Reims
May 31-June 1, 2008

Scenes from Place Drouet d'erlon, a pedestrian drag, including a shot of the Hotel Bristol, where I was staying, taken from a café across the street. Interesting note: lasagna in France has ham in it (they pretty much try to get ham into everything in France). The Tokyo Café was even more interesting because none of the Japanese waiters spoke a word of Japanese, only French. So nobody knew, for instance, what "gyoza" was, and we had to find the item on the menu where they finally understood: "Oh...! Ravioli...!" (ravioli????) I had to take a picture of the rice cracker because I mistook it at first for a used washcloth. And then I took a picture later of my used washcloth next to it, so you'd see how easy it was to make this mistake (lol). Breakfast in Reims (pretty much anywhere in France) is a mountain of bread -- a baguette, a chocolate croissant, and a regular croissant, with coffee and jam and juice. Don't ask me why these people aren't as big as houses.

Had dinner with my friends in Reims. Emilie's boyfriend Alexander took the picture of me with Line, Emilie, and Delphine. I can hardly even describe the amount of food involved, or the cheese, Chablis, and champagne consumed. Fabulous food and wine, and the company was even better, but I swear all of these French people each have a hollow leg where they are stashing the goods. I couldn't keep up with them.

The following evening, went to a hip bar with Line called "82" -- it was all sleek aluminum fixtures and modern lighting and then saw Sex and the City in Reims -- dubbed in French. A little strange to have Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda all sound like the exact same French lady, and Charlotte's gay friend Anthony sound like a crabby French dude, but otherwise interesting all the same. The theater was packed with people -- guys and girls -- and P.S. the movie was not rated in France, so there were plenty of underage girls in the theater as well. Uh oh....I cringed during all the sex scenes, even if it WAS France.

Downtown Reims, where the famous Cathedral is located, with Joan of Arc nearby, and of course only the French could have a Tourist office located in such a nifty looking crumbly old building.

The train station, and a lady on the train whose little girl was sleeping on her and who looked a little like religious artwork herself.

The train took me back to Paris where I would be able to spend three more days before going back home.