Reims Day 3

I do NOT know how to explain it.  I really don't other than the fact that Mark and I were more tired than we thought.  The night before we went to bed probably around 9 or 9:30.  In our hotel we have the extra thick darkening curtains so every time I opened my eyes that night I just assumed that it was still dark.  Mark, who can't sleep in past 7 (ever) nudged me and said, "it's 12:45!  PM!"  WHAT ON EARTH?!?  That made me so happy :)  Good thing we didn't have any plans today!  We ended up leaving our room around 2!  That's what vacation is all about right???

Mostly we just walked around the city some more.  We found the old abbey of Saint-Remi where King Louis IV is buried.  I had the yummiest hot chocolate from a little cafe where our waiter wanted to practice his English.  We so appreciated his friendliness.

I don't know what it is about the French being overall just not a happy bunch of people.  Seriously.  No one smiles.  Hardly anyone is helpful.  They look at us Americans almost with disgust.  You want to say, "ok, you win.  We are the foreigners.  I know we don't speak your language but obviously we don't know what we are doing.  Would it hurt just a little to try and be helpful?  Please don't roll your eyes again at me... please"  It makes me appreciate foreigners who come to America so much better.  Mark and I got into the habit of saying "bonjour" to every one that passed us on the street and we, 95% of the time just got stared at- no smiles, no "bonjour" back.  Kinda sad actually.  Anyways, enough of that rant!

We found the Porte de Mars.  Arches that were built in the 3rd century- crazy old!  Right across the street we found Charles de Casanove.  We know the son who runs this champagne house.  He has a home not too far from us.  We had called him saying that we were coming but he was going to be traveling so we hadn't planned on visiting but there is was right across the street so we popped in.  We tasted about 4 different champagnes and bought 2 bottles.  Can't wait to drink those back home.

We went back to the hotel (just a mere 4 hours after we left it- ha!).  Mark and I decided that we needed a bit more bubbles so we went downstairs to their champagne bar and had a bottle of Pol Roger- DELICIOUS!  I loved it.  We ate dinner in the restaurant and then headed to bed early (I know, strange after all that sleeping).  We had to be at the train station at 5:30 am the next morning.

 where king Louis is buried

La Porte de Mars

It was a fun and lazy kind of day!