Expat Postcards: Reims

Friday, November 4, 2011

Return of the Redneck

Long-time readers of this blog will remember my awesome friend Mrs Redneck, star of such posts as Charming Chartres, Vincennes with the Rednecks and the ever-popular Reims with the Rednecks. Well, she had the nerve to abandon me and move back to the States in January but at least she came back for a visit in September. And since I arranged my schedule so that I didn't have to work while she was here, and since Mrs Redneck is a big fan of the "well, you'll sleep enough when you're dead" philosophy of travel, we were slightly busy while she was here. To wit, this is what we did in one week:

Two chateaux
Two parks
Three cemeteries
Three cathedrals
Four events
Five museums
Seven restaurants
Eighteen cafés

Not to mention about 8000 miles of walking (slight exaggeration) and taking 1,113 photos (no exaggeration at all, I just counted). Which is the reason why I haven't managed to get around to writing about it - I'm still sifting through all those photos. But it's all coming soon...

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Reims with the Rednecks

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Reims with Mr and Mrs Redneck. We didn't know much about champagne (other than how to drink it, which we are all very, very good at), so where better to find out about it than in Reims, the champagne capital of France, and therefore the world? So we set off for a day of sightseeing (Reims cathedral and the Basilica St-Remi), education (touring a champagne house), and general merriment (the drinking of many samples of champagne). In fact, our merriment factor was cranked up so far by the end of the day that we just had to keep it up on our train journey back to Paris. We had planned to visit the bar car, but it was closed - and there we were, with a bottle of champagne that the Rednecks had purchased. So, since it was an emergency, naturally we popped the cork and drank the champagne straight from the bottle (much to the disgust of the French people around us on the train). Oh yeah, you just don't get much classier than that... Anyway, some photos from the day. Enjoy!