Reims, no Reims... isn't that what I said?

So I need to stop setting deadlines for myself and saying I am going to finish things/write things by certain days, because obviously I fail at doing so every time. hence why this blog is 3 days later than I expected. Oops sorry! I also apologize for such a boring blog last time! I have decided I am going to add more pictures in to my blogs to make them less tedious (but longer hehe!) And believe me, this is going to be a long blog!

This weekend I went to Reims a.k.a Champagne Country!! How does one pronounce the city of Reims, one might ask. Well it is definitely not REMS, as in Rapid Eyey Movement when you sleep, as I thought and said, and got confused looks from my host family. It is in fact pronounced as REHS, but put as much as a French nasal sound to the vowel as you can. Yeah it isn't easy is it? Thus, started a whole day of making jokes about the name, and trying to say it, and Beth trying to correct us every time, bless her heart. Four of us decided to take the TGV, which is a very fast train that goes all around France, 5 others decided to rent a car and drive to Reims. We got their in 45 minutes, they kind of got there in an hour and 15 minutes, but got super lost in the city of Reims, so it was quite an adventure trying to locate them! While waiting for them we turned a corner and BAM there was a beautiful church. Now, at the time we are in the Reims ghetto...literally the ghetto. Ghetto Reims is to the left of the train tracks, and nice Reims is to the right down aways. We thought the Ghetto Reims was the real one, so at first we obviously though this beautiful church was the famed Notre-Dame de Reims, where almost all of the Kings of France were crowned. However, when we went inside, it was super small, but had the most vibrant and beautiful stained glass!

I have never seen stained glass with the colors that were used in these windows. The blues were so blue, the reds so red. You cannot really see from this image, but they were amazing. They lit up the church. Now, notice how I said church. Well, as I stated, it was super, super small. I could not imagine kings getting crowned here, because I doubt there servants or their court could all fit in this place! Notre-Dame de Paris, is gigantic, one would think the Notre-Dame de Reims would be too. Well, as we left the church, we noticed a sign that said "L'eglise de Saint-Thomas" or "The Church of Saint Thomas." OOPS! All four us, Beth, Colie, Krista, and I missed this sign completely - we are so observant. It was still a pretty cool church though! After, we decided to ask for directions to get to G.H. Martel - our first "Maison de Champagne" that we were visiting. Beth and I went into a bank to ask for help, and Colie and Krista went to a Century 21 (they have those here too!) Colie and krista ended up getting directions to a entirely different Maison, so after figuring out we got the right directions, we hopped on the bus (for free, oops!) and found the first Maison.

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G.H. Martel was the first Maison we went to. We were so excited to find the place that we of course took a picture with the sign! They took us into the Champagne Caves (see photo above) but first we watched a video all about Champagne. They then took us through the caves and explained how they make their champagne. It was hard to follow, because we were over-achievers and booked the tour in French, so we definitely didn't know a lot of the terminology, but that is ok! And of course the best part of the tour was the Champagne tasting!! (sorry mom & dad!) we tried 3 different types of Champagne -they were ok. I have had better before.

After G.H. Martel, we went to get lunch, but first we FINALLY saw the real Notre Dame Cathedral de Reims! Yes, I promise you it was the real thing this time. It was huge, pretty, and looked very similar to Notre Dame de Paris.
C'est moi in front of Notre Dame de Reims. It was very big

inside and definitely suited for a king. It gave me chills that I was walking where the Kings and Queens of the past walked and were once crowned. I was in absolute awe. It is just crazy to think about it. i am such a nerd, I know, but we were all a little shell-shocked at the fact we were walking the same path past leaders had. What was also really neat was there was someone playing the organ the day we visited! It was HUGE! And it just added to the whole effect of being at the cathedral where history happened. I was waiting for Phantom of the Opera (hehe) music to play but alas, it did not. After visit Notre Dame, de Reims, we decided to get lunch and go shopping! Lunch was not so good - I got pizza bread with crevattes a.k.a little tiny pieces of shrimp. After what happened to me on the plane I cannot eat itty bitty tiny shrimp anymore. I survived, but barely. After shopping we walked to the next Maison, Le Pommery. It. Was. Enormous. it had a castle basically on the property. It is a super famous Maison in Paris.

Because this is a very famous Maison in Paris, it was also kind of pricey for the tour. And the tour was BIZARRE. It started off just like the other tour, but in the rooms in the caves there were weird things like a pink champagne dress from the 1970's on display, and another room had giant rocket thing, and another with a car that looked like a dust vac. We were so confused, and ended making up our own stories about why these were in there. OH how could I forget. There was a room with like 500 jars of Nutella just wrapped and on display. WHAT A WASTE OF NUTELLA. We wanted to steal some, but don't worry we didn't! After the tour we got one, yes only one :( , glass of Champagne, and it was sooo good. Then it was time to say goodbye to the 5 girls who were staying in Reims overnight to go to more Maisons the next day, while Colie, Krista, Beth and I ran to pick something up to eat before our train ride. What did us 4 American girls pick for dinner? Domino's. Of course! They have that here too...and KFC...go figure. We got 2 pizza's and 1.5 liter of something to drink then ran to the train. Let me tell you, it was the funnest train ride ever! I think we were all slap happy after being up since 6am, because we were cracking jokes, singing songs from "The Prince of Egypt" (I still have no idea how this was brought up...) and laughing hysterically the entire time. (no we were not drunk :-P ) It was a great way to end a crazy day! But, we didn't want to leave each other's company quite yet, so we decided to go to a cafe to get something to drink. The first place was a NO-GO! The owners had no teeth and were super creepy, so we ran out of there, and found a super cute cafe which served us the best hot chocolate ever. I am definitely going back!

Sunday was an AMAZING day! I met up with my friend Courtney from University of Illinois who is in the IFE program here in Paris. It is an internship/school program. We decided to visit Le Marais, which is the Jewish quarter in Paris. It. Was. Awesome. Most things are closed on Sunday in France, but Le Marais is a hopping place because their "Sabbath" day or "Shabot" = Saturday in Hebrew, and everything is closed Saturday. It was absolutely packed! We passed loads of bakeries with Challah bread and...ready for it...drum roll.... BAGELS AND CREAM CHEESE! I wanted a bagel sooo bad, but alas I did not get one. There are also a ton of falafel places, including the falafel place where supposedly Lenny Kravits owns the apartment above it/or around it, because he thinks it is the best falafel place in the world! Very cool! Courtney and I became hungry shortly so we decided to go to the restaurant. It was so cute! it has been around since the 1870's (woah!) so the inside is still the old stone wall that it was originally built in. It looked like we were inside a castle. This was a 3 course meal

we started off with Potage du Chef, our soup of the chef, and it was the most delicious vegetable puree soup! So tasty! Then my meal was chicken american style - still haven't figured that one out. Look at the picture on the right - doesn't it look delicious? It was amazing - the best chicken I have ever had! For desert, Courtney and I each had a fruit crumble. Overall it was one of the best meals I have had in France! Our gossiping wasn't over for the day so we decided to walk and find a cafe to sit in chat in, when we stumbled upon "La Perla" which is one of the VERY few Mexican food restaurants in Paris. The French do not like spicy food at all, so they definitely do not like Mexican, hence why it is so hard to find a Mexican Restaurant. We went in for a cocktail and some chips and salsa, and ended up talking until almost 9:30 o'clock. But, does our night stop there? No way jose!

She told me about this place called "Breakfast in America" that serves only American food and it was super close to where we were. Well, we just had to check it out! For being such a popular restaurant it is TINY! But it had a 50's diner flare to it. It was super cute, besides the fact we had to wait outside to be seated because it was so packed at that time of night. We finally got in, and almost died looking at the menu. Milkshakes, Rootbeer floats, hamburgers, chicken fingers, nachos, cheese fries, waffles, pancakes, BAGELS, bacon & scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, hot dogs etc. Everything American you could think. We were in heaven and we definitely splurged a little. We ordered chili nachos (!) to split, strawberry milkshakes, and I

ordered a cheeseburger with cheesefries and I LOADED on the French's yellow mustard (oh how I miss it!) on my burger. Courtney ordered a swiss patty melt with cheese fries. We were in heaven! This is a great place to go to when you are missing America and need some American food. All the waiters and waitresses are American our British, with flawless French accents (lucky ducks). It was like being at home away from home. I can probably go there once a month, just when I need a little piece of America. Next time I am for sure getting pancakes and A BAGEL! I miss bagels sooo much, but it is probably a good thing I haven't been eating bagels here, considering they are so unhealthy! Oh well!

Ok I promise this is finally the end, I am so behind in my blogs, sorry! I am going to be even MORE behind because Thursday I leave for SWEDEN!!! Soooo excited! Maybe I can blog Wednesday but we shall see. In the next blog I will tell about my crazy adventures at a fondue restaurant, wine served in baby bottles, and Rocky Horrow Picture SHow in France (Oh my!) Until then AU REVOIR!!