Kevin & Milly arrived in Paris at 06:40.  We thought they would need the same time as us to get through the custom, baggage etc, which was more than 1 hour.  We planned to start heading to the airport at 7am and turned out to be 7:30am.  By the time we got to Terminal 1, they were already waiting for more than 30 minutes!

They were not hungry, as Qatar Airways fed them well on the plane :).... so we headed immediately off Reims (150km drive).  We arrived at around 10am.  It was drizzling and it was a Sunday.  All shops were closed and the town was extremely quiet.  There was nothing much to do except touring around so we thought we might eat something first.  We went to the only diner which was open - McDonald!

I took the GPS to guide us through the attractions around and we found ourselves in front of great Notre Dame de Reims!  The cathedral was built (1211-1311) in Reims on the traditional coronation site of the kings of France, is one of the greatest monuments of Gothic art and architecture.  She was badly damaged during World War I, has been restored and stabilized (1918-37).  From Louis VIII to Charles X, 24 kings of  France were crowned here.  Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, the former Abbey of Saint-Remi, and the Palace of Tau were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1991.

We further walked around the city centre and then left at around noon.  We headed for our 1st B&B, Alain Lallement, as our host said she and her family needed to go out early so if we could check in before 12:30pm and then we could further do our tour.  We drove to Verzy (21km) and met our host before 12:30pm.  And we all were enchanted by the house. 

After settling all our baggages, we drove again to Epernay (30km), another champagne city.  It was still drizzling and cold.  Our host had suggested us to have dinner in Epernay as it's a Sunday, almost all diners in Verzy were closed!  So we picked one and had our late lunch/early dinner, that was around 3pm.  And all French dining takes at least 2-3 hours, by the time we finished our meal, it was almost 5pm.  We headed back to our B&B.

As not even Carrefour was open, we eventually picked up a bottle of red from a grocery shop we saw on our way back.  Julie picked up 2 cans of 'something' which she thought was vermicelli just in case we would be hungry at night. (We later found out it was called choucroute which is shredded pickled cabbage.  Although it  is a traditionally German and Eastern European dish, the French annexation of Alsace and Lorraine following the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 brought this dish to the attention of French chefs and it has since been widely adopted in France.)

We drank the red at around at most 7pm and then we went to sleep as especially Kevin & Milly, it was their 1st night after the long 16 hour flight (including transit). 

• Home • Up • Day 0 & 1 • Day 2 • Day 3 • Day 4 • Day 5 • Day 6 • Day 7 • Day 8 •

[08 France Album] [08 France Trip Video] [08 France Trip Journal]