Reims (almost a derby)


Saturday morning saw us walking around Reims following the trail provided by the tourist information office.  To be honest we weren’t impressed with many of the places on the trail, but we were impressed with Reims as a city.  Cynically, we wondered if the places on the tour sponsor the tourist trail guide so that’s why they were featured.  It reminded us of a town we visited in Burgundy where we had the same experience.  As expected, the first place of interest was the cathedral that we looked at yesterday but we found the exterior far more impressive than the inside.

The Palace of Tau next to the cathedral
The palace of Tau is where the kings of France stayed during their coronations at the cathedral.  The art deco library sponsored by the Scottish born American philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, was quite different with its clean-cut lines.  Photos cannot do it justice I’m afraid.

The library built in the 1920s
After seeing a few more impressive buildings that weren’t on the tour we made our way to the fruit & veg market halls at the top end of town.

Couldn’t find out what this was…

…but this was obviously the hôtel de ville
There were many squares with plenty of bars as you would expect in a city, but they weren’t exactly thronged with tourists.

Place Royale

Place Forum
At Place Forum we were hoping to visit the Gallo-Roman Cryptoporticus but, as is our luck sometimes, it wasn’t due to open until later in the afternoon.  Built in the second century it a series of arched galleries that were believed to have been a covered market.

On the other side of the Place Forum we were attracted by the cobblestones on Rue de Tambour which is purported to be the oldest street in the city. 


The cobblestones were painted in April this year following a decision by the centre of commerce to brighten the city up.  They colours were certainly striking, and we were reminded of cities like Carcassonne where brightly coloured umbrellas are hung above some streets.

After a successful trip to the market we went in search of the ‘promenades’.  These form a series of gardens one and half kilometres long running in a straight line from the north end of town, past the station and across to the western end where they meet the canal.  Not much was open as a €10 million refurbishment was in progress although the signs indicated that it was due to be complete in June this year!  When completed, they will be wonderful to walk around especially when shade is needed.

The northern end is dominated by la Porte de Mars, another Roman structure built in the 2nd century.  This was one of the four gates that allowed access to the walled city of Durocortorum.

No access to la Porte de Mars at the moment
There are many carvings around the arches including one depicting Romulus and Remus. It was only when reading about it later that I found out, that according to the legend, Remus founded Reims.

Walking on the streets to the side of the promenades we thought we were probably in the commercial district as the side streets were so empty like the City of London on a Sunday.

An empty side street
Not closed off, probably because there were no gardens to redevelop here
At the end we met the canal at the convention centre and made our way back home along the waterside.  There’s an Aldi right next to the canal about two kilometres further down through Reims so we took a quick cruise down there in the afternoon for our weekly shop. 

Going through the port on our way to Aldi
Passing the convention centre at the end of the promenades
We found Aldi and, as we were on a commercial canal, it was plenty wide enough to spin the boat around before mooring up on a couple of bollards.  Not only were we next to a road but there was an old railway track running between the water and the road.

Never moored this close to a railway line before
Karen went over to do the shopping and gave me a call when I was needed to walk over and help her with the shopping bags.  Not only did this keep me out of her way while she was shopping it also meant we didn’t have to lock the boat up.

Bringing the shopping back by rail ðŸ˜‰
After getting back to our original mooring spot we spent the rest of the day at the boat, once again, watching the many runners and rowers on the canal.

On Saturday we cruised four kilometres through no locks.

We were going to head off back down the Canal l’Aisne à la Marne towards Châlons-en-Champagne on Sunday but by mid-morning decided to stay put in Reims for another day and move off on Monday.  Other than an ambling walk around the western end of Reims, we had a lazy morning followed by early lunch.

In the afternoon we went for a longer walk taking in a park and the Cryptoporticus that was closed yesterday.  Unintentionally, this was the third day on the trot that we had walked past the cathedral, each day we passed a new side that we hadn’t seen before.  As expected, the Cryptoporticus was open and we took turns at going in as dogs weren’t allowed.  It was absolutely fascinating to think that the place had been built nearly 2,000 years ago, although the floor was re-laid during the excavation and renovation works. 

The only side of the original four that remains
We had noticed cars parking in the road by the boat before we left for our walk and soon realised that they were football supporters.  Reims were playing Lille in a Ligue 1 match in the afternoon and if we had thought about it, we would have seen if we could have got tickets.  It would be interesting to go to a football match over here.

Seeing the crowds walking to the match made us wonder about the logistics away supporters must face in a large country like France although, at 200 kilometres, Lille is not far to travel to Reims as it would be for other Ligue 1 teams like Nice and Marseilles; in fact it's almost a derby .

A dark picture but the stadium is opposite the port
Sitting back on the boat later we could hear the roar of the fans during the second half but could tell the two occasions when cheers were loud and long enough for a home goal so we guessed correctly at the two nil result. 

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