We planned an easy day in this beautiful city. A well earned rest from our busy week of driving.

View of the beginning of the esplanade just a few steps from our hotel.

After a very good breakfast at the hotel we headed out to find the famous Reims Cathedral. It celebrated its 800th birthday in 2011 and is to France what Westminster Abbey is to England with 26 French kings being coronated here. The front of the cathedral resembles Notre Dame de Paris. It was severely damaged during WW I and was rebuilt in the 1920s. Luckily the church was spared throughout WW II.

Some of the stained glass windows destroyed in WW I were replaced through funding provided by local champagne producers.

There are also modern stained glass windows including a set designed by Marc Chagall in 1974.

We enjoyed walking around the city and had a picnic lunch in a park close to our hotel.

Reims was pretty much leveled during WW I and was rebuilt with a mixture of classic and art deco style architecture.  I really like the galleria off the esplanade.

A typical business/hotel facade on the esplanade.

After lunch we visited the Musee de la Reddition (Museum of the Surrender) – the actual building where the allied forces planned their operations and where the official documents ending WW II in Europe were signed between the Allies and Germany.

The museum artifacts and short documentary film were very moving – well worth the visit. The war operations room in the museum is unchanged from when it was in use during the war. The major part of the entire building remains in use as a public school – again the same as it was during the war.

Photo of the exterior of the building copied from the internet.

Photo of the war operations and document signing room copied from the internet.

After a full day we decided to splash out on a nice dinner on the esplanade. Cath had mussels which she shared with me.

I had a Hawaiian poke bowl which is very popular in France – but not as impressive as this pot of mussels!

After dinner we walked around the esplanade enjoying the night life and checked out the other dining options available. It was surprising to see the number of American fast food outlets mixed in with the more traditional French restaurants, cafes and bistros. The question “why” comes to mind.

Dining at the Ernest Hemingway Cafe?

Or is KFC more to your liking? Hard to believe these restaurants exist across the street from each other.

Sube fountain at Place d’Erlon – the far end of the esplanade.

Another fountain at Place d’Erlon.

Busy night life of the esplanade – but that’s enough for us today – time for bed!

 

 

Ancien moulin Creancy, Creancy: 47°14’53.7″N 4°35’03.1″E

Hotel le Bristol, Reims: 49°15’24.3″N 4°01’36.0″E

Bernard prepared a beautiful breakfast for us, complete with bowls of café au lait and fresh croissants served on his grandmother’s best china. It’s going to be hard going back to instant coffee with toast and peanut butter ☹.

Oscar the dog kept us company in his favourite chair.

Bernard advised us to take a route that included the toll highway, otherwise our cross-country trip could take 6 or more hours.

Fifi was waiting patiently for us under the tree for this our last road trip with her.

Our route ended up being a mixture of back country roads through little towns, open countryside and major highways. We were impressed with the number of modern windmills all along the toll highway. There were hundreds of them!

 

We dropped Fifi off at the TGV train station just outside of Reims & then took taxi to our hotel in the center of the city. Fifi, our Fiat 500 with a 6-speed manual transmission was a great little car, carrying us safely over 1,200 kilometers around France.

Our hotel room was not quite ready so we stored our luggage with the hotel security, found a place for lunch and did a little exploring. The pedestrian esplanade right in front of our hotel is a busy, vibrant area with dozens of cafes and bistros and attractive architecture.

Hotel Athanor Centre, Beaune: 47°01’25.7″N 4°50’07.5″E

Ancien moulin Creancy, Creancy: 47°14’53.7″N 4°35’03.1″E

Today we drove a backroads tour from Beaune through the Burgundy wine region to Creancy. We were motivated to take this particular route after reading about it in Rick Steves’ France Guidebook. Along the way we had some really nice view of the canal and saw many people on biking tours.

 

The Canal de Bourgogne (Burgundy Canal) looked pretty inviting!

Our first stop was the hill town of Chateauneuf-en-Auxois. At 2,000 feet elevation this town was visible from a long distance and reminded us of medieval castle scenes in movies. It must have been really impressive to people on foot and riding horses or in carriages “back in the day”.

The castle was built in the 14th century and was surrounded by the village.

Today it’s a busy tourist town. It’s like stepping back in time and all of the buildings looked pretty much like the day they were built – very well preserved and respectful of their heritage many centuries later.

Several of the homes in the village had walled gardens. It was fun to peek over the walls to see what was inside.

We stopped for coffee at a café outside the castle after walking around the village enjoying the gardens and architecture.

I also found a nice car for Cath – a very well preserved Citroen 2CV but lost interest quickly when I found out that they were worth about $20,000 and higher back home.

After leaving the hill village we headed north to Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. On our way there we passed through Posanges and drove quickly by a small castle right beside the road. It was so intriguing we turned around and stopped to take a closer look.

This is the Chateau de Posanges, built in year 1440, complete with drawbridge and moat.

Sadly it is no longer open to the public. Definitely worth turning around to see it even from the outside and I would have gladly paid 10 Euros to take a tour though it. I wonder if it will be for sale someday – could be an “Escape to the Chateau” for Cath and I.

We arrived in Flavigny at lunch time. It is really old town that has been home to an abbey since the year 719! Stuff around here is really old!

The abbey is still in use – in fact there are 50 Benedictine monks living at the abbey of St. Joseph. We saw some of them walking down the street but thought it would be rude to take a photo.

This town also had another “15 minutes of fame” in year 2000 when the movie “Chocolat” starring Johnny Depp was filmed here.

We had lunch in a candy factory in the town that is famous for its licorice candies. A very charming location and they serve up a great quiche too!

Just before leaving town we found another classic Citroen for me 🙂

Our last stop was to visit the abbey at Fontenay featured in Rick Steves’ book and on his PBS TV show.

This abbey was founded in year 1118 and was created to recapture the simplicity and solitude of the early church. It is now privately owned and open to the public. The grounds and the buildings are in pristine shape.

It was interesting to see that the abbey church is the same today as when it was built – the floor is earth, there are no furnishings, no stained glass windows and only 1 statue which was of the Virgin Mary.

The simplicity of the architecture added to its beauty.

We drove back south to the little town of Creancy where our B&B host Bernard and his friendly dog Oscar were waiting for us at the Ancien Moulin (the old mill).