Train to Reims

June 17, 2024

Happily, our last train ride for awhile

Dave set the alarm for 5:30 am due to our early train. The weather forecast was for heavy rain all morning but what we got, in addition to the rain, were lightning and thunder, right outside our window. This continued solidly until 6:15 am and we were dreading the short (1 km) ride to the train station. Fortunately it abated just as we left. Our host Dominque had kindly packed a to-go breakfast for us and Georges had recharged our bikes and left them in the courtyard. They both communicated very clearly and it was pleasure to stay there. La Perluette: highly recommended.

We made our way to the train station and up the bike ramp to cross the tracks. Blois gets an A plus for bike infrastructure. Besides the cool ramp, the elevator which is used to descend on the other side was big enough to allow a bike and panniers to roll on without the unpleasant lift maneuvering sometimes required at other stations.

We took a very early train on another day -from Brive-La-Gaillarde - and it was very quiet. That train was already at the station allowing plenty of time to board and there was a limited crowd until we got closer to Paris. We were the only bikes. That experience lulled us into thinking that it would be similar today - unfortunately it wasn’t. There were many people waiting on the assigned track and as the time approached for the train to arrive more people arrived with bikes. We were on a TER (regional) train, which allowed bikes but it was first come-first served, and it turned out Blois was only a two minutes stop, so there was a huge scramble as those of us with bikes made for the bike bay. The bike bay had three hanging spaces for bikes and besides our two monsters there was a guy with a road bike, a folding bike and this weirdly large fat-tired scooter. The dudes with the folding bike and road bike just stashed their bikes in the bay and sauntered off, leaving Dave and me absolutely floored as to how we were supposed to hang or store our bikes for the hour and a half ride, not being sure of the etiquette of doing a rearrangement of other people’s bikes. Fortunately, the conductor came along and had no hesitation at rearranging things to his satisfaction; he moved the folding bike into an adjacent corridor, hung the road bike, and then helped Dave maneuver his bike to hang it. Unfortunately, bike hanging on the train is one of those activities that particularly bothers Dave’s wrist. We sat for the entire ride on the jump seats in the bike bay.

Riding in the rain. We're just riding in the rain ☔

Yes, Dave, you have to hang the bikes up.

Happily, the Paris Austerlitz station, where we got off, was the terminus of the train run so we could take our time and let everyone off before getting our bikes off the train. The plan was to ride our bikes from Austerlitz to Gare de l’Est where we would catch a train to Reims. It was a 5 km ride and we had about an hour and a half to do it. Murphy’s Law being what it is, the weather forecast between 8 and 10 that morning, when we would be doing our ride transfer between stations, predicted heavy rain, thunderstorms and local flooding in Paris. As we left the Austerlitz station it was raining steadily but no thunderstorms or flooding. Dave quickly realized that his fender had gotten bent from all the maneuvering and was rubbing his tire which necessitated pulling over on the bike path and spending ten minutes fixing it. Is it just a foregone conclusion that when you need to do an emergency bike repair, it’s always raining?

Yeah, it was raining and I had to realign the front fender which was harder than I had expected.

The ride that morning to Gare de l’Est was considerably less delightful than our two rides through Paris 10 days ago when we were there for the French Open. Besides the steady rain it was rush hour and there was substantially more aggressive behavior, both from cars and bikes. I had planned a trip mostly on bike trails but at one point we had to stop due to a market which inconveniently blocked the bike trail for a few blocks. Most cyclists just went into traffic and kept going, but we stopped, dismounted and walked through the market itself. It was a great one and I suspect Dave wished we could have dawdled a bit more.

Indeed I would have enjoyed meanding through this blocks long market.

We arrived at Gare de l’Est pretty wet but had time to pull off our booties and outer layers and find a cafe to warm up. It was a Starbucks, which cracked us up - this was the first coffee we have had in 7 weeks from a franchise. I have to say the vanilla latte the Starbuck’s lady made for me was delicious. At home, at my favorite coffee haunt, called Back Porch, I order a “12 oz, nonfat, single shot, one-pump cardamon latte.” All that precise fanciness goes out the window in Europe and I usually order a latte, and get what I get: who knows how many shots is in it, or what size, etc. So getting vanilla in my coffee was a treat, notwithstanding it was Starbucks.

Good ol' Starbucks. As ubiquitous as McDonald's.

I took a shot of a plaque commemorating all the Jewish folks deported from this station in the 1940s.

Boarding our train to Reims wasn’t exactly a smooth process. The train was packed and we although we had assigned bike spaces in car 1 we couldn’t figure out where they were. A kind female conductor pointed them out -to access them you have to pull four seats up - but it was quite easy to load the bikes, and no hanging required!

We arrived in Reims shortly before lunch at the Novotel Suites, which was right across from the train station on the outskirts of the main center of Reims. They allowed us to check in early which was great. We were both sweaty and wet and quickly unpacked and changed to go to lunch. Our bikes took over the hotel’s entire baggage storage closet. We’re not sure what happened to all the luggage the lady at the front desk took out to make room for our bikes but we appreciated it.

The bistro across the street was recommended by the hotel and just as we arrived a huge tour group was moving up the steps. We grimaced, thinking it would fill such a tiny place, but in this we were deceived as the bistro extends back quite a ways to an outdoor terrace. Being Reims, the champagne capital, we ordered aperol spritz royals (meaning with champagne) and split a steak frites,which in France is described as “entreocote Avec frites” and a sauce of your choice. We chose pepper sauce and had a delicious lunch. Most of the folks around us appeared to be people working and taking lunch and it continues to amaze us how they can go out for lunch like this and then go back to work in the afternoon. We, on the other hand, need only ride - or nap!

We considered our options for champagne tasting and getting some exercise. The weather had cleared so we opted to take a long walk through town to Martel, stopping on the way for a quick visit at Reims Cathedral, which is a very famous cathedral and the place where 26 or 33 (just depending on your source) French Kings have been crowned. Reims was in the midst of the Western Front in WW1 and the Cathedral was destroyed. John Rockefeller contributed a million dollars in 1924 to rebuild it (along with the Palace at Versailles and Fontainebleau). Near the Cathedral is Rue Rockefeller - presumably named after him in thanks. It was impressive but Dave left his hat there on a pew after removing it and then of course forgot to pick it back up! It’s now on the list for replacement.

The Port Mars is a 3rd century BCE remnant of a Roman gate (one of four and the only one still existing).

The cathedral is as imposing as it is impressive.

We had checked and Martel was open until 7; we had also read you could just drop in for a tasting (as opposed to a tour) so when we arrived at 6 pm. We thought we were safe and had arrived in plenty of time. Of course, being France, we learned that yes there were open until 7 but they stop tasting at 5:30 pm. This was a bummer because it was a long walk, and we were really ready to sit down. Ahh - first world problems.

We discussed with the woman at the desk how to taste the following day and worked out a walking route back through Reims for dinner, being a bit at a loss. The good news; we walked through the Gambetta neighborhood, saw a nice outdoor place, sat down for a glass of champagne and just decided to eat tapas for dinner there. It was really fun and the food was delicious. We should have ordered a bottle of champagne because we had 5 glasses (um, not each, just altogether) by the end of the meal, but we didn't know that at the front end. So we enjoyed a blanc de blanc by the glass (all five of them!). We had a perfect light dinner though - there is nothing like a can of sardines to highlight your dinner!

We went to bed feeling content.

Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 1,680 km (1,043 miles)

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