Coronation City

On a cool, but sunny Tuesday morning (May 16), we passed through the last lock of the Aisne lateral canal, turned south, and entered the first lock on the Canal de l'Aisne a la Marne. We would ultimately need to pass through 10 locks on the 25 kilometers to our destination of the day, the city of Reims. No longer dependent upon a remote-control device (telecommande) to operate the locks, we were now back to the technology that we used on the Saone River during our first full cruising season in 2019--the perché; or as we liked to call it, the "twistee".

Twistee to the left, instructions to the right. The boat is lined up with the dangling pole, the
crew member grabs it in passing and gives it a slight counterclockwise twist to activate the lock.

On this particular waterway, the locks operate in chains. This means that for some combinations of locks, a single "twistee" will start the process for the first lock, and a motion detector at the lock exit will signal the next lock in the chain to prepare for the boat. The technology seems to be sophisticated enough to keep track of multiple boats using a chain of locks at the same time. 

With automated lock technology, lock keepers are
no longer needed at each lock. Sometimes the former
residences are sold and repurposed as homes, but sadly,
that was not the case for this derelict building.

The area immediately around the canal is flat and agricultural,
although it wasn't long before we were seeing hillsides in the
near distance. After all, this is grape-growing region as well.

We didn't encounter much other boat traffic on our way to Reims, so we got through the 10 locks of the day pretty quickly, and were moored before 2 p.m. 

Our mooring along a quay just downstream from the municipal marina. The marina was
not able to accommodate boats our size, so we grabbed a spot along a quay opposite a park,
and with a front-row view of passing traffic. On one day our Happy Hour entertainment was
two commercial barges meeting just as they were passing us--very close and very exciting! 

Reims got its start over 2000 years ago as a Roman town, but its surpassing importance in French history is that it became the Coronation City for French kings. The tradition goes back to the baptism of Frankish king Clovis by Saint Remi in the 5th century. The concept of monarchy as "divine right" became established when more Frankish noblemen were converted to Christianity. 

Coronation ceremonies in the current Reims Cathedral took place from the 12th century onwards. The Archbishop of Reims at the time claimed that one of two small, empty vials with aromatic scents that had been found in the recently-opened sepulchre containing the body of St. Remi had held the miraculously-supplied oil used to baptize Clovis.  Therefore, it must naturally follow that Reims should be recognized as the divinely chosen site for all the subsequent anointings of French kings. Thus was born the "Legend of the Holy Ampulla", just in time for the coronation of Louis VII in 1131.

The list of kings whose coronations were held in 
Reims. The lower list is that of the kings whose
ceremonies took place in the current (13th C.) cathedral.

The fate of the second vial is unknown. The "Holy Phial" was publicly destroyed in 1793 by French revolutionaries, but the day before the destruction, the oil was removed and distributed for preservation. As well, some fragments of glass from the destroyed vial were retained and were used in a new reliquary made for the coronation of the last king of France, Charles X, in 1825.

During WWI, the Germans briefly occupied Reims, but were driven out within a relatively short time. However, they remained very close, and Reims was repeatedly shelled during the war. Ultimately, of the over 14,000 buildings in the city, nearly 8,000 were completely destroyed, and only 60 were considered to have survived the war intact. The Cathedral was one of the victims of the bombings. Specifically targeted by the Germans, on September 19, 1914, the Cathedral was struck by shells and began to burn. Ultimately, the disaster spread throughout the city center. The French were horrified at the damage deliberately done to their cultural icon, and the event served as the basis for much anti-German propaganda.

East (back) and north views of the Cathedral. In the left of the
photo is the exterior of the Palace of Tau, the former palace of
the archbishops of Reims, and the residence of the Kings of 
France during their coronations. It was closed for renovations.

The West (front) facade of Notre-Dame de
Reims.

Lon by the ruins of the 12th century Treasury house,
now housing a cultural center; Cathedral in the background.

Angel figurines surrounding the main entry to the Cathedral,
including (on the right) the famous "Smiling Angel", which
came to represent the martyrdom of the city.

Tied in with all of the coronation business is another large, historic religious building. The Romanesque-Gothic Saint-Remi Basilica was built from the 11th C onwards. It was created to house the Holy Ampulla and the remains of Saint Remi. It was also badly damaged in WWI.

The interior of the Basilica was light and bright,
due to the white stone and all the windows.

Last year we watched a light show projected on the exterior of the Cathedral in Amiens. It turns out that light shows are a big thing during the summer in France.  In Reims, both the Cathedral and the Basilica have light shows in the summer. As luck would have it, the Basilica light show started on the 18th. They had a few technical problems on their first show of the season, and our experience was just so-so compared to what we saw in Amiens. We didn't stay in town long enough to see the Cathedral show.

The facade of the Basilica in daylight.

Not all is ancient history. It was to Reims in 1945 that General Dwight Eisenhower moved the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in order to be closer to the fighting taking place on the Ardennes front. In a room in the headquarters on May 7, 1945, at 2:41 a.m., the unconditional surrender of the German army was signed, to be effective May 8.

SHAEF was installed in part of the building complex that
housed the College Moderne et Technique de Reims. A high
 school has taken over most of the buildings now, with
 this small section preserved as Museum of the Surrender.

The room where the surrender was signed, kept in its original state.
 This had been the operations room (War Room) of the General
 Staff, hence, all the maps.

With all of the destruction from war, something had to replace the destroyed buildings. Given the time period in which the post-WWI reconstruction took place, the city now has a treasure trove of Art Deco buildings.

Thursday, May 18, was the French public holiday of Ascension Day. For a country with such an anti-clerical background and a strict separation of church and state, there are a lot of religious holidays. Nevertheless, it was a "day to play" for many French, and the weather cooperated.

Central Reims has a lovely pedestrian zone filled with stores
and places to eat and drink. 

We took advantage of being in a city with a train station to get out of town that day and see a bit more of France "off canal." Rather than exploring the Chemin des Dames WWI battle sites, we opted for a 45-minute train ride northwest of Reims to the medieval town of Laon, perched atop a hill on the flat Picardy plain. 

Laon was of strategic importance since Roman times.  It was one of the principal towns of the Franks, and the principal town of the Carolingians. It ceased to be the seat of a bishop during the French Revolution. Although it sustained some damage in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war, it was occupied by the Germans throughout most of WWI, and was thus spared the damage incurred by other towns in the area that were more centered on the fighting. As a result, the medieval feeling and layout remains, with losses of historic buildings over the years due more to sometimes short-sighted "urban renewal" than to war damage. Most of the medieval buildings date to the 12th and 13th centuries. We had limited time, so we had to confine our explorations to the areas in relatively close proximity to the cathedral. We would have loved to have walked around the entire ramparts, but the 3.7 mile loop trail was not to be.

Since the old city is on a hilltop, there
 has to be a way up. The busses didn't
 seem to be running from the train station,
 so we had to resort to the 265 steps
 of the Municipal Staircase. 

A rest stop halfway up seemed like
a good idea to Lon.

When the stairs ended, there was still
a walk up a steep path to be navigated. From
1989-2016 the city had a cable-driven
people mover to run from the rail station to
the upper town, but it fell victim to 
budget and cost concerns.

Laon was a fortified town, and has retained most of its
ramparts, which developed over the period from the 9th to
the 13th centuries. Tied into these walls (seen to the right in the
photo) is one of the old city gates, the Ardon Gate (center).

Another day, another huge Notre-Dame cathedral. It
was completed in an amazingly short period of time,
from 1150-1180. The cathedral and its 5 towers
supplied the design inspiration to the architects of other
cathedrals, including that of Reims. Just to the right
 of the cathedral is what remains of the 12th century
 Hotel Dieu hospital, the oldest one of its kind in
 France. It currently houses the Laon Tourist Office.

The main shopping street of Laon.

What would a medieval town be without narrow
passages to explore?

Sightseeing done, we were left with more mundane concerns, such as how to get the best "pop" out of our popcorn. In Florida we have a silicone popper that works fantastically in the microwave, so we bought one to bring to France. It doesn't work nearly as well here, and we're not quite sure why, but perhaps our microwave just doesn't have the "juice" of our U.S. microwave. So, we decided to retire it and go back to the air popper we bought in 2019. We originally got away from the air popper because it had a tendency to spew kernels every which way, but Lon has developed a solution to that problem.

No, Lon is not genuflecting to the corn popper or
trying to warm his hands. It's just his way of
keeping the kernels contained without burning
himself. It's pretty effective!

We left Reims on Saturday, May 20, without having explored its "Champagne City" aspect. It's not a big priority for us, but "when in Rome . . ." As we are just entering champagne country, we hope to have the opportunity to investigate this aspect of French culture in the coming days. But that will be a story for another day . . .