Keen's European Vacation - Day 3

Day 3 Saturday 8 August 2015 - Paris - Reims - Luxembourg

Our anniversary morning Smooth Pierre has outdone himself, how will he ever top this anniversary? You can read between the lines, if you dare!!! Waking in Paris then taking me on a romantic tour of the Champagne region in Reims and into the French countryside and finishing our day in Luxembourg. Our first romantic day in Paris and we can hardly believe the cityscape, the place is oozing charm and romanticism. Not one to waste good French wine, we toasted each other with leftover red wine; remembering our wedding day and slow dancing in our room to David Bowies Hero’s. (We have a video, I may share that at a later date!) 

We then experienced our first continental breakfast with croissant, ham w Gruyere cheese, hard boiled eggs, baguette, cereal n fruit, coffee n juice, One Korean lady in the breakfast room got caught taking extra for her lunch, so Pete decided it was not a good idea to stuff his pockets with extra goodies. Although his first go at a croissant when he tore it open was “oh look a vegemite croissant”! After biting into it he realised it was chocolate, “now that tastes weird you are expecting vegemite!”. The hotel supplies breakfast not breakfast and lunch, I thought it was a bit rude taking food, when others missed out on brekkie. He did try to lift a copy of the French morning paper “La Parisienne” but the doorman made him return it. 

We left hotel and took a coach to transfer point in the Place de Italie. We met our first tour guide Lex from the Netherlands and he took over, and told us to really watch our luggage, the whole of Europe is rife with pickpockets. It freaked us out a bit and then to be told, go to the toilet but you need to pay every time you want to pee, so order a coffee or juice in any cafe and you can use the facilities. It was a good tip early in the trip as there was no loo on the coach. Most places charged .70 euro so around $1 AUD.

We gathered all of the people joining the Red Line with Go Eu Go tours and 44 of us set off on the International coach, another 5 Chinese speaking tours were leaving as well. It was packed and everyone was buzzing with excitement. We got a seat immediately behind the driver, we were up high and had a great view of the road. Pete was stoked with his prime position, and immediately adopted his self appointed role of co-pilot. 

We travelled to Reims in Champagne region, to our amazement we turned a corner and got our first eyeful of a truly magnificent gothic cathedral, it literally took our breath away, the size, the detail, the sculpture, the art, the feeling of the dimly lit, cool interior gave us goose bumps, it is the Notre Dame of Reims, the cathedral was built in 1211. All of the French Kings were crowned in this church, also a beautiful statue of Joan of Arc is here. Her story of heroism is amazing, she saved the people from the English during the war after experiencing a "vision" from God in her sleep. Charles VI gave her an army of soldiers and she led and fought with them to save the town and people and defeated the enemy. Unfortunately for Joan she became more popular with the people than the King so Charles IV had her burned at the stake......those times were so barbaric and harsh for everyone, but a 16 year old girl, that led an army to victory being burned at the stake, blows my mind.....poor soul.  

Joan of Arc

We had lunch in the square al fresco with glass of champagne and a Stella. I bought a bottle of champagne to put on ice for tonight and coasters for the summer on our deck, plus a little Paris tote bag. Leaving Reims we travelled north on our luxury coach to Luxembourg.

Luxembourg was a post card, street theatre everywhere and steeped in history. Fortresses  from 932! Tiny country with a huge heart and very beautiful people. It is 2000 sq km, and takes 1 hour to drive across it. It is a tax haven and has the second highest minimum wage after Australia being the first. We couldn’t believe our eyes as we watched the news that night, and there we were, Pete and Ronnie from Down Under, captured as wrapt audience participants in the crowd, watching the giant puppets and a tiny weeny lady playing the piano accordion in the street. We were on Luxembourg TV on our anniversary. We spent the night in the Novotel Luxembourg and I ordered the penne with swordfish & Pete had Moussaka….not sure what the natives eat but we really enjoyed it… for our anniversary dinner. Pete was dying to speak the lingo but just said to the waiter that we don't speak! He didn’t realise the waiter was speaking French, he thought he was speaking Luxembourg! But he tried really hard and I was so impressed with his efforts to make our anniversary dinner so special. We were too tired to drink our champagne but it won't go to waste! I’ll carry with me until I get the chance to enjoy it!

We had a great breakfast here, and we are meeting more people from the bus each day, a mother and daughter from Canada Jackie and Jess are lovely, and 3 tiny gorgeous very friendly girls from Hong Kong, that I have nick named the “China Dolls”. Our bus is English speaking but it is totally multicultural all from different backgrounds and lots of people living in countries other than their place of birth, including America, Vietnam, Kazikstan and Spain. Tomorrow we are off to Trier, and then to Germany for a German Pork Knuckle and Sausage lunch and Rhine River cruise.