Reims: one day in the capital of Champagne

Hello again!

The adventure goes on in another R city: Reims. So just a brief description: the city is considered the unofficial capital of the Champagne wine-growing region and it belong to the region of Grand Est. If the champagne is not enough to convince you to take a trip there, you should also know that the city has played important roles in the history of France, from the period of the Roman Empire to the WWII. I am not gonna provide all the historical details in here (just the main points) because I think it's better when you discover them yourself during your trip.

Transportation
Reims is located 150 km away from Paris and that's a 2-2 and a half hour trip by bus. This time I chose to go with Ouibus (departure from Bercy - you can get there with M14) and I came back with Isilines (arrival at Gallieni - terminus of M3). The price of the round trip was 20 euros.
The bus station in Reims is called Champagne-Ardenne TGV (it is also a train station) and it is situated outside the city. After arriving at the bus station, I just had to walk down the hill for 100 m and I got to the tram station. Tram B is the one which goes to the center of the city. There is a ticket machine right in the station and you can choose a one, two or 24h ticket. I paid 4 euros for a 24h ticket. You get a paper card that works both for trams and buses and you have to scan it for every trip.

Visiting around
First of all, I have to say that I have never seen a touristic city less popular than Reims. There were only some groups of tourists at the main cathedral and the rest of the city was almost empty. And believe me, the city has a looooooot of things to offer to visitors.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims

The tram left me at the Opera station, right in the center of Reims. From there, there is a 2 minutes walk to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims. I have seen many churches and cathedrals since I arrived in France, but I have to say: this one is absolutely stunning. Personally, I liked it even more than Notre-Dame de Paris (I think this is considered like a form of sacrilege or so). The original
church dates back to 5th century, but it was destroyed in a fire in 1211. The cathedral was built on the site of the old church and it was completed in 1275. For the next centuries, the cathedral served as the place where French kings were crowned during a five hours ceremony. During the WWI, the German bombardments destroyed a considerable part of the cathedral, including the roof, some of the stained glass and the bishop's palace. Nonetheless, the intensive restoration works were able to repair all the damages done to the cathedral. The works were successfully completed in 1938 and gave the cathedral the current aspect.

Inside and outside of Notre-Dame Cathedral

Next to the cathedral, you can find Palais du Tau, named like this because it has the shape of the letter T. Just like the cathedral, Palais du Tau dates back to 13th century and it underwent the same stormy history. Nowadays, the whole palace is turned into a museum and it shows mostly objects that belonged to the cathedral, a part of its treasure and statues partially destroyed by the WWI bombardments. The thing that totally amazed me about this place, besides the great architecture and the value of the exponents, was that, on a Saturday afternoon, there were barely 10 tourists in all the museum. Even if you don't read the information provided and you only take a walk inside, it is still a very nice place to see, so I don't understand the reasons behind its unpopularity.

Palais du Tau

Leaving the city touristic center, I took a walk towards Place Drouet d' Erlon. The streets surrounding the square are full of restaurants, bistros and bars, so I stopped at one that draw my attention. It was called Supercrêpes (yes, I have a weakness for crêpes). The place drew my attention firstly because it

Supercrêpes and the Catwoman crêpe

was full of superheroes figurines and all the crêpes had superhero names; secondly because they were using whole wheat flour and bio products. I took a Catwoman (it had vegetables and cheese) and I think it was one of the best healthy foods that I've ever had. They have both salted and sugary crêpes and I truly recommend this place if you plan to visit Reims one day.

Right next to Supercrêpes, I found cinema Opéra, an abandoned building from 19th century with a very beautiful facade. The cinema has been closed since 1997 due to security reasons and even though the building is a historical monument, no reconstruction had been performed since its closure.

Cinema Opéra

In the history of WWII, Reims played a very important role: the document that testifies the surrender of Nazi Germany, thus putting an end to the war, was signed there on 7th May 1945. Nowadays, the building where general Eisenhower established the headquarters of the Allied Powers hosts Le Musée de la Reddition. It is not a big museum, I finished the visit in about 20 minutes, but I found really fascinating visiting a place so full of history. This museum is even less popular than Palais du Tau, considering that you have to take a 20-30 minutes walk to get there, but I think it is worth it.

Inscription above the entrance of Musée de la Reddition

Monument aux enfants de Reims morts pour la patrie

When I returned to the center of Reims, I went past a monument dedicated to the children who died in the field during WWI. The monument is situated in Square de la Mission, at one of the extremities of a long promenade. Close to the monument, there is Porte Mars, the biggest triumphal arch from the Roman world that dates back to 3rd century AD. The arch had one part covered due to the restoration works, so I totally missed it. After that, I headed to Halles du Boulingrin. That's not a touristic objective itself, but the building has an interesting architecture and it hosts a covered market where you can buy fruits, vegetables, traditional products and flowers.

Les Halles du Boulingrin

In the garden of Hôtel Le Vergeur

The next objective on my list was Musée Hôtel Le Vergeur, a place intensively praised on the internet. The museum is located in Place du Forum and it provides only guided tours every hour from 2 to 5 PM including. Even if I only managed to see this museum, I could say that my visit to Reims was worth it. The building is very well preserved and all the rooms keep their original aspect and furniture. The guided tour is very detailed and it gets you through all the history of the hotel. I was

completely amazed by everything I've seen and heard in there, so I could clearly classify the museum as a "not to be missed" place in Reims. Again, the place was not popular at all among tourists and I shared my guided tour only with two other tourists. Sadly, we were not allowed to take any pictures, so I can show you only the main facade and the inner court (quick reminder, you can click the pictures to make them bigger). The entrance fee was only 2 euros, cheaper because I had a student reduction, but still too cheap considering everything it has to offer.

50 m away from Musée Hôtel Le Vergeur, right in the middle of Place du Forum, I found Cryptoportique Gallo-Romain de Reims, an underground gallery built in 3rd century AD, during the Roman period.

Inside the Cryptoportique Gallo-Romain

Cryptoportique Gallo-Romain and Hôtel Le Vergeur (in the back)

Going back towards Notre-Dame Cathedral, I arrived in Place Royale. In the middle of the square, you can see the statue of Louis XV, also known as Louis the Beloved. Accidentally, I ended up in the middle of a bikers' protest and I have to say that French people have a really nice way of protesting. After arriving all together on their bikes, the riders just parked their bikes on the whole square and sat there, chatting, sending some colorful smoke into the air and whistling from time to time. Shortly, the bikers were complaining about the new law concerning the reduction of the speed limit on secondary roads from 90 km/h to 80 km/h.

Bikers' protest in Place Royale

Leaving the protest, I headed to another not so popular museum: Musée Automobile Reims Champagne. Not so popular means that the cashier was asking everyone where they heard of the museum from. We were 7 people in the whole museum, me and a group of 6. The museum is not located in the center of the city, so I took bus number 3 from the Opera station in the direction Moulin
de la Housse and I got off at Boussinesq station. The entrance fee was 7 euros, again with a reduction for students (for the other museums I didn't pay anything). I can definitely say that I have never seen so many old cars and motorcycles all together in my life. The place is huge and I think it clearly deserves more attention than it gets currently.

          

Graffiti from the inner court of Automobile Museum

         

Inside the Automobile Museum

Villa Demoiselle

Afterwards, I walked for about 20 minutes to get to the neighborhood where most of the wine (champagne) cellars are located. The price for a tour + final tasting ranges from 20 to 35 euros, so I settled for just taking some pictures of Villa Demoiselle (one of the cellars) and then I continued my journey (also I didn't have enough time to do a tour).

The next stop was Basilique Saint-Remi, a church built in 11th century. Next to the church, there is the old Abbey Saint-Remi that had been used as a military hospital for over a century. Now it hosts Musée Saint-Remi (another unpopular museum apparently) where you can discover the history of Reims from prehistory to Middle Age. In order to get back to the center, you can take bus number 6 in the direction Gare Centre or take a 20 minutes walk like I did.

             

Basilique Saint-Remi

Musée Saint-Remi

Inside the Basilique Saint-Remi

Before my trip, the Internet told me that I should definitely just sit at a bar drinking a cup of champagne and eating the traditional pink ladyfinger cookies. Apparently, I didn't have enough time for that because I had to catch my bus back to Paris, so I just bought a 20cl bottle of regional champagne that I'll be enjoying when I'll go back to Romania.

All in all, I had an absolutely wonderful trip to Reims, I really enjoyed it and for sure I will come back one day to see all the things I didn't get to see this time. I recommend spending a night in there because one day is definitely not enough to see everything. So here is a list with some objectives that I didn't manage to see during my trip:

• Foujita Chapelle
• Ancien collège de jésuites
• Basillique Saint Nicaise
• Porte Mars
• Musée du Fort de la Pompelle (this one is located outside the city, but you can get there by taking bus number 16).

Thank you for reading this and I hope it was helpful if you ever plan to take a trip to Reims. Have a wonderful day! 

Discovering the Amalfi Coast

When we decided we were going to visit the Amalfi coast, I tried to find out as much as possible about our future destination. All those "things to do in X" helped me, but I wasn't able to find all the necessary information in one place. Also, people's opinions were very different about the same objective so it was pretty hard to choose whether you would be visiting that certain place or not.
Our journey lasted 7 days and we chose to spend our nights in Agerola, at La Casa Dei Nonni. The owners lend the whole house (4 bedrooms, kitchen and 2 bathrooms). The house is situated on a pretty high level above the see so the view is stunning; all the bedrooms have balconies and they face the sea.
                         

The view from the balcony of Casa dei nonni

The access road is kinda difficult. The villa is situated almost 1 km away from the center of Agerola, but the road is very narrow and the inclination of the road is very big.
We didn't spend much time in Agerola, we only took a short walk during the evening of our arrival. There is a belvedere place set up and we got to see Salerno at night from there.

Salerno at night seen from Agerola

We traveled to Italy by airplane and we landed on the Capodichino Airport in Napoli. Agerola is situated 50 km away from Napoli and we decided to rent a car. There are many bus stations in front of the airport and there are little slates with the destination and the price on them. 200 m in front of the airport there is another bus station and there comes a bus every 15 minutes that will take you to the place where you can rent a car. There are 6-7 companies in the same building which makes things easier for you. The prices vary depending on the number of people, the number of days and the type of car you want. The first thing you need to know is that the roads, either on the coast or into the cities, are very narrow. You could use the littlest car you can get. Next, you need a gps. There is no way you can get through without one. Then you need a credit card for the rental. Most of the companies don't accept a debit card or even if they do, you will have to pay the assurance and that amount of money it is not refundable, no matter if you damage the car or not. Firefly is the cheapest company, but you have to make a reservation because, otherwise, they may not have cars available when you get there. The lowest prices in the others companies vary from 350€ to 450€ for 6 days. You receive the car with a full tank and you also have to return it full.

The traffic in Napoli looks like this:

And the road on the coast looks like this (the video is on fast forward, we weren't driving that fast):

Let's go to the visiting part now.

Amalfi - the town is nice, but not very impressive. There is a harbor with lots of boats from the cheapest to the expensive ones. There is no sand on the beach, just little rocks. The temperature was not high, we didn't get to swim so I can't tell you anything about the quality of the water. There is a nice square called Piazza del Duomo and there you can visit the Saint Andrew Cathedral for the moderate fee of 3€.

The town of Amalfi

Piazza del Duomo

Museo Diocesano Amalfi - Saint Andrew Cathedral

The stairs from the parking to the square

Ravello - If you head Salerno, after leaving Amalfi, you will see signs leading you to Ravello - the town of music. Our GPS didn't find it so we had to take the traditional way. Once we got there, we visited Villa Rufolo, created in 13th century. The entrance fee is 5€. The construction is impressive, the gardens and the view are stunning. I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but this is a place you must write down on your list if you plan to visit the Amalfi Coast. We didn't get to visit Villa Cimbrone, but I heard it is also a nice thing to see.

Piazza del Duomo  

Villa Rufolo

Positano - clearly the most beautiful town on the coast. This is exactly how you expect the whole country to be. The streets are narrow, the buildings are very well taken care of, the slates with the name of the streets and the number of the houses are handmade and the houses are painted in warm colors. We didn't visit anything specifically, we just walked on the streets and the experience was unforgettable. The parking is pretty expensive: 5€ per hour. If you're interested in shopping, there are lots of shops who sell flax clothes and leather shoes. As far as the beach is concerned, there is little sand and lots of tiny rocks. The water is clear and there are small waves from time to time. If you're looking for snorkeling, you may be a little disappointed because the water is a little puddled and there is few fish. From Positano you can go for a boat tour of the coast. Also, you can go to Capri Island and there you will find bigger beaches. The road takes 50 minutes and the price is 35€. 

Positano

Grotta dello Smeraldo - the internet says the cave is in Positano. Actually, it is in Conca dei Marini. If you're headed to Positano, you will see signs on the road leading you to a lift that will take you to the cave. The ticket is 5€. When I was looking up for stuff to see along the coast, I saw different opinions on the emerald cave. Some people said it's awesome, others said it's a waste of time. Now that I saw it, I can say the cave is spectacular. But if you want to see the wonderful, blue color you will have to visit the cave on a sunny day. The sunnier the day, the bluer the blue. :)

The emerald cave

Fiordo di Furore - when you're about to exit Furore (towards Positano), you will cross a bridge and at its end you will see a sign pointing you to the right. There is no car access, you can only go on foot to see the fjord. There are some stairs and a little alee that will walk you along the fjord. It will be hard to find a parking spot because the main road is pretty narrow so get ready to walk 200-300 m on foot. It's a nice thing to see in the summer because if you go there after few rainy days, you will only see some puddles and an abandoned beach.

Fiordo di Furore seen from the bridge

Pompei - the old town is golden. You can get there by following the signs with "Pompei Scavi", but it's better if you use your GPS because they forgot to put signs in many intersections. The best idea is to take a whole day to visit the ruins because the town is HUGE. Also get some comfy shoes because you are going to walk A LOT. Don't take flip-flops or sandals because you are going to trip easily. The ticket price is 13€ (you only get a reduction if you're an art student) and if you want to see the museum, it costs an extra 2€. I recommend you first visit the ruins and after that the museum. Also you can take audio guides for an additional tax of 6.50€. They will help you understand what you see and it's easier to listen and watch at the same time than to read and watch after you finish reading. You can consider bringing your own headphones because the ones they give you will make your ear hurt (also there is only one headphone). They will also give you a map together with your audio guide. As far as the old town is concerned, I can only say you have to see it AT LEAST once in this lifetime. Its greatness is impressive, everything you see there will make your jaw drop. 

Pompei Scavi

Naples - the biggest disappointment of this trip. Just like the new city of Pompei, everything is miserable. There is garbage everywhere and everything smells like pee. The traffic is infernal and it's a miracle if your car doesn't get scratches. There are many things to see in Naples, but the way the city looks like will be a total turn-off. If you are travelling by car or you rented a car, you should park it in the parking of the harbor because you will hardly find a spot anywhere else. We wanted to visit the underground city and we had a hard time finding it. The signs that will lead you there are those with "Galeria Borbonica". Anyway, after we walked in all the directions for 15 minutes, we finally succeeded, but we found out it was closed. Apparently it is open only during weekends so plan your trip wisely. We only managed to visit Piazza del Plebiscito, Fontana di Santa Lucia, Castel dell'Ovo and Castel Nuovo. Neither of the castles was in good condition. Only the entrance gate at Castel Nuovo was impressive. The narrow streets between buildings are full of different smells which vary from fish to pee. The buildings are slowly falling apart and no one takes care of them. There were many other objectives to be seen such as the Archaeological Museum, the Dome of Naples, the Castel Sant'Elmo, etc, but, as I said earlier, the misery of the city was a total turn-off.

Piazza del Plebiscito

Entrance gate at Castel Nuovo

Baron's Hall curently used as City Hall - Castel Nuovo

Skeletons found in Armory - Castel Nuovo

Fontana di Santa Lucia

View from Castel dell'Ovo

Caserta - it's an upcountry city and we didn't find many tourists visiting Caserta. Compared to Napoli, the city is clean, with decent traffic and decent drivers. Here we visited Casertavecchia, the old town which was truly amazing. Paved streets, old houses, painted house numbers, lovely places. It's a little piece of history. The only disappointment I had in the old town was that the castle build around 800 AD was not open for visitors. In the new city, we visited Reggia di Caserta, palace designed by Luigi Vanvitelli. The entrance fee was 12€ and students had a reduction of half the price. The palace is huge. Personally, I liked the stairs and the first two rooms (they had simpler decoration since they were intended for security - haleberdiers and soldiers). The other rooms were very goldish and they didn't have too many pieces of furniture. The audio guide is not worth (5€) because you don't listen to any historical information, but you only find out who painted every fresco of the palace. The park was inspired by the one in Versailles, but it is kind of dull. It is 3.3 km long so be wise and rent a bike because otherwise you're going to say goodbye to your feet. The fountains are spectacular and pretty well taken care of. At the end of the park, there is a big exotic garden called Giardino Inglese so save some energy to visit that too.

Casertavecchia

Reggia di Caserta

Giardino Inglese

I really hope sharing my experience in Amalfi Coast will help you plan your journey as well as possible. Thank you for reading and I am open to any suggestions and remarks. Have a nice day! :)

P.S. - Only few Italians speak English.