We last walked through Reims ten years ago. Then we were walking from Namur in Belgium, to Vezelay in the Burgundy region (Vezelay is an important place for the two of us – walked there three times, now). We were walking on a different GR route and managed to get a bit lost crossing a landscape of endless checkerboard fields of sugar beet and wheat, only relieved by occasional encounters with vast sugar processing plants or the solitary water towers that were scattered across the flat landscape. The lack of any shade and absence of any villages with any services in them had helped finish us off, so, when we arrived at a suburb of the city and had found the only bar open that day, we sat in it and worked out that, despite it being well after four in the afternoon we still had at least another hour’s walking to do before we were anywhere near our hotel for the night. We did not hesitate when we saw a taxi firm sign on the counter of the bar, and were very happy when the man behind the bar assured us that a taxi could deliver us into central Reims without any problems.

The clouds had been forming while we were in the bar and by the time we got to out hotel it was already raining. That was a problem we could cope with. We often had picnics in our hotel rooms, eating salads and bread and some rillettes (me) and cheese (Alison) while quaffing a bottle of red using either the hotel’s glasses or our own plastic cups. Shopping was not a problem when you had the correct gear to hand. The real problem was that we had managed to get carried away by the facts that the hotel was really cheap but really central. In fact, it was a dive! We camped there but it was not a good experience with nothing en-suit and the showers two floors down (no lift), the room wasn’t particularly clean, etc etc.

Next morning was dismal, we walked to the cathedral which seemed to be a dull,dark, overbearing place perched on the corner of two of the city’s busiest streets with traffic crowding in on you as you waited to cross the road and seemed to rumble and complain to you through the doors of the cathedral. The windows had little light to shine through them and the potentially interesting stained glass seemed to be coated in dust and cobwebs. We left the place, trudged along looking at our maps and encountered a taxi rank where we piled into a taxi and got the driver to drop us on the outskirts of the city. Job done. Not likely to rush back there we thought!

Of course, we are open minded and mature travellers and, although it held no real prospects for us (in our minds) we were intending to have a better, more positive experience of the city this time. We had experienced a very long and demanding walk the previous day from Chamouille to Hermondsville. In August France does close down a lot and with the coming long holiday weekend, it had been really hard to find anywhere to stay. So we had managed to find a really expensive hotel in Chamouille and then a chambre d’hotes in Hermonville, but the official route between the two was over 37 kms so we had used Google to help us find something shorter. We saved about 5kms but had to endure a lot of long climbs across bare but hilly landscapes with almost no shade. It was hot. In fact, it was very hot, but we had enough water and other resources and managed it, as always.

So the day into Reims was a lot easier and a lot shorter and, to add to the good news there was more shade and it was flatter, with the long approach to the city utilising the same canal we have been encountering for a number of days now. This time it was a well surfaced and tree lined canal tow path route that was good to walk.

While approaching the city we had a number of opportunities to spot a tall edifice that we felt sure must be the front of the cathedral. We were glad to see it come nearer, but we were more interested in getting to the centre and being able to sit down, rest, have some food and a very long cold drink. We would go to the cathedral for a stamp in our pilgrim passport and hope that the sun which was beating down so hard on us would add some grace and joy to the place.

A week might be a long time in politics but ten years in the life of a city can be a very long time indeed!

As we walked into the city, we put the fact that the city seemed a very attractive and civilised looking place down to the sunshine and to the fact that we were walking in a different sector from the one we had been in the last time. After following the indirect pilgrim route to the cathedral, we were stunned to find a very fine, cleaned up and honey stoned building of great character sitting in the midst of a pedestrian only precinct with a very nice selection of bars and restaurants dressing the sides of the square and the streets stretching out from the church.

Reims, please forgive our earlier snooty views of you! It looks like you have done a superb job of revitalising yourself. Even if our earlier view was deeply coloured by unfortunate circumstances, just the transformation of the Cathedral and its environs would have been enough to make you shine in our eyes. But the rest of the city also looks really great. The major boulevards are buzzing, there seems to be a great art and music scene going here and it all feels like you have stepped up to the mark and shown yourself to be a really fine and attractive northern French city.

Wow!

So, this morning, despite having loaded up with enough food (plus wine) for a couple of days where there will be almost no shops or cafes open anywhere and where no evening meals will be available, we left Reims with a lighter step than our bags deserved and with a conviction that we will return – a lot sooner than in another ten years.

This evening we are in Beaumont sur Vesle, just a few kms off the route and I am about to cook some tea (burgers and salad). And tomorrow we head back on the route and will rest our weary heads in Conde sur Marne. At least the roads will be quiet as tomorrow is a major French holiday, it is the Feast of the Assumption. We have been in the Champagne region at least since Hermondville but we have not tasted any of the bubbly yet (for various reasons) but we will have to wait until we reach Chalons en Champagne before we can get the chance of doing so.

When we do, we will raise our glasses to all of our friends and family back home and, especially, to our daughter Rosalind and her family (Callum, Quentin, Isla and Matilda) who will have arrived in Australia by then, ready to start their own new adventure there. We will toast to life and to love and to peace xxxx