in Reims, courtesy of my study abroad program. (Among other things, that meant, to my immense joy, that lunch was included.) We boarded the bus much too early in the morning--how am I supposed to be up at 6:50 am after a concert the night before?!--and were on our way. Two and a half hours later, we arrived in Reims, and to no surprise the weather was just as grey and unappealing as it was back in Paris.
The day started with a long-winded but chockfull of fun facts tour of the famous Notre Dame de Reims. Built after a destructive fire in 1210, it replaces an even older church in which kings were once baptized, including Clovis, the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul. The cathedral has more than one thousand statues of religious and historic figures on it, and I believe it is the second tallest cathedral in France. As a lover of Gothic architecture, being able to stand in front of and inside the Notre Dame was a gift. My favorite part were the stained glass windows painted by Marc Chagall, installed in 1974.
My other favorite part was the vast quantity of gargoyles, some of which looked like mutated tyrannosaurus rex.
After lunch (warm soup bellies were had) we moseyed on down to a champagne cave to taste the sweet nectar and learn all about how it is made. Sadly, the tour guide totally had a stick up her ass and the combination of her killjoy attitude and the disturbing video art installations in the already claustrophobia-inducing caves made for a less than stellar tour. That's okay though, I still got my free glass of expensive champagne.
The next IES-sponsored trip I plan to attend will take place in April, and will be to Giverny, the site of many of Monet's paintings. Can't wait for that one!
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