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!

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.

Reims

Yesterday I left Paris to go to Reims. When I looked at a train schedule, I had my hopes of traveling around France dashed by realizing the TGV actually takes about 8 hours for most of the trips! So I'm just heading east at this point, and tomorrow I'll go to Strasbourg, where there is an organ that Mozart played upon.

Reims is in the Champagne region; later today I'm going to visit a champagne cave. It also seems to be a big beer brewing town. I ate dinner last night at Les 3 Brasseurs, which is a microbrewery. Their beer isn't outstanding by the standards of American microbrewing, but it is a worthy effort. The food was the best (and most decadent) I've had yet in France: I had a "Welsh", which it turns out is Welsh rarebit on bread with ham and an egg!

Reims also has a gigantic beautiful cathedral. It's without doubt the best church I've seen yet. I think you could probably line up my apartment structure 3 times and fit it inside this church with plenty of spare room (and more room on top!)

I really prefer the small towns to Paris. They're cleaner, a bit cheaper, the people are much nicer, and they're less touristy. And yet all the good points of Paris are still here: French tradition, beautiful architecture, etc.

I thought I'd have more time to blog when I got done with the academy, but it turns out that being a tourist is just as busy! You really have to fit in as much sight-seeing and activities as possible. So I'll have more pictures eventually, but for now I just don't have the time (or energy) to edit and upload them - maybe I can take care of that on the train tomorrow.

Paris Churches

What is there to say on my 3rd night in Paris? Perhaps too much. I'm in one of the most celebrated vacation attractions in the world right now. I think I'll perhaps share a bit of themed travel advice to accompany some pictures.

My advice is to see the small churches of Paris. Notre Dame was underwhelming for me. Perhaps it's from being in massive Dutch churches for the past few weeks, or my dislike of tourists, but it really didn't do much for me, aside from the organ playing. Speaking of which, I did get to go to the loft and watch the titulaire organist improvise the Mass, which was incredible! Volumes have been spilled about his talent. But I'm staying near some wonderful churches in the Latin Quarter, and I highly recommend that anyone visiting Paris avoid the long lines and poor comportment of the crowds at Notre Dame and look for a church in their neighborhood. Here's a few I've seen so far - I've decided to forego editing and just post the raw photos:


Ok, it's kinda big...


Waiting in line... if you know me, you know that I despise waiting in lines. This was by the time I got halfway through the line.


The only part worth the wait! ...ok, the choir organ was cool too.


This was the most exciting part: seeing the original Cavaille-Coll console!!!

St. Severin

This is a beautiful church dating in part from the 14th century. I discovered this church while wandering the Latin Quarter. It's right in the middle of all the restaurants.




In Europe or the US, I walk into any church backwards so that I can see the organ!




I was reminded of the old quote from Luther, something about there being enough finger bones of St. John the Baptist in Germany to build a new cathedral.

St. Nicolas-du-Chardonnet

This church is in fact across the street from my hotel! After exploring for a while (and noticing an absence of a Low Altar), I realized this church is run by the schismatic Catholic group SSPX. There were 3 organs that I counted; a grand orgue, choir organ, and for some reason an Allen electronic organ.




An obscured view (I had to rest my camera on something to keep it steady) of the choir organ.


The priest was preparing for a Requiem Mass; you may notice the black altar dressings.

St. Germain-des-Pres




It has really beautiful stained glass!


The case strikes me as Germanic, but this is a French Classic organ.


I've developed an unhealthy fixation with choir organs.

I have many more photos, but I thought a general photo dump with some background would keep people happy. Au revoir!