Reims Cathedral- Honeymoon/Semana Santa Part VI

On our travels recently, we've seemed to wander into several cathedrals.  There's something about majestic buildings that were created with basic tools hundreds of year ago that just draw you in.   The cathedral in Reims was no exception and rivaled that of Notre Dame in Paris.  At night you could see it lit up from a distance and it was beautiful! 

 

At 800 years old, it's looking pretty good!  The Reims Cathedral was built after a fire destroyed a church in the same location in 1211.  It was partially destroyed in WWI and has since been rebuilt.  Not a shabby way to spend some time. 

Bus to Where?

As seen in Reims

Veuve Clicquot Champagne - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. V

The second champagne house we visited, and the one we were most excited about, was Veuve Clicquot on the south side of Reims.

We started the tour and learned about 'Le Grande Dame' Madame Clicquot, who was one of the first female business owners in France in the early 1800's.  

Fun Fact:

The caves Veuve uses to store their champagne were originally mined out by the Romans in ~200bc for the construction of buildings and monuments in the area.

Unfortunately, our tour of the caves was cut short by an untimely illness.  But the staff there were awesome and we had already done about half of the tour.  Next time were in Reims we'll do the whole sha-bang!

G.H. Mumm Champagne - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. IV

I know, I know.  It took us a while to get to the good stuff.  Here we go...

Our first champagne stop in Reims was G.H. Mumm (like moo-m).  After getting only a little bit lost we made it there for our 'Premiere' champagne tour.

Fun Facts:

1) Mumm is the third highest selling champagne in the world.  

2) Cordon Rouge (red ribbon) non-vintage champagne is what they spray on each other on the podiums of Formula 1 races.

3) The best champagne is always in magnum (1.5L) bottles.

The champagne region of France is technically too wet to be a good place to grow wine grapes.  However, underneath the entire region is chalk which helps the ground drain better than normal allowing grapes to be grown.  The chalk also absorbs water and because of this, the caves where the champagne gets stored are humid and stay a constant temperature.

Apparently the walls also come in handy when you forgot your calculator...

They have over 24km of tunnels in the ground and so they give them street names and signs to keep everything organized.

After touring the cellars (and seeing champagne bottled in the 1870's) we went upstairs and sampled some champagne.  Because we're awesome (and signed up for the Premiere tour) Kelly and I (and one other guy) got to sample two vintage champagnes, a rose and a brut, while everyone else only had one non-vintage glass.  Suckers...

Trains - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. III

After our brief stint in Paris we went to the Gare de L'est and caught our train to Reims.  Since we live a life of ease and leisure, we booked first class seats facing each other with a table in between.

Train travel is by far one of the best things about Europe and, as you can tell, I am suuuuper excited about this (and the Gouda flavored crackers, which were delicious).

As you can see from the screen behind the girl with the silly cheeks, the train goes well over 300kph (186mph).  The highest speed we saw the screen get up to was 330kph, which is over 200 mph.

Just in case you were wondering why someone had silly, puffy cheeks.  The answer, as usual, is wine.

Checking out the scenery.  Even going really fast, its a great way to see parts of the country outside of the city.  And doing so with a Belgian beer and (amazing) French crackers makes it even better.