Day 439: Eastwards to Reims

Early start today, heading back down to Orly airport to pick up our next car. A couple of metros across Paris, then a bus from the south of the city as there was a transport strike on the mainland train lines! There's actually been rolling strikes across most of the French rail network for the last month (and will continue for at least another month), but thankfully we'd already booked our car before that was announced.

This car is a gigantic station wagon, an Opel Astra. Should be fun trying to park this thing! Very smooth to drive though, and with lots of nice features.

We headed north-east out of Paris towards the city of Reims, where our WHS for today is the Cathedral. It's another of the medieval French Gothic cathedrals that were all designed and built around much the same time. This one is notable as being the coronation place of the French kings, and somewhere that Joan of Arc visited a couple of times as well. Very cool.

Also on the list is a nearby Archbishop's palace which we visited briefly, and another church as well which was the burial place of Saint Remy, who brought Christianity to France and inextricably linked it with the French monarchy. Cool stuff.

By now it was around 5pm and our Airbnb was ready, so we drove over there and checked in. It's basically in a student housing thing, just a small room with a bed, desk, bathroom, and micro kitchen. Nothing fancy, but fine for a couple of days. About the only thing open on a Sunday night was a random convenience store, so it was a loaf of bread with brie and cured meats for dinner!Read more