This post is part five of a series describing a recent visit my son Alex and I made to Belgium and France. In my first four posts I described our several days in Brussels, Ypres, the Somme, and Amiens. In this post I discuss our visit to Reims (also known as Rheims.)
After several days basking in the silky, languorous gold and green landscape of Ypres, the Somme and Amiens, a landscape painted again and again by artists of every stripe, our drive to Reims proved a bit disorienting. It almost felt as if the crayonists forgot what they came for and neglected to sketch that part, a tour through "Unpainted France: The Neglected Corners."
That being said, many interesting sights and gustatory delights awaited. First stop, for lunch at Saint Quentin, did not disappoint.
That being said, many interesting sights and gustatory delights awaited. First stop, for lunch at Saint Quentin, did not disappoint.
Hunting for lunch. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Four noble cheeses in a case at a Carrefour. Photo by Alex Mawyer.
But before lunch, we visited the medieval Basilica of Saint Quentin. Saint Quentin sits squarely atop a high point, predictably obscuring the original Neolithic fort and Roman castrum. As the first photo above shows, we parked blocks short of the Grand Place and then found ourselves wandering uphill.
There is an interesting explanation for the location of the Basilica of Saint Quentin on the exact summit of town: presumably the oxen carrying the corpse of the saint, who had been murdered on the way to Reims, from village to village stopped on that exact spot. This would have been late in the third century.
There is an interesting explanation for the location of the Basilica of Saint Quentin on the exact summit of town: presumably the oxen carrying the corpse of the saint, who had been murdered on the way to Reims, from village to village stopped on that exact spot. This would have been late in the third century.
Basilica of Saint Quentin. Facade under repair. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
The basilica has a great selection of bones to look at, a fine maze, a lot of early painting, and in retrospect may be my favorite of the cathedrals and basilicas we saw on this trip — although this is a humble claim because ours was a fast tour — we either did not find or were unable to explore quite a large number of cathedrals and basilicas, each with its own treasures and magic.
Part of an earnest selection of the mortal remains of Saint Quentin. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Saint Quentin, the maze. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Saint Quentin: Pieces of basilica everywhere Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Pierre D’Estourmel and his daughter Adrienne. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
I contemplate moving into the basilica. Photo by Alex Mawyer.
Alex contemplates moving into the Hotel de Ville. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
We knew nothing of the history of Saint Quentin when we were there. Perhaps one might recommend that tourists not necessarily pay too much attention to the histories of all the places they visit. Straining the experience of a place through the mesh of past events is not the same as being there. Like Shanghai Lil, Saint Quentin has quite a past. But facts and histories are not really knowledge if one has no context for it.
Saint Quentin the town struck us as a great place to live, big enough but not too big, with neighborhood features of real interest. There was no evidence anyone in this town had deliberately set out to work themselves to death but all the shops were open. One can get a really good coffee within a block of the basilica. The post office is conveniently located. The local macaroons are quite special. No one appeared to care if everything I said came out in a hopeless mash of asyntactic French, Spanish, hoots and muttering mixed with American. Aside from the flower beds, much of the Grand Place had been converted into a tropical desert-themed playground, half Tahiti and half North Africa, complete with little sand dunes. As Alex said, the people of Saint Quentin obviously care a lot about children.
And so on to Reims, an important administrative center for Roman Gaul and then for Christian Gaul, and subsequently the ritual coronation venue for the kings of France. To call Reims the heart of the ancien regime would be no exaggeration. Getting the dauphin crowned here was the aim of Jeanne D’Arc’s quest, and no causes live longer or more vividly in point of imagination than lost causes.
Saint Quentin the town struck us as a great place to live, big enough but not too big, with neighborhood features of real interest. There was no evidence anyone in this town had deliberately set out to work themselves to death but all the shops were open. One can get a really good coffee within a block of the basilica. The post office is conveniently located. The local macaroons are quite special. No one appeared to care if everything I said came out in a hopeless mash of asyntactic French, Spanish, hoots and muttering mixed with American. Aside from the flower beds, much of the Grand Place had been converted into a tropical desert-themed playground, half Tahiti and half North Africa, complete with little sand dunes. As Alex said, the people of Saint Quentin obviously care a lot about children.
And so on to Reims, an important administrative center for Roman Gaul and then for Christian Gaul, and subsequently the ritual coronation venue for the kings of France. To call Reims the heart of the ancien regime would be no exaggeration. Getting the dauphin crowned here was the aim of Jeanne D’Arc’s quest, and no causes live longer or more vividly in point of imagination than lost causes.
Cathedral of Reims, Having a Makeover. Photo by Alex Mawyer.
The cathedral towers at Reims lack spires because the spires the cathedral builders designed were beyond their ability to erect. This outcome is not unique. There are a number of similar examples. I find them most evocative. In an earlier post I referred to Gothic architecture as crazed with ambition and I think that is a fair characterization. Cathedral builders erected structures at the outer limits of what they could imaginably achieve, and sometimes a bit beyond. Their motives were many, conscious and unconscious. Monumentalism is a species-wide impulse with examples from the Pyramids of Egypt to Angkor Wat by way of Tikal, New York, and Washington D.C. The gothic cathedrals are among the few that incorporate a sense of esthetic delicacy as part of their design, suggesting the arboreal weightlessness of the primordial forest. But this is an inside effect. It works inside the space. From outside, the great cathedrals cannot disguise their sheer mass. To drive this mass upward by arch and spire and reticulated finial after finial is less an attempt to fool the viewer’s eye than to gratify the builders’ passion for weightlessness. One wonders if beneath their vaulted and motionless heaven, their fixed sky, they dreamt of hanging their cathedrals like pendants by strands of finest gray-white limestone, as heavenly stalactites.
Reims Cathedral, lost in space. Photo by Alex Mawyer.
Light from darkness Photo by Alex Mawyer.
Treasures of the past. Photo by Alex Mawyer.
Amazing beasts. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Broken demons. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Awaiting restoration. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Hammered columns of spalled granite. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Reims Cathedral exhibits many galleries full of priceless debris, and apparently lies under perpetual reconstruction. We were amused to see several Volkswagen-sized sculptural elements made of fiberglass, light enough for three or four workmen to lift, being trundled to the façade as part of the restoration. This cathedral has been destroyed many times and for as many reasons as the builders had for putting it there. In olden days destruction was largely limited to what could be done by beating on it or setting fire to it and collapsing the roof. In modern times artillery proved more effective. A few old photos from the 1920 Michelin Guide make this shockingly clear.
The last photo is most telling. After changing hands a couple of times, Reims was in No Man’s Land for much of the Great War. Pushing the Germans out of artillery range of Reims was a prime objective of the French army. The battles for Reims did not subside until the success of the Aisne-Marne Offensive in 1918, which included large numbers of American troops fighting under French generals. Few if any of the U.S. troops fighting in the Aisne-Marne Offensive would have had any idea of the prehistory of that battle or its connection to the history of the cathedral.
Reims is also a hot spot for wine tours, particularly champagne tours. We seriously considered enlisting in one of these tours but a little research revealed that the tours are mainly headed off to Epernay, the veritable Mecca of champagne. The tours sounded great. For a not unreasonable sum one can be chauffeured by knowledgeable guides from estate cellar to estate cellar. But Epernay itself is replete with open tasting rooms, so a tour is not vital. All one really needs is a thirst. We set off for Epernay with thirsts whetted to a razor-keen edge, and that will be the subject of my next blog post.
Reims is also a hot spot for wine tours, particularly champagne tours. We seriously considered enlisting in one of these tours but a little research revealed that the tours are mainly headed off to Epernay, the veritable Mecca of champagne. The tours sounded great. For a not unreasonable sum one can be chauffeured by knowledgeable guides from estate cellar to estate cellar. But Epernay itself is replete with open tasting rooms, so a tour is not vital. All one really needs is a thirst. We set off for Epernay with thirsts whetted to a razor-keen edge, and that will be the subject of my next blog post.
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