I attended mass at the Reims Cathedral this morning. They did not have an English service so I went to the regular 11:00 am service. It is quite spectacular to worship in such historic buildings. I go to church in Alexandria but the church building was build in the early 1800s and is very different than a medieval cathedral. The cathedral has a young person choir who sang and with the majestic organ playing and it was very lovely. The service itself was the traditional Catholic mass. They did have televised screens of the mass as if you are further back, you cannot really see the alter and what is going on during the service. I can understand it but is interesting that they do not use the old pulpits as they are spread out through the nave and people would be able to see the minister.

The one thing I did notice is that the interior of the cathedral is cold in winter months. Most of the people were dressed in winter coats that they did not take off during the service. It was also cloudy so the interior was fairly dark even with modern lighting. I was thinking what it must have been like during medieval times for those who worshipped as the definitely would not have been any heating within the building and all would have been in candlelight.

After church, I went to Parvis which was a champagne shop and restaurant. I had two glasses of champagne and tapas for lunch. I had a Ernst Remy, blanc de noir and a Legras, blanc de blanc. I had lentil and mushroom soup, Camembert with truffle oil and some mini-artichokes. It was a good and fun lunch.

After lunch, I hung out a read for a little while as it was windy outside and there was not much going on in Reims. The city seems much different than Toulouse as there is not the historic old part of the city as in Toulouse. I think much of Reims was destroyed in WWI and WWII so much of the historic nature of the center of the city is missing. There are still beautiful old buildings but there is a much more modern feel to the city. Also, there is not nearly as much street activity as in Toulouse.

After a quiet couple of hours I headed out exploring more. Again, it was very different as there were not a lot of people out wandering around as I am used to in Toulouse.

While wandering, I ran across this ruins of a church hidden away among buildings in the city. There was not any indication of what the church was and why it was preserved. As I wandered around it, I found two men smoking and drinking Heineken in one of the alcoves.

I found the Basilica of Saint Remy which is very large and stunning. The sun was setting and it was a great view.

I wandered along the canal. I saw a canal boat entering a lock but the lock master did not seem to be there to manage the lock. The boat entered and then just sat there and nothing happened about closing the gates and letting water in to rise. The boat person seemed annoyed that the lock master was not around. I waited for a little while as I wanted to see the lock in action but finally left as it did not look like anything was going to happen.

I found a nice cafe/bar and had some more champagne. I figure I need to sample as much as is realistic why I am here. I had a glass of Mercier blanc de blanc and blanc de noir. The blanc de noir was definitely more complex than the blanc de blanc. The bar gave me little munchies to have when I was eating so made a pleasant time. The picture is the blanc de noir.

I had an interesting dinner at Entrocote. There plan is either beef or chicken grilled with a special sauce and French fries. They start you off with a salad. The meal was very simple but very good. Again, I am not sure how the French stay thin as the portion was pretty big. They even gave seconds on both the meat and the French fries.