A Toast to Wanderlust

One of the greatest pleasures of living in France is the ability, at any moment, and for a fairly reasonable price, to hop on a train and go FAR away. Being American, I'm not used to this, and the liberty that it offers never ceases to amaze me. Now don't get me wrong: I normally use a car in the States, and I can drive wherever I want to go. But it's not really affordable, it isn't as fast, and it just doesn't offer the excitement that a train journey does. When I was living in Atlanta, sometimes I would just get this overwhelming urge to get OUT of the city, with no easy, inexpensive way of doing so. In France, wanderlust is so much easier to satisfy.

A couple of weekends ago, I hopped on a train and took a journey across France - from the West, where I live, to the East, just near the German border - with a goal to ring in the New Year with my friend Rebekka.


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My destination, a five-hour car drive away from where I live, was the town of Reims, in the Champagne region of France. Dear Americans: this is where champagne REALLY comes from. And it's gooood. And, it won't give you a splitting, driving, pounding headache (does fake champagne do this to anyone else? Or is it just me?).

My personal goal while traveling is to look for inexpensive or, better yet, free attractions. This is why I'm always posting pictures of cathedrals. Reims was no exception: we definitely visited the cathedral, which is one of the most famous examples of high gothic architecture in France.

The interior looked quite different from any other cathedral I've seen: the inside wall at the entrance to the cathedral was covered with elaborate carvings done in wood.

In 1974, Russian artist Marc Chagall designed some of the windows for the cathedral, in his signature style.

We also happened upon the Musée Le Vergeur, and got in for a slick 3,50€ thanks to our student ID cards. This museum is housed in a huge, glorious old hôtel, which is a false cognate in English, meaning not hotel, but something along the lines of "enormous, grand home for the ridiculously wealthy aristocrat". It's the 18th-century French version of a McMansion. This place was pretty spectacular. The last owner of the home, a M. Kraft, never married, and left the entirety of the estate to the city of Reims after his death in the early 20th century. Judging by the collection of art, antiques, and exotic objects from his journeys to far-off places like Tajikistan, Mongolia, and Japan, he was quite an amazing fellow. There were antiques from every period of French royalty: from Louis XIII to Louis énième, and gigantic portraits covering three-quarters of a wall, of beautiful women dressed expensively and looking brilliant and smug. In the bathroom of one of the many rooms, there was an 18th-century bathtub, complete with a 19th-century urn (nearby) attached to some fancy copper pipework, that pumped hot water up from the kitchen downstairs. In a tiny parlor off the dining room, from which servants would bring hot dishes to the table, the walls were practically lined in royal invitations to dinners, parties, ceremonies... and just in case that wasn't enough to tempt you into a visit to the King's palace, each one included an elaborate and whimsical menu of exotic game and sweets, in anywhere from eight to fifteen courses, assuring that your RSVP wouldn't include any regrets. A roomful of Albrecht Durer woodcuts, a collection of antique dolls, a whole trove of jewelry from the far East, painted silks, and engravings of royal celebrations, such as the crowning of Napoleon in the Cathedral of Reims (proof that a whole entire neo-classical décor of stone columns, balconies, and arches was brought in and set up in the interior of the cathedral just for the occasion), added to the experience. This visit was worth every sou of that 3,50€.

In the evening, we headed to Compiègne, where we stayed at Rebekka's place, and then spent the next day in town (you can see Compiègne as well on the map above; it's just west of Reims). Compiègne boasts a large château where the Napoleons - both of them - spent holidays. I thoroughly enjoyed strolling about the immense and sprawling manicured grounds, which are now basically a public park, so gratuit.

We also visited another free attraction in Compiègne: you guessed it, another church, the local Elise St. Jacques.

Although it isn't a cathedral, it was beautiful nonetheless, with particularly unique stained glass windows depicting scenes from the royal history of France, and Joan of Arc's adventures in Compiègne.

No trip would be complete without tasting delicious food, especially in France; so Rebekka and I definitely partook of the local cuisines in both Reims and Compiègne. In Reims, we had lunch at Aux 3 Elus. I enjoyed a Suprême de poulet: roasted chicken in a cream sauce with morel mushrooms, served over a bed of pasta. In Compiègne, our café gourmands (and really, our whole meal at Le Saint Clair) were delicious, and the presentation was worthy of art, I thought:

For more photos of Reims and Compiègne, visit the album here:

Reims & Compiègne

*This post, and especially its title, is dedicated to my friend Rebekka, and would not have been possible without her having allowed me to borrow her camera, since I forgot my own. As a result, we were able to share pictures, and Rebekka has her own version of our trip over at WhimsicalWanderlust.