Villages & Vineyards of Eastern France - Reims

I just got home from a couple of weeks of traveling in France, and I'm still severely jet-lagged, with my body feeling about 9 hours out of sync from the clock-time here in the Pacific Northwest of the US where I live. Now I'm thinking about trying to get caught back up on everything - what a job! Thanks for all your e-mails and posts over the last few weeks and I'll try to get caught back up with everyone in the next few days or so.

Two weeks ago I flew to Paris to take part in a Rick Steves' Villages & Vineyards of Eastern France tour (that's Colmar in the picture above). Many people in the Pacific Northwest have heard of fellow Washington State resident Rick Steves through his Rick Steves' Europe television shows, where Rick does feature shows on his favorite 'back door' places to visit in Europe. I've always enjoyed watching Rick's shows for his easy-going, casual, back-door approach to travel, and have always wanted to take one of his tours and get in on the fun.

Last year I went on Rick's Turkey in 13 Days trip and I was hooked by the experience. The combination of an absolutely awesome tour guide, Ayşegül ünlü (below), an incredibly fun & interesting tour group to travel with, and visiting Istanbul's Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia Church, the Grand Bazaar, Cappadocia's 'fairy-chimney' landscape (below), the Ancient Greek sites of Ephesus & Aphrodisias, spending time sailing the azure waters of the Mediterranean, and much more, made a life-long impression on me - and wanting for more. Plus I was really in need of a vacation!

Thus the Villages & Vineyards of Eastern France trip. Rick's tours are designed to fit as much adventure into your time as possible, so you move pretty fast as you go, and you get to do quite a few things that would be impossible to do if you were traveling on your own - more about that in a moment.

Particularly for those who are new to my blog, which is essentially a music & Hi-Fi blog with a few other things thrown in for fun, I thought I would explain why I make these sorts of non Hi-Fi posts about travel, photography and other stuff. The reason is that Hi-Fi is essentially a sit on your bum and listen to music sort of pursuit, which I am enormously fond of as you know, but really it is good to get out and do other things as well to keep everything in perspective. After all, you can do a trip like the one I did to Turkey last year, or the one to France I just got back from, for about the price of a single piece of good Hi-Fi gear, and the personal rewards of traveling are enormous: You get to see new and interesting cultures, meet fun new people, see amazing sights, eat some amazing food, get kissed by a French girl, listen to some live music, and drink some great wine and champagne! Maybe it's just me, because I am a bit quirky, but I think that's a pretty cool way to spend some time! But don't worry, I have lots of cool music & audio stuff to tell you about too.

Now, back on topic: I promised in the Turkey trip report that I had some travel photography & travel gear tips to share with you as well, and since I never followed up on that I'll try to make amends as I go through this France trip report.

Tip #1 - Clothes: Guys, you cannot beat Tilley Endurables Adventure Cloth Zip-Off pants, two pair will take you around the world! Tilley travel socks are a must too. I like Tilley shirts as well, but prefer ExOfficio shirts overall for their lightness, stylish good looks (humor), and quick drying time (for real). ExOfficio Give-N-Go briefs are my favorites for underwear. You can't beat a Filson leather belt.

Here's a quick overview of the trip: I flew from Washington State in the US into Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France (which was a butt-busting 15 hours and 30 minutes in cattle-class, by the way). My tour actually started in Reims, so I had pre-purchased a TGV train ticket before I left the States, and planned on taking a taxi-ride from CDG to the Gare de L'Est train station to catch the train.

Life can get interesting so quickly and unexpectedly. The taxi ride from CDG to Gare de L'Est turned out to be a high-light of the trip. I was too travel weary to have the presence of mind to ask the driver his name, but I wish I would have, because I'd recommend everyone do the drive with him from CDG to Gare de L'Est at least once in their lives - it was a rocket-ride! The driver raced at high speed between vehicles, veering across lanes of traffic into spaces that I swear were smaller than his taxi, passed groups of slowpokes 5 a time, and his ability to choose lines through the traffic to shorten the trip was astonishing. Man was that a ride! I thanked him profusely after dropping me at the Gare de L'Est (shown below) for such a great ride and gave him a hearty tip to show my appreciation. A nice side benefit of the spirited ride was it shook me out of my sleepy travel lethargy and I was ready to go! If there was ever a man born to be a GP racer it was this man - I tip my hat to you sir!

In the Rick Steves pictogram for the trip (above) it shows the route traveled by bus & us, and the days stayed in each location: 2 nights in the capital of Champagne at Reims, 2 nights in Colmar on the Alsatian Wine Route, 2 nights in the wine capital of Burgundy at Beaune, 2 nights at the foot of Mont Blanc in the French Alps at Chamonix, 3 nights in Pinot-Noir central at Vaison la Romaine, and 2 nights on the Mediterranean in the beautiful city of Nice.

Here's a few photos (below) from our first stop in Reims, France. Reims (pronounced like 'France' without the 'F') is the unofficial 'capital' of the Champagne province in France, and it is where the ancient Kings of France were crowned in the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Reims (the French equivalent of what Westminster Abbey is in the United Kingdom). These days Reims is home to many fine Champagne caves where you can go Champagne tasting (we did - wonderful!), some of them dating back to Roman times. Reims appears to be largely a college town these days, and is vibrant and full of life as a result. If you get to Paris it is a quick ride to Reims on the TGV bullet train, and it's well worth a visit for a day or two of sightseeing and Champagne tasting. Our group stayed at the Hotel Continental (below) in the downtown area that is right in the midst of all the activity of Reims. The staff at the Continental were perhaps the friendliest of all the Hotels that I stayed at in France - highly recommended.

Below are some typical restaurant and street scenes from the main street area of Reims. Would it be too obvious a pun to say that life just bubbled over everywhere?

I thought it was kind of weird that all the signs were in English, after all, France is rather ... ah ... well known for its preference for the French language and all, as they should be.

Below is a photo of the Reims Cathedral as seen from the art deco inspired Carnegie Library. Somehow I managed to have my Leica M9 set wrong - I'll blame it on jet lag - and it resulted in a rather surrealistic representation of the Cathedral. I kind of liked the result though, it almost looks painting-like.

In the photo below the Cathedral looks all prickly and edgy, and kind of spooky. Can you imagine a walk through the Cathedral at night with no lights? No doubt telling visitors ghost stories back in the day was a great source of entertainment for the priests. Or maybe not.

The smiling angels of Reims Cathedral.

This nice young lady (left) took us on a tour of the upper levels and roof of the Cathedral. The view of Reims from the top was amazing!

The narrow roof walkway went all around the periphery of the roof. Looks like it would have been ideal for pouring out boiling oil or whatever it was they used to defend it in ancient times.

In the Chamber of the Kings.

And there were giants on the Earth in those days ...

Every church used to have a bell, and the once from ancient times at Reims was a doozy!

The outside of the Cathedral was truly spectacular, but the inside was pretty fine. Lots of colors and textures for the photo bugs (like yours truly).

The faithful are still there ...

Lisa, Anne, and Jill checking out the inside of the church.

The Carnegie Library with Reims Cathedral in the background.

We did a little walk-about of Reims around our Hotel. There's a nice old Roman arch in the park.

Lots of quaint street scenes. I really like they way they do the trees and flowers to line the streets.

A few statues for your edification.

The Champagne caves: This really looked like we were going through the back door - hang on to your wallet!

Once inside things started to look up.

Now through the door down into the Champagne caves.

Now for some Champagne tasting! Martel really has some wonderful Champagnes, and this little tasting really opened my eyes to how many unique flavors Champagnes can have.