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After our walk back the center of Reims, we hit the room for a quick wardrobe change.  We decided to go to a seafood restaurant for our anniversary dinner.  The food looked good when we walked by the night before, and I can hardly resist the charms of Larry the Lobster walking around in a tank, blissfully unaware that he is about to be my dinner.  Okay, just kidding.  That sounds cruel.  I really prefer all lobster murdering to go on behind the scenes & I am the one that is blissfully unaware.  But thanks to Food, Inc. I no longer have that luxury…but that is a whole other blog post.

So, we are seated on the sidewalk and order our frosty beverages.  I really wanted a mojito, however nobody in Reims seemed to have heard of it.  Or maybe it was my Southern  pronounciation that was throwing them off.  You know how I say it:  mow-hee-toe.    They don’t call me the Geico pothole for nothin’, y’all.

Anyway, Brian placed his order with our server & tried to order a salad.   The server acted like he was crazy (how did he know?  does our reputation precede us, even in Europe?).  Through a series of hand gestures and charades, the waiter conveyed to us that Brian ordered a very large meal & a salad would be overkill.  We took his word for it…And when he brought this double decker plate set up to the table, we figured he probably did have a point:

And I went with the less epic, yet equally delicious:

After dinner we walked around for a bit, and treated ourselves to an ice cream cone.   We stopped at a few bars for a cocktail or four, but nothing really enticed us long enough to stay.  Plus we were pretty tired from the events of the day.  We headed back to our room & fell asleep in about 3.8 seconds, give or take a 0.1 second or two.

The next day we hit our favorite breakfast spot again.  The coffee was delish.

Then back to our room to pack up & check out.  Our train was not scheduled to leave Reims until 4 p.m & we were really all Reims’d out.  So we went to the train station & upgraded to a direct train that left at 11 a.m.  Double score!

Good bye, Reims!  Don’t forget to write!

So we loaded up & headed to the train station.  Guess what, Paris??  The Griswolds Phillips’ are baaaaaackkkk!

P.S.  If you are interested in reading more about our fabulous wedding, visit http://ashleeandbrian.weddingannouncer.com/

So after nearly a week in Paris, we embarked on yet another exciting adventure…going to Reims.  Reims is about an hour and ten minute train ride from Paris.  Our plan was to head to Reims today, hang out & get our bearings, then find out the best place to be for the Tour de France stage ending there the following day. 

And away we go!  Brian was not feeling the best.  I think our late night, plus the illness he battled for the majority of the trip, were taking a toll on him. 

We caught our subway from Tuileries to Gare du Nord train station.  It was a Twilight Zone-esque kind of place.  All sorts of strange birds were flying around, including actual birds, in a hurry.  We were unsure how long it would take to get to the train station & aboard our train, so we were actually very early.  At this point, I was really exhausted and tired of having to think so much.  My high school French was not nearly as good as I thought…thanks a lot, Madame Connell. 

Fortunately we were safe during our stay at the train station.  And this gives a whole new meaning to security guard:

Finally it was time to board our train.  In fact, we nearly missed it.  We did not realize that the destination screens displayed only the final destinations…since we had a connector train (more on this later), it did not show our destination on screen.

After we settled in for a long winter’s nap for our train ride, Brian took a much needed siesta, and I attempted to take pictures of the countryside.  Unfortunately, I ended up with a lot of blurry shots of bushes:

After we switched trains in Epernay, I was able to get a few decent vineyard shots.  After all, we were headed to champagne country.

When the train arrived in the Reims station, we weren’t quite sure what to do next.  Everything I read about our hotel said it was “just minutes” from the train station.  However, “just minutes” in which direction was not specified.  I had done a google maps walking tour of the town before we left (I really know how to burn up some free time)…however, it appeared there was some remodeling going on & detours set up everywhere.  I vaguely remembered virtually ‘walking’ through a park to get to the city center.  We saw a park past the construction & off we went. 

It turns out we were about a city block from our hotel.  After walking through the park, we ended up in a cute area that was closed to vehicle traffic.  Both sides of the street were lined with restaurants, hotels, cafes, and bars.  We just had to figure out how to get to ours.  Finally we found it:  Latino Cafe.  Latino Cafe in Reims, France.  Makes sense.

This was our first experience with a room that did not have air conditioning.  Since it was a sweltering 95 degrees outside, I knew this could get interesting.  Our check in experience was okay…They spoke about as much English as we did French, so after a lot of pointing & head nodding, we found our way to Chambre Huit. 

Our room was open to the street, and the view was excellent.  Three flights up the narrow, steep stairs, less excellent.  The room itself was no frills, but clean and had a funky little decor going on…I liked it!  We were happy to be out of Paris and in this cute little town. 

The views from our window…

We were both starving at this point, so we headed downstairs & decided to try the food right at our hotel.  Delish!

After dinner, we walked around the city for a little bit to get acquainted with our surroundings.  Lots of bars and people milling around, but we were so tired we went back to the room around 11 p.m.   We left the windows open while sleeping & around 2 pm, the restaurant below up really cranked things up…I never heard them but Brian said they were having a whole lotta fun down there.

The next day, we got up and headed out for breakfast.  We found an excellent breakfast spot & had the best coffee of our trip.  The food wasn’t too shabby either:

After breakfast, we decided to head towards the tourism office to find out about the Tour de France.  We figured they would know, and hoped that someone there would speak enough English to point us in the right direction.  We were right!

The tourism office was right behind the Notre Dame Cathedral in Reims.  This was a huge cathedral that was once where France appointed their kings. 

We walked around the Cathedral and took in some of its history.  The intricate detailing truly took our breath away.  Some of the statues were beginning to crumble due to age, and they were being redone by historians.  An exhibit was set up in the church showing how this process was completed.

And Brian found a flat penny (or would that be euro?) machine for Chloe…well, sort of flat penny.  More like a gold coin.

After touring the church, Brian decided to head back to the room for a few minutes so I could do some shopping.  We decided to meet back in an hour, so we could start heading out for our 30 minute walk to the Tour de France stage finishing area.

I hit a few cute little shops, plus Monoprix.  Basically this store was a French version of Target & had cute little inexpensive items.  I was disappointed there was no Isaac Mizrahi for Monoprix line, but I did pick up a cute gray ballerina sweater!

After my little shopping excursion & Brian little nappy poo, we were off!  Heading out of the Reims city center to the Tour de France stage finish!

What we encountered a long the way:

After all that walking, guess what we needed next:

Day 4 was a Sunday, and we opted to sleep in for the first time of our vacay…and at this point, we needed the extra rest. 

All of the museums in Paris offer free admission the first Sunday of every month, and we scheduled our Louvre visit to coincide.  We got up & at ’em around 1:00 pm, and went for our short walk to the Louvre. 

We picked up a crudite, pain au chocolat, and Coke Light at the Paul sandwich cart.  After a quick bite to eat on the very crowded Louvre lawn, we headed inside the massive structure.  I was curious to see what the inside looked like, since we had visited the outside nearly every day of our trip.  One amazing tip:  enter the Louvre at the Porte de Lyons entrance.  Most everyone lines up to enter the main entrance at the pyramid.  Seriously…an hour long wait kind of line, just to get in the door.  We walked RIGHT IN the Porte de Lyons entrance.  Zero line.  I felt badly for the people waiting in line in the sweltering heat.

The Louvre was beautiful.  Although the artwork was amazing, I was truly more impressed with the building itself.  Since neither of us are art buffs, we decided to hit the highlights:  the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and a few other fan favorites:

We wandered around a bit, then decided to rent an audio tour.  After some trouble we (finally) located the audio tour rental booth, paid our 17 euros and geared up for our 3 hour guided tour…except, not really.  The audio tours had not been updated for some time, and the first stop on the tour was closed for renovations.  We tried to follow the rest of it, but could never seem to get our bearings & figure out where we were supposed to be.  In other words, these tours leave a lot to be desired.  We did head down to the basement, and got a chance to see the original foundation work from the 1200’s. 

I am still amazed at the quality and beauty of the Louvre, even more so considering how OLD that place really is.  Truly remarkable.

Although we probably did not get to fully appreciate the Louvre & its artistic offerings, we felt we had seen enough after about 3 hours.  We headed back to our room for a quick…wait for it…wardrobe change…then a pit stop at Carr’s to figure out our next move.

We were not exactly sure what we wanted to do at this point, and had a few things to mark off the ol’ bucket list.  So as we sat & deliberated, I noticed something on the ‘must see’ list given to us on Day 2 from Kate,  the Bike About Tours guide.  Le Cinquante was on the list, and they recommended a visit on Sunday night.  At 6 p.m., locals gather to drink and sing “traditional French folk songs” in a bar atmosphere.  Local time on my watch:  5:30 pm.  Perfect.

We hopped on the subway and headed to Le Cinquante.  I would like to give a special shout out to my sweetheart of a husband for navigating the subways so well.  Because Lord knows, if left up to me, we would have ended up who knows where.

We arrived around 5:50 p.m. and the place was deserted.  It was definitely a local hang out, and we felt pretty out of place. 

The bartender was very nice though, and did her best to be accomodating.  We really appreciated her hospitality.

The crowd started rolling in around 6:30 p.m. & we were handed a song book.  The guitarist did a great job keeping the crowd involved, and we found it funny that several Rolling Stones songs were included in the French folk song book 🙂 

We had a great time, and it was a very unique experience.  When we left, around 8:30, check out the crowd that had packed in:

We walked around the ‘hood for a little bit…the foot traffic was stopped by a drawbridge, which was pretty cool.  I could definitely see this area being in a movie.  It was what I ‘expected’ from a French neighborhood. 

Since it was around 8:30 p.m. or so, we were getting pretty hungry.  After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to find a cafe, we ducked into a sandwich shop for a panini and French fries.  I know, I know.

Afterward, we hit the subway & headed towards Champs-Elysee, for an entirely different French experience.

We ended up getting off one subway stop too early & had a little longer walk to the Champs than we anticipated.  We strolled along though, taking in the sites.  Some guy had a tricked out Ferrari that was parallel parked on the street…About 30 people were crowded around the car taking pictures; some sitting on it, licking the windows, posing on the hood.  It was completely ridiculous!  The guy didn’t seem to mind either…maybe he was used to it?  But seriously, people.  Seriously?

This was the best shot I could get of the Ferrari, through the pack of people laying all over it:

Louis Vuitton’s flagstore store was definitely the most exciting place of the Champs visit for me (though I did not do any shopping).  Shopping + BBP go together like oil and vinegar.  And not in a mixes together to make a delicious salad dressing kind of way.  So I already knew going in that this would be a ‘memory making’ trip–not be a ‘shopping’ trip for me.  And I was just fine with that. 

After taking the obligatory tourist photos in front of the Champs Elysee, and admiring its grand beauty, we were hungry again.  (Almost as surprising as another wardrobe change might be, right?)  We hit Applebee’s Chez Clement for a decent (but not outstanding) meal:

After dinner and a few more stops along the Champs, we headed back to our neck of the woods on the subway.  Since we weren’t quite ready to call it a night, we ended up back at the Louvre with our blankey and bottle of wine.  I just love the way the sky looked at night, and this is my view from ground zero (as in laying on the ground, looking up):

Vive la France!

Tomorrow:  Day 5 with our Paris Greeter, and walking tour of Montmartre/Moulin Rouge area.