Reims rhymes with....

Here's some pictures from Reims. I enjoyed it very much; it's very much a party town and a beer town. I went to a microbrewery (as mentioned before) and met some nice British women who told me that going to France is just something the Brits do for a weekend trip! Must be nice, although I wouldn't give up "up north" for anything.

The prime attraction, to me, of Reims, nay, all of France, is the mighty Reims Cathedral...


Count 'em. Not one, but four rose windows. You can't imagine how huge this place is.


Close-up of one of the smaller rose windows


Detail of the flying buttresses. Hehe. Buttress.


The organ, in the French classic tradition. It has a spectacular statue of Christ on top of the middle pedal tower.


The great American capitalist Andrew Carnegie built a library in Reims.

I went on a champagne tour:


This kept me occupied for about an hour and a half.


Different sizes of champagne bottles, excluding the Nebuchadnezzar, which holds 24 regular bottles' worth


Quickly, Robin! To the Champagnemobile! 25 km of Champagne cellars...


I didn't realize it until I got home and checked my guidebook, but this is an ancient Roman doorway to the city that still stands!

And tomorrow I leave France for Germany. I can't say I liked France as much as Holland... the people are MUCH worse at English than the Dutch; they have more silly rules on etiquette (vous/tu) but ignore common-sense ideas (don't use your cell phone at dinner, clean up dog leavings, respect for bicyclists). And yet, as much as I'm ready to move on to elsewhere, I'm sad that Recklinghausen will be the last leg of my trip!

Playing at Caen

This is some pretty bad playing, but this organ (and the space) took some getting used to! Obviously the audio can't best capture the sound of this organ, but you get some idea of how incredible it is. You can at least tell it's Cavaille-Coll...

Caen, Part II

Caen is a very nice small town in Normandy. Despite its size, it still has quite a bit of shopping and many beautiful churches. It was pretty much completely destroyed during WWII, and rebuilt itself after the war. Normandy is known for its apples, and in fact is not a wine-producing region of any import. It does, however, produce apple brandy and hard cider. Calvados is a tasty apple brandy produced there, and I also picked up some fortified cider, which I haven't yet gotten around to drinking. It seemed like most of the organs were "pas interessante", as my guide told me, and they were probably all built after the war - not a good time for European organ building! I took pictures of all the churches I visited, but here's a few highlights from the trip:


Caen has a castle.


Jail in the castle


St. Peter church in Caen, seen from the castle tower


The church is getting restored to its original color; I think it's quite beautiful!


Statue of St. Joan of Arc

couple cities behind in posting...

I've just arrived at a surprisingly nice hotel in Strasbourg. I have a very nice view of the market outside, although the room is terribly tiny. I thought I'd get around to some pictures from my visit of Caen and playing the organ at the ancient L'Abbaye aux Hommes. Since then I've also been back to Paris, to Reims, and now Strasbourg, but I'm trying not to leave anything out! I have more from Caen that I'd like to share, but it'll wait until later because the Cathedral museum here in Strasbourg closes at 6 PM.


The abbey seems to be next to the town hall or something. It has a lovely garden. The church is built out of a special stone available only in Caen.




The Cavaille-Coll organ, finished in 1885, making it one century and one month older than myself. Cavaille-Coll was one of the greatest organ builders anywhere. His instruments have defined French music since the late 19th century. This organ was restored recently to the original specification, and impressed me more than any other instrument I've played!


At the console, with my tres a la mode t-shirt I bought at a French department store.




The grave of William the Conquerer is directly in front of the High Altar.