A Day in Reims

June 19, 2024

History and Champagne

We had a relaxing start to our day, given that breakfast at our Novotel lasted until 11 am. I worked on the journal and then we walked down to the Musee of Reddition (Surrender in English). This Museum, in a wing of a former college, was where Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 7, 1945. The Museum showed a very good film that explained why it occurred in Reims. In short: in February 1945 Eisenhower had moved his headquarters to Reims to oversee the campaign after the Allies had fought their way off the beaches in Normandy and were trying to break through to Germany.

In late April 1945 Russian forces fought their way into Berlin and Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker. General Jodl was directed by Hitler’s replacement, Admiral Donitz, to negotiate a peace with American/British forces that would allow them to continue defending Berlin; therefore when he came to Reims to meet with the Allies he did not have authority for a full surrender. The Allies refused, and after some further negotiation, Germany agreed to an unconditional surrender. The only concession the Allies would make was to delay announcement for 2 days so as many German soldiers as possible could flee west. It was understood that Russia would, at best, round up German soldiers and send them to labor camps in Russia. It was also understood that the US and its Allies would treat them more humanely.

It was the perfect little Museum, quiet, the materials well-presented and there was not too much information for our easily distracted brains to take in. We saw the room where the simple document was signed. Eisenhower was not present for the actual signing; something about Jodl’s rank being lower than his? He came in afterwards though to celebrate with the Allied side. Many press people were flown in to document the event and were sworn to secrecy about releasing the story for 48 hours. The Russians were pissed the event did not take place in Berlin so the following day there was another signing event held in Berlin.

A different perspective of the massive cathedral.

The building in which the surrender occurred.

Afterwards we went down to G.W. Martel to do our wine tasting. It was a long walk so instead I planned a short ride (17 km) around the outskirts of Reims and down the Reims Greenway, which is 24 km long in total (we did not do the whole greenway today but did the following day on the way out of town). It follows the Canal de l’Aine a la Marne, constructed in 1866.

Several sculling and rowing teams were practicing on the canal.

We like Reims but don't think it is as bike-friendly as some other French cities. It was fairly hairy around the train station. Reims also is a university town so it has a pleasing student vibe.

We thought Komoot was trying to have us descend a large flight of stairs to get to the canal, but we were pleasantly surprised to find an elevator which accommodated both of our bikes.

The tasting at Martel was great. Thank you Rick Steves for that recommendation! Martel is a small champagne house and they don’t export much wine to the US (plus it’s under a different name due to a copyright issue with the brandy maker, Martell) nor do they ship wine from Reims to the US. So, we tasted three great champagnes that we likely will never get to enjoy again. The tasting consisted of Dave and me and the presenter Oriane, a young woman who had worked for Martel for two years while she is attending the local university. We learned a lot about champagne history, the essentials of which I will not bore you with except (1) champagne is pretty new in its current form, produced only since the 1800s, but iterations of it go back to Roman times; (2) a Commitee of Champagne controls a bunch of the technical details about how the producers are allowed to make and market champagne; (3) its been a terrible year due to adverse weather (early hot spring followed by killer frost and now all the rain) so everybody in the industry is super bummed and it has already been determined that the houses will not make any vintage forms. 2024 will not be a good year for wine makers in this part of France.

Although Martel cannot export under its usual marque, apparently they do have this label which has limited availability in the US.

Our lovely and and knowledgeable hostess, Oriane, holding the bottle from the 2010 vintage which we got to sample.

Afterwards we went out for oysters and seafood at Brasserie le Boulingrin near the market. We sat next to two Australian women, Carolyn and Barbara, and had a really fun conversation. They were from Tasmania and were very well-travelled, so we had a very wide-ranging conversation centering on travel and politics and they gave me some ideas for a trip to New Zealand. Why we travel - meeting interesting people.

Today's ride: 17 km (11 miles)
Total: 1,697 km (1,054 miles)

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