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When we were planning our trip to Paris we decided that we wanted to take one day to get out of the city. We decided to go to Reims which is in the heart of the Champagne region of France and we took the TGV to get there. Once we arrived we made our way to an ancient arch that dates back 1200 years or so. Then we went to lunch at a restaurant whose review one of us had read. The food there was really good though the menu wasn't sufficiently clear to most of us to understand what we were ordering. A few of us later on reported that it wasn't as positive an experience for them as it was for me.

Following that we took public transport (a bus) to go to a wine tasting. The lady at the wine place kindly advised us that at her establishment it was more of a wine-art place rather then a winery or cellar tour. We were astounded as she then proceeded to call other wine shops in the neighbouhood to give them this business. She then gave us a tasting of two separate champagnes. We thanked her by, as a group, purchasing three or four bottles of champagne from her shop. We then made our way to Taittinger where we took the tour and had a glass of champagne at the end. The tour was quite impressive as it took advantage of tunnels and passages underground that existed as part of an Abby that was on the premises prior to the winery.

After that we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Reims where Kings in the past have been crowned. It is a monumental building that rises very high up into the air and is very large. It was the most impressive church we went to in terms of size.

Following that we made our way through some shopping areas back to the train station, took the TGV back home, ate at a restaurant and that was the end of the night.

This is the Paris Est train station where we got on to go to Reims.

This archway dates from the year 200AD. How come nothing I build lasts that long?

Close up of some detail of the arch.

Where we had lunch on this day, need to do a tripadvisor review.

The food was delicious, this is what I had, but it wasn't clear before we ordered it what it would be as the description is not clear.

Not all of us got to get a glimpse into this one (I missed it) because we were in a rush to get to our wine tasting.

At the Tottinger wine cellar we came across this one with a small hole in the lower center - the bottle that had been there had had a defect and had exploded.

In this cavernous cellar that has two km's of tunnels and stores three million bottles, the owners of the winery store some expensive bottles. This is their selection to which we could not get closer because there was a locked gate.

In caverns like this inside the cellar, there are 70-90 thousand bottles waiting for their time to come up for further processing.

This cave had a card showing it was storing 99644 bottles.

This cellar was beneath what was once an abbey and here are ancient steps, dating from around 1200 that led to the abbey.

This is Notre Dame cathedral in Reims.

The same cathedral where I lucked out with a contrail.

Some dudes on the front of this cathedral.

This glass replaced the original as the original had been war damaged through the history of this 800 year old church.

The TGV managed to get to 320kph for just a few moments and I didn't have my camera handy, this was the second top speed that I managed to record.