Chantilly Lace and a Pretty Face

We began our adventure by picking up our rental car at Charles de Gaulle airport. As anyone who has traveled to Europe from the United States knows, the first day can be a killer. We had a double whammy, no sleep and Joe's luggage turned up missing on a direct flight from Boston. Go figure! This caused a delay at the airport . We changed our plans at this point, opting to skip the visit to Auvers to see Vincent Van Gogh's grave and instead to head directly to Chantilly.

We had arranged a special visit with "La Joconde nue" and we didn't want to cause any wrinkles in our plans.

Chantilly turned out to be everything we had hoped and even more and by early afternoon we were back on the road heading to Reims. We got our first views of the magnificent cathedral as we approached it looking for the tourist office. I am always optimistic about finding our hotel in a city but when in doubt visit the tourist office. They were wonderful and had a great map and they are right along side the Cathedral, talk about your great locations.

Quick Tips:

Reims is a walkable city. There are some nice pedestrian zones and most of the places that you will want to visit are within walking distance of the Cathedral. We went to the Art Musuem and St Remi that first afternoon. Early the next morning we went to the Cathedral

and the Musee Tau which work very well together since the Museum is the former Archbishops Palace and has the room where the Kings of France would wait to be crowned.

We had hoped to do some banking as well on this our second morning. The Banque Lyonnaise is the only unfriendly bank we found on our whole trip. They would not exchange Francs for Euros, nor US Dollars or even cash our Euro Travelers Checks. Only for customers and this after a 20 minute wait. This year was the first time I had a real problem using travelers checks even though they were in Euro's. Almost nobody would take them.

Best Way To Get Around:

Driving was wonderful in this part of France. The motorways were almost all toll roads and it soon became obvious that the French prefer not to pay tolls because we never had any traffic problems. Reims was a very easy city to walk. We saw almost no taxis and the buses were always crowded and had destinations that we didn't recognize so we opted to walk. There was on street parking available but the machines sold tickets for no more than 2 hours so you have to keep going back to feed the machine. We used our hotel parking for and since check out wasn't until noon we used the morning to finish up our touring.

This hotel is a Best Western and I chose it for its central location. It was not as close to the Cathedral as I had thought but it was within an easy walk.

The hotel has its own parking garage under the hotel and as in most cities you pay to park there. There was street parking right in front of the hotel but the pay and display machine had a maximum of 2 hours. The police were vigilant in ticketing this area so we opted to park in the garage.

Our room was a standard chain room, clean and efficient but not too charming. The lights in the room only turn on with the room key in the switch. Great way to save electricity. You can't leave the room with your key and leave the lights on. We had a table with 2 chairs, a good firm mattress, feather pillows, extra pillows in the closet, TV with CNN and BBC, minibar and plenty of drawer space. The bathroom had a nice deep tub with a shower and there was a blowdryer. The bedroom had plenty of good reading light.

Breakfast was not included but we ate there anyway. They offer a good buffet, eggs, bacon, 3 cold cereals, fruit cocktail, applesauce, yogurt, 3 kinds of juice, coffee, tea and hot chocolate. There were croissants and baguettes as well as bread. The breakfast room is bright and cheery and overlooks a church yard as well as the outdoor pool.

The price here was good and the service was excellent. The people at the reception desk were freindly and answered all our questions in English. This is a good choice if charm is not a necessity but good value is.

This restaurant has an entrance from our hotel lobby even though the main entrance is on the square around the corner. The desk staff at our hotel recommended it to us. It was a little taste of later days of our trip since the food was Alsacian and German. The decor is also German, dark wood and rich colors. They are also well known for their shell fish and the windows are filled with large platters filled with clams, mussels, oysters and shrimp. We watch people have huge plates of the shellfush delivered but opted for other choices.

I started my meal with Soupe a l'oignon grantinee, my favorite onion soup with the thickest layer of cheese that I have ever gotten. Al was delighted since I usually give him the cheese. It was very good soup and the serving was generous.

The men had Alsacian salads as their appetizers and they were lettuce and savoy cabbage with ham and cheese sticks served with a dijon vinagrette. Very tasty.

My main course was Tartiflette Alsacienne which was a potato casserole with ham in it. It tasted a lot like potatoes au gratin. It was served with a side salad with the dijon dressing. It was heavy and quite rich. But after walking around all day with no food I was ready for rich and heavy.

The men all had Entrecote Grille with frites- steak and fries. They seemed quite happy even though they all agree that beef has a very different taste outside the States. We had German beer and wine and totally enjoyed ourselves. Our waiter didn't speak English but we managed to communicate none the less.

For dessert we all had creme brulee and decaf and headed off for our first sleep in 30 hours with contented smiles on our face.

Twenty six Kings of France were crowned in this Cathedral over its 800 year history, the most famous being King Charles VII whose coronation is due largely to the persistence of his greatest supporter St Joan of Arc. Her statue dominates the plaza in front of the Cathedral.

Greatly damaged in World War War I it has been restored to its former glory, though it took all of twenty years. Luckily, it was virtually untouched during the Second World War. Many of the statues that were removed from the facade because of damage are now housed next door in the Palais du Tau ,the former Archbishops Palace, which is now a museum.

The history is tangible as you walk through this Cathedral. It surrounds you at every turn. Yet the present is very much here as well. As you turn and face the entrance of the Cathedral you are wowed by the wonderful rose windows, one above the other but as you walk behind the altar the Marc Chagall windows are almost as beautiful in their stark simplicity.

Its a beautiful combination of yesterday and today harmoniously blended into an impressive whole.

Take time to really enjoy the wonderful staues on the facade. Try to find your favorite saint or the famous smiling angel. See if you can identify the Annunciation grouping or the Last Judgement.

After a visit to the Cathedral, a stop at the Palais du Tau is a natural conclusion. Here there are rooms with the remains of the destroyed statues from the Cathedral as well as the piece of the True Cross said to have belonged to Charlemagne. Another of their treasures is the coronation robes of King Charles X and the Dauphin.

The Cathedral has a gift shop with religious items and guide books. The Palais du Tau has a much more extensive shop with lots of interesting items. I have to admit I spent way too much time there buying toys for my grandchildren.

Both of these sites can be easily visited in a morning. The Cathedral is free, the Palais was 5 Euros I think. (Joe paid for all of us to get in while we were browsing in the gift shop which explains why I'm not sure about the price.)

The Musee opens at 10:30am. They had to open the gate for us and it was no ordinary gate. It was a portcullis like you see in a castle and they hauled it up. I was impressed! Part of our visit included a personal viewing of the Leonardo da Vinci drawing that the musee owns but doesn't display because of it's fragile condition. We had faxed a request weeks in advance and had been sent a letter to present on arrival. We decided that we would visit the musee first, then the Leonardo and then tour the private apartments. The collection here is a credit to the Duke of Aumale. He had the great chateau rebuilt to house the collection that he had amassed. His ancestor Prince Louis Joseph had managed to get some of the chateau's works of art returned in 1815 and in 1886 the Duke of Aumale donated the chateau to the Institut of France subject to a life tenancy, with the stipulation that it be a museum open to the public.

The picture gallery has wonderful overhead windows to allow natural lighting and the arrangement of the pictures is as the Duke desired in his will. One of the amazing things about the museum is that it can't loan it's works and the pictures have to stay where they are placed, so, you get an unique view of what a 19th century art gallery looked like. Among the pictures in this room are two large portraits of those masters of intrigue Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin , both very impressive. There are also 4 Poussins and a portrait of Louis XV.

There are way too many great paintings in this collection to recount them all but aside from the Louvre , the Musee Conde is the only musee to own 3 Raphaels. That alone speaks for itself. Come prepared to be amazed, you won't be disappointed.

Now to our BIG adventure. We presented our letter and were escorted into the private library where a covered package was set on a table with a pile of white cotton gloves. The young man spoke only French but I translated and told everyone that we were allowed to handle the picture but only with the gloves on. Can you imagine holding a large Leonardo da Vinci in your hands? Well we did, and it was unbelievable!!! We just stared. She is so beautiful, she is called the naked Mona Lisa. Her hair is up, not down but it is definitely the same woman, sans clothing. I think it was one of the high points of my entire life. We felt it would be in really poor taste to try to photograph her after they had been so nice as to leave us alone with the picture for as long as we wanted. I think we suprised him by how short a time we stayed but we were just there to admire this amazing work.

The private apartments can only be visited on a tour and the tours are conducted in French, but even if you don't understand (which in our group 3 out of 4 didn't) you can still enjoy the beautiful furniture and personal items of the Duc D'aumale. The staff here was very nice, they came looking for us in the Chapel to tell us that the tour was beginning and did we want to join it. Since they did this at 12:00 it was very lucky that we were able to do the tour since the museum closes at 12:45 until 2pm. The tour began in the guardroom and there was a very nice Van Dyke portrait in the room. We were taken through several rooms while our guide recounted amusing little stories about the house and the family. I was just too tired at this point to write down all that he told us but I remember that he told a few very funny stories.

Among the rooms that I remember are the Monkey room which has some beautiful gold and white panels on the wall with chinoiserie and moneys in the design. There is a set of chairs in this room that belonged to Marie Antoinette and were in her bathroom at Versailles. The last room on the tour has been made into almost a shrine to the sons of the Duc D'aumale who died as young men. The furniture throughout is striking.

The Library which can be visited without the tour is a must see. It has some of the finest illuminated manuscripts in the world. One, the "Tres Riches Heures du Duc du Berry" is a real treasure.

The chapel has the heart of the Grande Conde.

Throughout the Chateau you will see the letters H & O entwined, this stands for Henri Orleans, the Duc D'aumale. There is a very nice gift shop and a restaurant at the Chateau. Also the stables have been turned into the Grand Museum of the Horse, and these are not like any stables you have ever seen.

The entrance here is stunning. As you look up the staircase you are greeted by the portrait of King Louis XV.

This is a former abbey, and in one area you can see that excavations have revealed the early floor tiles. The pediment on the front of the museum was built in the 18th century after a fire destroyed the original. Check out the picture of Joe doing his royal wave.

The Tapestry room has a set of 10 tapestries depicting the story of the life of St Remi. In case you don't know, St. Remi baptized Clovis here and thus brought Christianity to France. The chapel where St. Remi was buried was built by the Church.

This is a history and archeological museum and there are exhibits from Paleolithic and Neolithic times. There is a Neolithic grave of a young man from 4500BC along with a miniature diorama of what his village would have looked like. There are several other dioramas in this room covering all aspects of life in this time period.

The rooms keep getting more current as you move through the Roman occupation. There is a lot of Gallo-Roman glass which is amazing when you realize it was made around 300AD. The men really liked the military room with guns, uniforms, and implements of war.

My favorite was the musicians' sculptures that used to adorn the exterior of a house on the Rue Tambour. They are beautiful, and the fact that they were saved after the house was destroyed in the World War I bombing is amazing. There are photos along with the statues showing the destruction that the bombing caused. The beauty of Reims today is a testament to the desire of its residents to rebuild.

The beautiful Church of St Remi was closed. We were very disappointed, but there was scaffolding around parts of it so it appears that they are in the midsts of renovations. This gives us a good reason to return to Reims, as if we needed one!

Located in the former St. Denis Abbey, this museum is renowned for its collection of 12 Cranach portraits and also for over 20 Corot landscapes. We visited here first and bought a combination ticket which got us into the St Remi Museum as well as the Art Museum. The street level gallery has the Corot landscapes as well as cases of Faience and other ceramics and pottery. The stairs leading to the second floor are a work of art themselves with their beautiful banister.

On the second floor the Cranach portraits are all in one room. Another room has the Life of Christ in Peinture Toile which is painting on cloth. The placement of pictures in this museum is attractive. One room though, where they have the Dutch paintings has a portable stand in the middle of the room holding paintings which was distracting. I found corners of the museum very photogenic. There was one with a case of Daum and Galle vases backed by some oil paintings. Another was a case of pastoral figureines after the manner of Boucher which were made in Strasbourg. I really loved a Philippe de Champagne portrait of the Habart children which is very reminiscent of Van Dyke's children of Charles I.

There is a beautiful little Renoir, maybe 2 inches by 4 inches, called "Le lecture du role", Pizarro's "L'Avenue L'Opera" with that hazy yellow look he often has, and a horribly gruesome "Death of Marat" by Louis David. Just our luck their Gaugan is on loan to the Chicago Art Institute. This is a nice small museum, just enough to keep your interest without being too much.