I’ve gone on two day trips while in France; one to Versailles and one to Reims. As you’re probably aware, Versailles is the palace built by King Louis XIV. Reims is a small town in the Champagne region that is home to several Champagne caves.

Kim and I really lucked out with the weather for both trips; we didn’t get caught in the rain on either. It was such a beautiful day at Versailles. The sky was so perfect that it looked like a painting; I felt like I was looking up at the ceiling at Cesar’s Palace. I don’t know if we don’t get skies that amazing in America, or if I’m just around tall buildings too much or too busy to notice.

As expected, the palace at Versailles was completely over the top. Beautiful, but over the top. The gardens were the truly lovely part. The flowers were in bloom and the grass was so green from all the rain. The gardens are extraordinarily expansive. A lot of them were closed the day we went, but even with that I think Kim calculated (via her pedometer she’s supposed to wear for a work walking campaign) that we walked over 8 miles.

Getting our train ticket to Reims was somewhat of an adventure, partially because we didn’t know how to pronounce it. (It does not rhyme with “dreams”, it rhymes with “france”, but the r sounds like an h and you have to use that throaty sound that I can’t replicate.) Kim had to show the word on the Rick Steve’s page when we were asking about tickets so the agent knew what the heck we were talking about.

Reims is a very cute town with a pedestrian street down the center with all sorts of restaurants and shopping. There’s a gothic-style cathedral originally built in the 13th century that is pretty amazing. Also, Reims was the site of the German’s surrender in World War II. Most importantly (well, at least for purposes of our visit), Reims is known for champagne.

Mumm’s (pronounced Moo-ms), is located in Reims. Kim and I took a tour of their champagne caves. The tour was in English, however the tour guide’s accent was really strong so I had a hard time understanding. I did get the general gist of how champagne is made and learned some interesting facts (like, did you know that the champagne is turned upside and frozen so that the sediment comes out in a little sediment-ice-cube?). The tour ended with a tasting, yum!