Reims Cathedral + Champagne Caves

Interesting weekend. Saturday I braved the 7:30 AM wake-up call and went on a day trip to the Reims Cathedral in Champagne with my fellow Reid Hall-ers. Apart from the freezing rain we endured there, it was a fantastic trip. Notre Dame de Reims was built in the 12th century, I think, at the same time as the Notre Dame de Paris. It was my first time in a "real" gothic cathedral, and I must say I got chills when inside. No wonder everyone converted to Catholicism (as if they had a choice in the matter)! It's hard to believe something to enormous and ornate could be constructed with human hands. And what labour must have gone into its realization! I can't imagine being the person that discovered the flying buttress, or the vault, or the pillars holding up the collonades. And everything so exact, so by-the-number, precise and perfect. Almost too perfect.

Pictures:

The facade in all its glory.The famous smiling angelThe gorgeous interior: the north transept, I think...Marc Chagall painted these stained glass windows! SO beautiful! By far my favorite part of the cathedral.

Then we went to the Pommery Cave, where they've been making Champagne since the mid 1800s. DE-licious:
After the exhausting trip, I somehow mustered the energy to stay awake until 5 AM. Took the night bus for the first time. The Parisian metro closes inconveniently early (12:30 weekdays, 1:30 weekends), and has a bus system called the Noctilien that runs late at night: creepy and slow, but certainly cheaper than a taxi. And now: studying for my french midterm. Yuck.