Our hotel in Reims (pronounced as 'Ranse' in French) was just a short walk from the station, rooms on one side of the hotel would have overlooked the station but that would also have come with a fair amount of noise. Our room looked out over a fairly quiet road on the front of the hotel. Reims is famous for a few things some of which I was aware of and others I had no idea about. Champagne is probably number one on the list of what the city is known for and some big names have their headquarters/cellars based here including Lanson, Taittinger, Mumm, Veuve Clicquot, Martel and Pommery. Being here meant that some of the local produce had to be sampled and we had two cellar tours (Lanson and Taittinger) and a tasting session (Martel) on one day with nine different varieties sampled. Both cellar tours were similar, but also actually quite different, at Lanson the tour (€25.00 each) included more about the process from start to finish and was more friendly/homely, but at Taittinger (€27.00 each) the cellars themselves were far more impressive, but the whole thing was far more business like in terms of presentation. Both were worth doing for comparative purposes - not least for comparing a couple of varieties of champagne itself! At Martel we just paid for a tasting session (€10.00 each) and for that we got three glasses per person and they allowed you to have different varieties for each person based on your likes - they also explained about each variety too. It was quite a nice way to try a number of different champagnes. Reims is also the location where Germany unconditionally surrendered from WW2 bringing the end to war in Europe in May 1945. Eisenhower's HQ was in Reims in what was, and still is, a college, but in 1945 this building witnessed the end of the bloody conflict. The room where the documents were signed has been brought back to life within a museum housed within the college. I had no idea that this significant event took place in Reims. Reims Cathedral is magnificent - despite being almost totally destroyed in both WW1 and in WW2 has been beautifully restored, as was the St Remi Basilica a little further out of town. These buildings were both stunning and it is so impressive that buildings of this scale could be conceived and built so many years ago. The evening sound and light show projected onto the cathedral facade was however a little disappointing, it looked visually stunning but went on for too long and was accompanied by some rather dull music. I think there was a story being told, but did not come away too much wiser. Our final night in Reims saw us having a nice meal at Les Boullion des Halles (just €19.95 for three courses) - with champagne of course (and at €40.00 a bottle costing more than the two meals!) - in the Boulingrin area of Reims which is far quieter than the hustle and bustle of the main central area. Maybe the city centre was busier than normal as the students were just coming back to University, but the area on Place Drouet d'Erlon with its many street side cafes, bars and restaurants was fairly manic. It was nice to have somewhere busy, but not too crowded on the last night in Reims. So that is the north east corner of France visited, or at least part of it, so it is time to move on. Our next stop is Aix-en-Provence, in the south east of France, which is a six hour trip by train from Reims via Paris (Marne la Valle) using four different trains. Our drinking habits will be changing too as we head south swapping champagne for the crisp rosé wines from Provence. #drinklocal