Raining this morning in Paris, thankfully I'm sitting on a train to Reims.
Made it to the cathedral, impressive! In fact I like the west facade of Notre Dame de Reims better than Notre Dame in Paris. Perhaps it's that Paris is too straight and square, Reims is more fancy perhaps, or more ornate. Unfortunately, she shows her age, and happily she has restoration going on, so I don't have a photo of that magnificent facade without the scaffolding. Unfortunately she also lost many of her stained glass in the bombing of WWI. The floor plan seems strange, but it works; one aisle on each side of the nave, double aisles in the apse, but those are really chapels. Walls are typically three tiered - archade, triforium, and clerestory. Great rose window in the west end, but also stained glass over the doors where one would expect a carved tympanum.
In Reims there is also the basilica of St Remi, a medieval abbey church. There are different styles in the nave (3 tiers, the clerestory has small Romanesque style windows with a small round window able it) and the apse (it has 4 tiers, quite unique and beautiful). I was awed! This was once an important Benedictine abbey, and they built an abbey church to reflect that importance.
I had always planned in only spending the morning and early afternoon there in Reims, as I bought a rail pass that is only good for nine days. As I have over a dozen cathedrals I hope to visit, I need to get two train rides in on some days. So I traveled on to Laon and will spend two nights here. Now since I wasn't staying in Reims, I had no place to leave my backpack, so, of course I carried it all day. It wasn't too bad, as the cathedral was only about a mile from the train station, and St Remi another mile further. But all flat. I get to Laon, and the cathedral and old town are up on top of a mountain! I didn't spend much time looking for a hotel, but just took a room in the first place I came to, next to the train station (not particularly cheap at 49 euros). But then I didn't have to carry my pack up the mountain (of course I wouldn't take the tram, I'm in training!).
Also I'm discovering that my little Sony camera's battery is going dead after a couple hundred photos, probably because after I take a picture and then look around for the next shot, just about then the camera decides that it's been too long without any action and shuts itself off. So I end up having to turn the darn thing on a hundred times or more and the battery's soon dead.
So back to Laon, I climbed all those hundreds of steps without a camera, and just spent time praying in the cathedral (I have all of tomorrow to take pictures and explore the old town). Laon is certainly not the tourist hot spot, I practically had the place to myself. It's a shame as I now think this one is my favorite!
