PALAIS DU TAU A REIMS

Saturday, April 18, 2009
A tour of De La Cathedrale Notre Dame De Reims…………What a day this has been…… to begin with we were brave enough to use the super highways all the way from Beaune to Reims…. Not a good day for driving as we had rain, fog and a tiny bit of sunshine for a short time. We only had problems when we took the wrong turn for our hotel and ended up in the middle of massive street construction in downtown Reims. It took a while but through trial and error we did find our Formule One located on the edge of the nearby town of Tinqueux. We had serious thoughts of using public transportation to go back into Reims but the hotel clerk said, that since we did not speak French it would be best if we returned to the Cathedral by car….. according to him we should not have any more problems if we just took the #24 exit of the A4…… he was right… we drove right to the Cathedral and parked on the street leading right up to the front door.

La Cathedrale Notre Dame De Reims is a Cathedral for the anointing of Kings, Rheims was, for a millennium, one of the most important places in French history. Built largely in the 13th century and completed in the 15th century, this historic building is a masterpiece of Gothic art, remarkable both for the architecture and for its statuary. This church suffered heavy damage during WWI and limited damage from WW2 but it is today’s air pollution that is causing the biggest problems for the restored church and its statuary. Many of the beautiful stain glass windows are from the 12th century as they were removed and stored during the war years. The Society of Friends of the Cathedral of Rheims has made it its goal to complete the glass-stained windows, which illuminate the inside of the cathedral, wherever they are missing. In 1975 the artist Marc Chagall (this is the above picture)
Completed a set of stained-glass windows behind the main altar area of the church. As we had toured his museum in Nice earlier during our trip, I was especially fascinated by these windows and the stories that they related to from the bible. In fact, for the first time on our trip I purchased a book on this church and another on Marc Chagall’s windows.

As it was still raining when we left the Cathedral we elected to call it a day and go back to our hotel….. we got all turned around and after a frustrating time of trying to find our way we were glad to see the A4 sign …. Yes, we finally made it home after stopping for a bottle of wine and a Big Mac’s to share tonight for dinner. Tomorrow we will be leaving early so we can get through Paris while the traffic is hopefully light on a Sunday morning.