And now for a little WWI History: Reims

From le Mont Saint-Michel, we made the long drive to Reims, where we had two nights in a B&B. Here I am in the garden of the B&B. Prior to our arrival here (East of Paris by about 1.5 hours), we stopped along the way in Meux, France, to visit their new WWI museum. In addition to this year being the 70th anniversary of D-Day in WWII, it is also the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWI. Throughout France, there were new memorials, attractions and museums created for the anniversaries this year.

At the WWI museum in Meux, Mark stands in front of one of the approximately 600 Parisian taxis which were used to bring around 6,000 troops out to the front lines during the Battle of the Marne.

Forget email or telephones, homing pigeons were used in WWI to transport important messages. This pigeon-wagon was the world-wide-web of its day.

Some examples of the instruments (and art) that were made by soldiers in the trenches. The troops spent four years living and fighting in miserable trenches carved-into French soil. When they weren't fighting, they conquered boredom by improvising with materials to create games, musical instruments, toys, kitchen-ware, candlesticks and many other items. The guitar on the left is made of wood and a soldier's helmet.

The museum had some examples of what a trench would have looked like during the war. Used in all seasons, they would have been a horrible way to live and fight -- at times, hot & muggy, swampy, wet, or freezing-cold.

This biplane really illustrates how primitive the weapons of war were 100 years ago. Also on display, the tanks that were used:

After viewing the museum, we continued-on to Reims. Our B&B was right in the city, which was noisier and not as charming as Bayeux. If we return to this part of France someday, we will probably stay in the villages of Épernay or Hautvilliers, where the small, well-preserved historic towns are surrounded by vineyards of champagne grapes. We really enjoyed our evening in Reims, however, as we ate a late dinner on the square facing the cathedral. This summer, on Friday and Saturday nights, there is a music and light show projected onto the cathedral which was pretty spectacular. An added bonus: our table was right next to the table of a young American expat, Catherine, who was now living in Belgium. She and her black lab, Shiree, (from N. Carolina) were so much fun to chat with during dinner and the folllowing light show.

Pretty amazing light show: the Reims cathedral, like most, is made of creamy-beige stone. The lights projected onto it created a beautiful stained-glass effect that changed with the music throughout the show. The show couldn't start until 11pm, as it stays light so late in the summer in Northern France!