Quick stopover in Reims

We stopped one night in Reims on our way to Groningen to visit our son.

I think it was the hottest day of the year in Reims. It was in the 90's. (36C) Much too hot to do much walking around, which is too bad, because it is an interesting city, full of history. Reims is the place where 34 French kings were crowned. I'm not sure if that's all of them, but it is a lot. The main problem with the city is that its name is hard for non-French to pronounce. I don't think there is anything in English that rhymes with it, but if you say "Rants" without pronouncing the n or t, you are pretty close.

We walked from our hotel to the cathedral and then enjoyed the cooler temperatures inside. The cathedral has a variety of stained glass windows from different periods in history, including one set by Marc Chagal. I find my phone isn't the best at taking pictures of stained glass windows, so mostly I don't try. I just have this one of a more modern window that I took accidentally. If you want to see more try this link, or put these words in your image search. Reims cathedrale vitraux.


I think this is one of the most attractive cathedral facades, but as you can see from my picture below, the front of the cathedral has scaffolding right in the center. A local told us there was always scaffolding somewhere around this cathedral. I guess they just move around it and by the time they get back to where they started that section needs attention again.


So I took this photo of a model inside the cathedral. 


Reims is known for its "smiling angel." Fortunately she was not hidden by scaffolding. Here she is below. I don't know if my photo is good enough to see her smile, though. 


After dinner that evening we went for a walk along the canal. Reims sits on a canal that links the rivers Aisne and Marne. But the city has been here for much longer than the canal. 


Our hotel was near this section of the canal that is wider and had several canal boats docked in it. You can see our hotel behind some trees in this photo.


I didn't take many pictures in the city, because it was so hot, but this tramway and the colorful trams took my fancy, so when I saw this one coming, I got ready to snap a photo. The trams were pink, purple, green, etc. 


And here is the lovely green area that surrounds the tracks. 


Reims deserves more photos than this short post, but we'll have to visit it again in better weather for that to happen. 

We drove on to Groningen the next day. I took a few photos there, which I'll post in a couple days. 





Comments

Ken Stanley said…
Looks like a nice town to visit. Say "Hi" to James.
August 31, 2016 at 5:36 AM
Patrick said…
Nice photos. It really is hard to say Reims!
August 31, 2016 at 6:08 PM
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