Visiting Reims

The highlight of my visit to Champagne was, of course, the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Reims. It is an overwhelmingly ornate gothic cathedral, highly influenced by Notre Dame de Paris, which was built just slightly earlier. I have decided that gothic cathedrals have to be some of the most difficult subjects to photograph. From the outside, it's difficult to capture the size of the building while retaining the details of the sculptures, all of which tell stories. On the inside, it's usually dark and the aspect ratios of the features are not camera-friendly. So, for the whole story, you really need to look at the website of the cathedral. If you read French, there is a ton of historical information, and if you don't, just click on Voir tous les albums photos at the bottom of the page.

One of the distinctive features of the cathedral is the set of tympani above the entrances. Usually, these are carved in stone, but in Reims they are stained glass. In my photo, you can see that the cleaning of part of the cathedral has just been finished. Like other gothic cathedrals, the stone was originally painted in vivid colors, to gild the lily.



Of course, thanks to fire and wars, most of the statues were severely damaged or lost, so the current statues are replicas, while the originals rest in the neighboring Museum of the Palais du Tau. The most recent destruction of the cathedral was during WWII, and this site was then chosen for the celebration of reconciliation between the French and the German governments, in 1962.

One of the sculptures, called the Ange au Sourire (Angle of the Smile) is considered a uniquely beautiful example of medieval art. I suppose the sculpture does have a fluid quality not usually seen in statues of saints posed like wooden soldiers. The parish's website even gives a prayer suggested for meditating while contemplating this angel:



My translation of the prayer originally by Jean-Marie Guerlin:
You, the Angel of the Smile, messenger of God, the stone-cutters knew quite well how to express on your face the very smile of God, to tell to all who contemplate it, how much God loves them, how much he is close to them! You, the Angel of the Smile, have braved all the destruction to be, among us, a sign of joyous hope and tenacity, of reconciliation among people.

Destruction of religious art seems to be a recurring theme as I visit the cities of France, and one cannot help but be sad when one imagines all the beauty that is lost to the world through violence. I guess it helps to put a hopeful spin on things, that they might change and we might not have to repeat the cycle ad infinitum.

There is a lot more history in Reims, because it was a pretty major Gallo-Roman city, and in fact the first cathedral on the site of Notre Dame de Reims dates back to the fifth century! Hopefully I'll get a chance to go back and see the museums, and drink more champagne!

For lunch, I do recommend the Brasserie du Boulingrin, 48 rue de Mars, +33(0)3 2640 9622. On that site(a bit off the tourist track) since 1925, they serve a broad variety classic French brasserie fare, including platters from their oyster/shellfish/lobster bar. My lunch menu was 17.50, for appetizer (warm lentil salad with sausage), main dish (cod brandade wrapped in crispy filo pastry), dessert (hazelnut cake), wine (red, white or rose), and coffee. The restaurant seemed very popular, and not only with travelers.

Tasting at G.H. Martel in Champagne

The CIJP organized a day trip to Champagne last weekend, which included a visit to the winecellars of a champagne producer, G.H. Martel, in Reims. Unfortunately, it's not where any of the processing goes on anymore, since they moved to accommodate increased production volume. There are lots of similar caves in Reims, a short distance from the city center.



The Champagne-Ardenne region is the most northerly wine-growing region of France, and one important role of the caves is indeed to maintain the humidity (90%!) and temperature of the wine. It feels quite chilly down there, even more than above ground, because of the damp air.



The Methode Champenoise process for making sparkling wine is very involved and costly , since no machinery is allowed in picking the grapes, the juice must be extracted very carefully to keep from tinting it with the skins of the pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes, the stored bottles must be turned (sometimes by hand) regularly and because the carbonation requires a second fermentation. Of course, for a long time, producers have tried to adapt technology for making the process more efficient. Now there are machines to turn the bottles and, even more bizarrely, the yeast is removed after the first fermentation by turning the bottle upside down to collect it in the neck of the bottle, freezing the neck, and opening the bottle to make the plug of solids pop out. This process is not done at the degustation site, but they show visitors a video of it. The older gadgets looked a little like torture machines at first glance.



The caves in Champagne are dug out of very chalky stone, so soft that a fine powder rubs off on your fingers if you touch it. This place where the stone was chipped away scarily made me think of the faces of the Nome king and his monsters that swim through stone in the movie Return to Oz.



After the tour, there was the tasting, of course! It may seem strange that we started with the Grand Cru, but it had a classic fine brut champagne flavor, while the following champagnes, a millesime (made with juice from only one year's harvest), a demi-sec (slightly more sugar), and a rose, were variations from what most people think of in champagne.



If you're interested in visiting, G.H. Martel has various locations listed on their website, including the cave we went to located at 17 rue des Créneaux, in Reims, and their telephone number is +33(0)3 2682 7067.

Nearby is the Basilique St. Remi, where the bishop who baptised the first Catholic king of France (on Christmas eve in 496) is entombed. Sorry, my picture turned out blurry and dark because of the dim lighting.

Day of the Dead: Pan de Muerto

A couple of Mexican friends of mine, Juan and Yeri, invited me to 'help' them make Pan de Muerto today, to celebrate the Dias des los Muertos. According to their recipe, this traditional bread is a sweet, slightly eggy yeast bread flavored with orange juice and orange flower water. The top of the bread is decorated with balls and a cross of lines of dough in imitation of a skull and crossbones. It's a type of bread that Mexican families place on temporary altars to be shared with the spirits of the ancestors.

Rather being an occasion of fright, this festival celebrates memories of those who have passed away and even involves making jokes and holding 'roasts' of people, teasing them about the vices that will eventually lead to their demise. Instead of trick-or-treating for candy, Mexican children ask for money from parents and relatives in order to buy a sugar skull that has their name written on it, which they consume at the end of the festival. Families get together and celebrate their loved ones, even with mariachis in the cemetery!

Anyway, in Mexico my friends always bought their pan de muerto at a store, so we weren't quite sure about the recipe and the desired texture of the dough during the process. Between the three of us, we managed to make a tasty bread and have fun doing it, even though it didn't manage to replicate the traditional bread we were trying to make. It didn't rise nearly enough, but topped with enough melted butter and sugar, we couldn't go too far wrong, and frankly I thought it was delicious. Yeri made a fantastic hot chocolate using traditional Mexican spiced chocolate tablets, brought from her hometown of Oaxaca, and Juan missed the fact that a less dense bread would have acted more like a sponge for dipping in the chocolate. What's the word in Spanish for gourmandise?

 

Hanging out by the oven and sipping hot chocolate was a perfect way to spend this Toussaint holiday, which seems to have thrown Paris headlong into the oncoming winter with blustery winds and chilly fingers, despite the sunny blue skies.