Arrived in Reims yesterday, after a quick noontime stop in Dinant, Belgium. Dinant is prettier in photographs than reality, as was the lunch. This morning we toured the Cathedral of the Notre Dame including the Bishop’s Treasures Collection which alarmingly includes a reliquary that seemed at one time to have held Jesus’ tongue. Then a long walk to the the Basilica of St Remi and then even further to the Basilica of St Clothilde, the wife of Clovis the first Christian king of France. He was baptized in the cathedral and then spent the rest of his life killing Arians, another Christian sect. Unfortunately, St Clothilde was closed for repairs, and lots of ’em from the look of things.
Be that as it may, we had a fabulously French lunch at some crappy little place we walked by. The menu included a first course, I had sausage and potato salad, Ashish had essentially piles of various shredded cabbage types, red, white, orange, though there was a hard boiled egg involved. During this they brought huge slabs of the house “terrines,” rillettes and paté. Which were fabulous, followed by the main course. He had meatballs and I had pork cutlets with bacon and bechamel. Both came with fries.
And then, in need of a siesta we came back to the rat hole we’re staying in and slept for an hour.
