All Aboard....First Stop, Reims France

It has been awhile since I've written.
What can I say...I've been trying to stay busy.

On Friday, August 5, I went with my co-work Ruby Gualberto to Reims, France. Reims is about one hour northeast of Paris. It is known as the city of Champagne. Located in an area filled with vineyards, there are many champagne producers loacated in Reims..hence the reason for the visit.

Reims is a cute little city with about 200,000 inhabitants. Not much else there except the champagne and a few other museums, however, it is a quite, peaceful city with lots of charm.

On Saturday, August 6, the first champagne cellar that we went to was Pommery. I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked in. We first watched a video on how Champagne is made (which is a lot like wine). Then our tour guide walked us through these doors and down the stairs to the cellars.

This picture is a little blurry, but it shows you how far underneath the ground we were. the Cellar holds approximatley 1-2 million bottles of champagne. The label was started by a guy, Pommery, but after he died, his wife took it over (go figure). At the end of these stairs, however, lies 18 KM of tunnels of tunnels that were doug by the Romans many centuries ago. I want to say 20 centuries ago, but I might be off by a few centuries.

Each tunnel has been named after a city. When the label began going world-wide, Mrs. Pommery decided to name different "galleries" in the cellar after each market. Here is one named after Munich. I assume that all of these bottles in this "gallery" are going to go to the Munich area.


The sizes of the bottles are amazing. Their biggest bottle, shown here holds 18 liters of champagne. (That is going to be one good party!)




The Cellar also housed some very old bottles of Champagne. Check out the ages of some of these bottles. Some date back to the late 1800s, however I don't think they are drinkable anymore. There are some bottles in the picture from 1904.

And of course, what's a Champagne cellar tour without a tasting. I don't have any pictures of that though.

After touring several other Champagne cellars, Ruby and I ate lunch and went shopping in the pedestrian mall. In the mall, there was a carasol that Ruby and I just had to ride.



I went to church on Sunday, August 7 at the Notre Dame Cathedral. The Church was built 1211-1311 on the traditional site of the coronation of the Kings of France. The mass of course was all in French, so needless to say, I didn't understand very much of what the priest was saying. But, having gone to church every Sunday for most of my life, one pretty much knows the parts of the mass no matter what language they are in. I was proud that I at least knew parts of the Our Father....Mrs. Baumgartner (my High School French teacher) would be proud. As a matter of fact, its amazing how many french words I knew/remembered when there. The church had all wooden chairs which I thought was unusual, but given the age of the church, I guess it wasn't that unusal.

There is something about going to church in a building this old. I've been lucky and grew up in a beutiful church. However, when you are sitting in such an old cathedral, you are in awe when looking up at the high ceilings or down the long, long, long aisle at the alter. Maybe it's me, but everything seems much more holy.


After Chruch, Ruby and I went to the Surrender Museum. In 1944, during WWII, Reims was liberated by American troops who, after fighting, forced the remaining German troops out.
It is in this building on May 7, 1945 that the German Army surrendered to the Allied Forces to put an end to WW II in Europe. In Reims, the Surpreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) in Europe were located. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander at this time. After the fall of Berlin and Hitler's suicide, the surrender of German forces were signed in the Map Room (pictures below).





This coming week, World Youth Day begins in the Bonn/Cologne region. You can already tell and feel the beginnings of a big week. When I was in the city center yesterday, there were so many people and kids..many with their World Youth Day Badges on. The City has begun preparing a big stage in the University Quad. There are rent-a-toilets everywhere and water stations have been set up for quite some time. In previous posts, I had shown you a picture from out my bedroom window which is the Chancellor's home. The Pope is going to be meeting with the Chancellor sometime next week thre. There has been a rumor that our office might have to be closed for security reasons. I unfortunately am going to have to miss the World Youth Day Festivities. I remember how amazing it was when I attended World Youth Day in Denver during High School.

But, even more exciting, I am headed back to Kansas on Tuesday for my sisters wedding. Some of you I will get to see. Others...I wish you well. I am very excited though to see my family.
Until next time....Betsy =)