Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [285]
Very badly damaged by artillery and fire during WWI, the 138m-long cathedral, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is more interesting for its dramatic history than its heavily restored architectural features. The finest stained-glass windows are the western façade’s 12-petalled great rose window, its almost cobalt-blue neighbour below it, and the rose window in the north transept arm (to the left), above the flamboyant Gothic organ case (15th and 18th centuries) topped with a figure. Nearby is a 15th-century wooden astronomical clock. There’s a window by Chagall (1974) in the central axial chapel (behind the high altar) portraying Christ and Abraham and, two chapels to the left, a statue of Joan of Arc. Persons strong-of-thigh might want to climb the 250 steps of the cathedral tower on a one-hour tour.
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TRANSPORT: REIMS
Distance from Paris 144km
Direction Northeast
Travel time 45 minutes by TGV, 1½ to 1¾ hours by normal train or car
Car Route A4 from Paris’ Porte de Bercy (direction Metz)), exit No 23 (Reims-Centre)
Train Up to 15 daily trains link Reims with Paris’ Gare de l’Est (€22.70, 1¾ hours); seven of them are TGVs (45 minutes, €28). Information and tickets in the city centre are available at the Boutique SNCF (1 cours Jean-Baptiste Langlet; 9am-7pm Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm Sat).
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Next door, the Palais du Tau ( 03 26 47 81 79; www.palais-du-tau.fr, in French; 2 place du Cardinal Luçon; admission free until end Jun 2008, then adult/under 18yr €6.50/free; 9.30am-6.30pm Tue-Sun early May–early Sep, 9.30am-12.30pm & 2-5.30pm Tue-Sun early Sep–early May), a former archbishop’s residence constructed in 1690, was where French princes stayed before their coronations and where they hosted sumptuous banquets afterwards. Now a museum, it displays truly exceptional statues, ritual objects and tapestries from the cathedral, some in the impressive Salle du Tau.
The rich collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts ( 03 26 47 28 44; 8 rue Chanzy; 10am-noon & 2-6pm Wed-Sun), housed in an 18th-century building, include one of only four versions of Jacques-Louis David’s world-famous Death of Marat (yes, the bloody one in the bathtub), 27 works by Camille Corot (only the Louvre has more), lots of Barbizon School landscapes, Art Nouveau creations by Émile Gallé and two works each by Monet, Gauguin and Pissarro.
No visit to Reims would be complete without a tour of a champagne cave (cellar) and eight maisons (houses or producers) offer guided tours of their premises that end, naturellement, with a tasting session. Of the Reims trinity, Mumm ( 03 26 49 59 70; www.mumm.com; 34 rue du Champ de Mars; tours adult/under 12yr €8/free; tours 9am-10.50am & 2pm-4.40pm daily Mar-Oct, Sat only Nov-Feb) is most easily accessible from the centre, while Taittinger ( 03 26 85 84 33; www.taittinger.com; 9 place St-Niçaise; tours adult/under 12yr €10/free; tours 9.30am-noon & 2pm-4.30pm, closed Sat & Sun mid-Nov–mid-Mar) and Pommery ( 03 26 61 62 55; www.pommery.fr; 5 place du Général Gouraud; tours adult/student & 12-17yr/under 12yr €10/7/free; tours 9.30am-7pm Apr–mid-Nov, 10am-6pm Sat & Sun mid-Nov–Mar) are under 2km to the southeast.
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INFORMATION
Tourist Office ( 03 26 77 45 00; www.reims-tourisme.com; 2 rue Guillaume de Machault; 9am-7pm Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm Sun mid-Apr–mid-Oct, 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, 11am-4pm Sun mid-Oct–mid-Apr) The Reims City Card (€14) gets you a champagne house tour, an all-day bus ticket, entry to four municipal museums, including Musée des Beaux-Arts, and a guided tour of the cathedral.
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