This morning was another early start. We woke up at 6am and took a look outside for our last early morning view from our balcony.
We finished packing our bags and set them outside the room at 6:30am for pickup onto the bus and went downstairs for our last breakfast onboard at 7am. We spoke with a nice lady, Laura, from Fort Wayne, Indiana during breakfast. She had not heard of the Exotic Feline Rescue that Rob and Michele visited years ago, and they encouraged her to check it out.
We loaded on the buses for our long ride to Paris at 8:15. Luxembourg was only about an hour from Trier and we’d get a stop at the American Cemetery and Memorial. As we neared the cemetery, the bus took a quick detour through Kirchberg. The town looked very modern with interesting building architecture and a slick looking light railway.
We arrived at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial just 5 minutes later. We had 35 minutes to walk around the grounds.
This cemetery is primarily the resting place of soldiers who died during the Battle of the Bulge. This effort was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II, taking place from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg. The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerpand to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy each of the four Allied armies and force the western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers’ favor. While the Nazis achieved complete and total surprise and managed to push as far as the village of Foy-Notre-Dame, south east of Dinant by December 24, 1944 just 8 days after the start of the offensive, they were beaten back to the December 16th position by January 25, 1945. The Germans would surrender on May 8, 1945, ending WWII in Europe.
As you would expect, the grounds are meticulously maintained. Golf course green grass, and perfectly trimmed grass around the head stones and pathways. They do not use string trimmers for this. It’s all done with hand actuated trimmers. Electric hedge trimmers are used for the bushes.
General Patton is buried here, per his wishes of being buried with his soldiers. His headstone sits up front facing the 5,000+ grave sites of this cemetery.
Back on the bus, we were soon in France after about five minutes on the highway. Luxembourg is a very small country. Our second stop of the day was Reims, about two hours from Luxembourg.
Along the way, there was a 30km stretch of the highway that had these curious objects on the right-hand side of the road.
They were developed by an artist in 1977 as a way of keeping people’s attention while driving to help them stay awake.
Although we were traveling to Reims to tour the cathedral, Reims also has a unique spot in history during WWII. Reims was the site of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in Europe commanded by Eisenhower. On the morning of May 7, 1945, at 02:41, General Eisenhower and the Allies received the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht in Reims in what was the “map room.” General Alfred Jodl, German Chief-of-Staff, signed the surrender at the SHAEF as the representative for German President Karl Dönitz.
We arrived at Reims at about 12:45pm and were led to a small square with restaurants. We opted for a bakery for ease and time. They had sandwiches on fresh baguettes, quiches, wraps, and even pizza. Of course they also had pastries. Michele and Rob shared a ham and cheese baguette while Roy and Gwyn got a wrap.
After lunch, Rob and Michele took a quick walk around for 30 minutes before our tour meeting time at 2pm.
Roy and Gwyn found ice cream. Look how artistically they “scooped” the ice cream for her, in the shape of a rose.
Michele and Rob snapped a quick selfie at the futuristic spherical fountain before the group tour.
Meeting up with our cathedral tour guide, he explained the history of the cathedral and how it was mostly destroyed during WWI. The war front was very close to Reims and for four years shells rained down on the city. Nearly 300 shells were believed to have directly hit the cathedral. Most of the statues above about 12 feet off the ground are reproductions. The originals (what was left of them) are stored in a museum next to the cathedral.
The cathedral church is thought to have been founded by the bishop Nicasius in the early 5th century. Clovis was baptized a Christian here by Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims, about a century later. He was the first Frankish king to receive this sacrament. A hundred-year construction of the present Reims Cathedral began in the 13th century and concluded in the 14th century. Reims Cathedral is considered to be one of the most important works of Gothic Architecture.
Notice how the very small statues to the far right are all missing their heads? Maybe the reason has something to do with the French Revolution and the in-vogue pastime of cutting off heads. The five large statues here are all original, saved during WWI due to concerned citizens stacking sand bags to protect them.
John D. Rockefeller donated a significant amount of money to Reims to help the restoration efforts. In his honor, the city named the street in front of the cathedral after him.
These windows are from Chagall.
These windows are from a German artist and were created/installed in 2013. They are considered a statement of reconciliation between the French and Germans. The colors in the windows are those found in both the German and French flags. Note how they are mixed together as a message of peace.
Our tour complete, we loaded back on the bus for the two hour ride to Paris and our hotel for the next four days. One of our fellow passengers boarded the bus with a bloody shin. He scraped it on a cement ledge when trying to avoid a group of teenagers. Michele quickly gave him two bandaids and a bit of Neosporin. At 5:45pm we arrived at our hotel, the Pullman, a skyscraper of a hotel. It was a long day and we were worn out. We popped over to Lidl across the street to pick up snacks, which was a madhouse of activity on a Friday afternoon working hours, then had dinner in the hotel’s italian restaurant. Roy, Gwyn and Rob each had the parma ham pizza and Michele had osso bucco. Tomorrow we have a Paris highlights tour along with a visit to Versailles.
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