Saturday morning in Reims

Hello again! I had a long and much-needed night of sleep, and this morning I went off in search of the cathedral. I walked across the river, passed shops (making note of where I might find a hairdryer, a phone, toothpaste, or cute shoes), stopped in a boulangerie for a quiche, turned a likely looking corner, walked about a block, looked down the street to my right...and there it was!

You can see there's scaffolding in the front, and part of this west façade is undergoing restoration work (to be finished in 216 days - they have a countdown going). I walked behind the cathedral to find the courtyard where I sat to eat my breakfast. Luckily it didn't start raining on me - it is very overcast today! And a little chilly, but not really cold yet; I wore just a long-sleeved shirt (and sneakers - how American of me! Excuse: My heel has a blister from running in my boots without socks through the airport yesterday- or was it the day before?). Anyway, this was my view!

I thought about how long ago those stones were put together while I munched. On the bench next to me a man played harmonica while people passed by. A father paused to let his little son play with the pebbles of the walkway. Walking past me, the boy looked at me with his big blue eyes.

Then I continued to walk all the way around the cathedral to find a usable entrance.

Inside, I was most struck by the beauty of the stained glass windows, shining with a brilliancy of jewels and with such rich colors! I took a couple of pictures, but they're kind of blurry...stained glass is hard to get right with a camera!

This photo was taken from within, looking back toward the front entrance - the rose windows of the west façade.

This second photo, on the right, shows the windows designed by Marc Chagall. They're in one of the chapels in the back of the cathedral.







I took note of the mass times for tomorrow (9h30 for Gregorian chant!), and asked at the gift counter for a Magnificat booklet, which I really want to get so that I can see the French responses for mass and follow along better...but they had none! Only tourist-y things. I got a couple postcards and directions to a nearby religious bookstore. I thought I was doing pretty well with my French - so far, everyone has understood my requests and questions, and I can understand most the answers as well. Sadly, this time I must have missed an important detail, because I could not find that bookstore. I could have wandered around those few blocks again, searching, but I was getting seriously tired of walking at that point!

I returned to my room, found the coffee vending machine, and had a pain au chocolat (flattened from being stowed in my purse, oops) and a tiny "café crème." Now I am waiting to see if someone will sign on to Skype and internet-phone me...wake up, Mitch! :)