To the readers of this blog I say, comment ca va? Pardon my efforts to French, but since I have been here in France, I have tried, well if not my best, close to my best to try and speak/understand or think in French. I did French back in school from grade 6-10 and hardly ever was good at it. I sort of blame my teacher as he was completely disinterested in teaching us anything. But I was always fascinated by the language and would make an extra effort to roll my R's and sound as 'French' as I could. Being here in France, I found it all coming back to me. Not entirely, but part's of my dictionary, rules and basic sentence structure. I have made a group of French friends who really encourage me to speak it and well I kinda do. It's fun and I hope to be speaking a decent amount by the time I leave. More updates on that later...
Let's get to the interesting stuff. So where did I go this weekend. What fascinating European city did I discover. For those thinking Rome or Prague or Munich or something like that, you need to hold on for a little bit. I will get there. Just waiting on what is called a 'Carte Sejour'. It's sort of like a French residence card which will allow me to travel outside France.
So anyway, the destination of this weekend was a town called, Reims. Reims pronounced Raiinns with a French sort of emphasis on the 'Ra', is located in the Champagne region of France, north east of Paris. Yes you guessed it right, Champagne or Chalons et Champagne is where all the Champagne comes from. And yes I did drink some, so read on, for more on that...
So me and a bunch of us got up early on a Saturday morning to go visit Reims. It was a 3 hour ride there, on a non TGV, but very comfortable nonetheless and all of us managed to get some sleep. It had snowed recently the view outside was absolutely spectacular with snow covered fields miles on end. After dozing of a couple of times and reading a few dozen pages of 'The five people you meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom, I was ready to start exploring. We got there at 10 to a very rare sunny day. One doesn't realize how much he cherishes something till he doesn't have it, and that's how we felt about the sun being out that morning. Leaving the station we were at once struck by what seemed to be a magnificent gate of some sort. We wandered around that a little before we spotted a mobile market. From my past experience in Strasbourg I knew how fun these makeshifts markets are, with people selling anything from spices and fresh seafood to furniture and clothes and really old yet unique knick knacks. We ate a little, watched a little and bought a little. To paint you a picture of the market, imagine a market in the 1900's with farmers bringing their fresh produce, the fishers selling their prized catch and some very soothing background music. That's what this market looked like. It was absolutely wonderful!
We started wandering again, (I was the 'Fearless' leader of the group mind you) knowing not much about the town or what it had to offer apart from the fact that we wanted to see the cathedral, which was apparently where they used to knight the kings of France, and visit a Champagne house or whatever you would call them. With one map in hand, a want to explore and more cameras than people we headed into Reims. The streets were sparsely populated, the air was snowy and the sun was playing peekaboo with the clouds, forming the most beautiful colours in the sky. We saw some great architecture around, without really knowing what it was. We came across a town square which had this magnificent statue around the center, and buses ran on cobbled streets around it.
We kept walking till we passed by an old cathedral. Being in Europe kind of spoils you in a way, as if it's not something out of the ordinary it doesn't catch your attention as such. Impressive but nonetheless we walked by while glancing at this church. We found the tourism office and sure enough made a reservation at the biggest Champagne house, Pomery. Unfortunately the tour was going to be in French, so me and Ivan(one of the guys in the group) would try to be the translators. As exciting as that sounds, if you're not a native French speaker, and you think you can speak, well try being a translator and you realize how little you know. Anyway read on...
After wandering a little more, we found an adorable Italian restaurant, which we unanimously decided to stop at. It was a small little thing with probably 5 tables, run by an Italian mom and pop who spoke adorable French. We were starving, and what better than some good pizza. I decided to unleash my French, and it resulted in us getting bread to munch before our meal. The pizza's were delicious and the company as it was turning out was even better. I have traveled a fair amount, for a fair amount of things, in a fair amount of places, with a fair amount of people, and I have come to a conclusion that the best travel is when you and you're company isn't rigid about things. Be free, and take it as it comes. And with this group I was with, we all were at ease, just enjoying the place and each others company... Moving on
After lunch, we hurried to get to what we had been waiting for. Try some champagne. We walked and we walked, and finally we turned a corner, and there it was. It looked like the factory in Will wonka. It was huge this place. Seemed very fantastical. We went in and were greeted by our French guide which turned out after the tour spoke English. I will summarize what I got from the tour. She showed us a huge staircase that led us some 30 meters underground to some 18km of alleyway's which housed some million gallons of champagne or even more, there was just too much. There were dark alleys with names of different cities of the world which turns out is for the different markets they started selling to back in the day, some long drawn out process of how you make the champagne, some random art in some of the galleries including a hanging carcass of John Allessi's Ferari and a random stack of Nutella. Yes the chocolate Nutella. Finally we got to it. The complimentary glass of champagne. Oh how much I savored that glass. Even though it was their cheapest glass of champagne(priced at 8.5 euros) it was to me really good. So with glasses of Champagne in our hands we got ready for a toast! To France we said! To France it is!
France and French people are turning out to be quite the contrary of what I expected. I find them to be helpful, warm and definitely welcoming. I don't know why people have such a bad impression of French people, but then I think to myself it must be the crass traveler. The traveler who doesn't respect the space, the way of life or the people of the place. Be nice, Ask around, people will gladly help!
With a very fulfilling day behind us, we tool the train back to Metz. Reims was absolutely wonderful. And that too not in the typical way that cities are, but just in the way that it had so much to offer and show, but it did so in the subtlest, most quiet manner. I would love to go back to the region, but with my time here so limited and the list of cities on my wish list so extensive, I might not find a way back. But hopefully through this blog and the pictures we took, I will be able to remember this place for a long time to come!
I feel privileged that I can travel! I would like to add my favorite quote here.
"Life is like a book, and those who don't travel, read only the first few pages."
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