When I arrived in Reims, the very first thing I noticed was the construction. They are building a tramway in the city, and it looks like it’ll be fairly nice once it’s done, but at the moment it makes the city look as though it’s been demolished. I checked a map inside the train station that gave directions to the tourism office, which is consequently right next to the cathedral, and I was on my way. The quickest route actually took me through a pedestrian shopping area in Reims, and I did a little bit of window-shopping on my way. I got there fairly early in the morning, and nothing was open yet. On the walk, I also saw one of the most magnificent fountains I have ever come across. It was one big circle, with little circles of water forming it… Well, a picture might be better:
I found the tourism office, and inside I picked up the schedule of the day’s events. Nothing would start up until well into the afternoon, so I decided to just start wandering so that I would know my way around for later. In doing so, I ran into a lot of the festival workers setting up, and got to see people before they changed into their medieval clothes.
Pretty soon, I found the cathedral. It was massive, and was very similar to other cathedrals I’ve come across. Outside of it I came across the statue, of Joan. It was actually one of the smaller statues I saw related to her, but I was glad to see it nonetheless. The lighting inside the cathedral made it rather spectacular. They had purple and pink lights beaming up to the ceiling to make the arches look even more otherworldly. Inside the cathedral I also happened across a statue of Joan holding the staff.
As my day progressed, the shops and festival goers started to come out of their hiding places. There were a wide range of items offered – food, medieval wear, jewelry, soap, toy swords, spices, etc.
I also saw many demonstrations throughout the day. There was one on medieval torture techniques, another on the firearms used by knights, a tracking hawk in action, and of course jousting. I saw juggling of blades and fire, fights breaking out in honor of the king, and many other things. Of course, the good guys were the French and the bad were the British, due to the Joan theme. Unfortunately, Joan herself would not make an appearance until the following day, at which time I would be gone. But it was still better to go on the Saturday since there were more events in general.
The entire day had been cloudy and gloomy, but about half an hour before I was due to leave the sun burst out from behind the clouds. It was a nice send off to walk back through the streets and see everything brightened by the color of the sun.
