April 13th was a day on my calendar for quite some time: day trip to Reims, a French city in the region of Champagne, with Andrew, Claude, and Katie! It was kind of a gray day, with intermittent periods of sun--classic bizarre Paris-esque weather--but not too cold, and it's always nice to step outside of Paris for a moment.
Reims was surprisingly small, so we hit just about all the tourist destinations before our dinnertime train, including the gorgeous cathedral there (potentially more impressive than the Notre Dame in Paris, though they are done in a very similar style):
We also saw "ancient land" when we wondered on a ~30 min. walk to find a champagne cave, which allowed us to see where the hunchback of Notre Dame lived (no joke, we freaked out), and to stop into a little pastry shop and each get our own massive tarts--I think the lady at the counter didn't know what to make of us, and a man who passed us as we were digging in outside definitely turned around to laugh at us. No regrets, no shame, only delicious.
We found a cute champagne cave where we took a guided tour, and had a tasting of 3 kinds. Katie, who is on a program abroad in Scotland, but knows Claude from high school in Nashville, is a BO$$ and helped us have our own tasting because she is taking a wine course. Luh da bubbly.
Probably the most culturally enriching Reims experience was finding a bizarre carnival in the public park (pop-up carnivals are definitely a Europe thing; I do not understand it but I am on board). We spent quite some time laughing at these 2 little boys tumbling over each other in a plastic bubble (who THINKS of these things?!):
In short, it was great. It would have been much more difficult to leave Reims and return to a rainy night in Paris, had we not been returning to dinner at Les Pâtes Vivantes, an Asian restaurant where they pull the noodles in front of you. We. Did. Work.
Now I am back in Paris, enjoying beautiful sunshine. Would write another post on Mama Bear's visit, but it's time for another picnic! (May have had one every day this week; yesterday, ate 3 full meals, not one of them indoors). YAY.
Reims was surprisingly small, so we hit just about all the tourist destinations before our dinnertime train, including the gorgeous cathedral there (potentially more impressive than the Notre Dame in Paris, though they are done in a very similar style):
We found a cute champagne cave where we took a guided tour, and had a tasting of 3 kinds. Katie, who is on a program abroad in Scotland, but knows Claude from high school in Nashville, is a BO$$ and helped us have our own tasting because she is taking a wine course. Luh da bubbly.
Probably the most culturally enriching Reims experience was finding a bizarre carnival in the public park (pop-up carnivals are definitely a Europe thing; I do not understand it but I am on board). We spent quite some time laughing at these 2 little boys tumbling over each other in a plastic bubble (who THINKS of these things?!):
Now I am back in Paris, enjoying beautiful sunshine. Would write another post on Mama Bear's visit, but it's time for another picnic! (May have had one every day this week; yesterday, ate 3 full meals, not one of them indoors). YAY.
