Reims

After dealing with a day in rainy Paris, we opted for a day trip to Reims, about 80 miles northeast of Paris.  It was a cloudy day, but thankfully, it was dry.

We came to see Notre-Dame de Reims. 

The current cathedral dates back to the 13th century, which was built on the site of the original cathedral, dating back to c.400.  Amazing!

Unfortunately, the cathedral did sustain damage during World War I, but efforts to repair the cathedral began following the war and still continue today.

We also visited the Saint Remi Basilica and Museum before heading back to Paris.  It's not a popular tourist site, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

It wasn't raining when we returned to Paris, so we decided to make our obligatory trip to the Eiffel Tower.  We skipped the ride to the top since we've done it before.  I was a little disappointed in the pictures I was getting, until I switched them to black and white.

The first floor is being redesigned, so right now there is some narrow scaffolding at the base that I removed with Photoshop.  Five years ago, we were in Paris during the Rugby World Cup, so there was an ugly sponsor's blimp in all our Eiffel Tower pictures.  Ugh.

A young couple asked us to take their picture, so we asked him to return the favor.  He snapped the photo with the tower growing out of my head.  Thanks a lot.

We strolled back toward the Louvre for some evening shots of the pyramid and kept on walking until we reached Notre Dame.  It was a long walk.

Once again, we've been to Notre Dame before, so it really wasn't on our list of things to see again.  But we recalled that there were decent free public toilets just outside the cathedral. 

Yeah, we went to Notre Dame to use the loo.  And we got some fantastic photos of Notre Dame at night.

However, the toilets are closed in the evenings.


Coming next...To Chartes to see another cathedral.