I had a quick explore around Reims on friday afternoon. It's a lovely town with an imposing cathederal, lots of lovely buildings and a bustling festive market. We went for a meal on friday night, but Sparks had to work on saturday morning so I took myself off to the shops to get my mum's Christmas pressie.
I had breakfast in a little cafe and wandered around the huge festive market. The smells of food cooking were damn near making me salivate. I found a pressie for mum in one of the perfumeries, of which there are several. Reims is obviously an affluent place, lots of posh clothes shops, I've never seen so many shoe shops in one town, it was heaven. Plentiful jewellery shops and delicious looking choclatiers and bakeries. I could have spent a fortune but was very restrained.
The disadvantage of being there is that my French isn't really up to scratch. I used to be able to get by quite nicely and did get an O level, but I haven't spoken French for over 20 years. The French are just like us Brits in that they will make no attempt to communicate with you in a language which is not their own. I managed buy mum's pressie and order breakfast, thank people accordingly, but people stop you and try to ask you questions or pass the time of day and I was well out of my depth. I lost count of the number of times I said 'Je ne comprend pas.'
I enjoyed Reims and would like to visit again in the summer, although their Christmas lights are very pretty it was freezing. Had a meal with Sparks on Saturday night and he drove me to the airport on Sunday morning. We said our goodbyes until Christmas and I had a decent flight home. I had a lovely weekend but arrived home to some bad news......
I had breakfast in a little cafe and wandered around the huge festive market. The smells of food cooking were damn near making me salivate. I found a pressie for mum in one of the perfumeries, of which there are several. Reims is obviously an affluent place, lots of posh clothes shops, I've never seen so many shoe shops in one town, it was heaven. Plentiful jewellery shops and delicious looking choclatiers and bakeries. I could have spent a fortune but was very restrained.
The disadvantage of being there is that my French isn't really up to scratch. I used to be able to get by quite nicely and did get an O level, but I haven't spoken French for over 20 years. The French are just like us Brits in that they will make no attempt to communicate with you in a language which is not their own. I managed buy mum's pressie and order breakfast, thank people accordingly, but people stop you and try to ask you questions or pass the time of day and I was well out of my depth. I lost count of the number of times I said 'Je ne comprend pas.'
I enjoyed Reims and would like to visit again in the summer, although their Christmas lights are very pretty it was freezing. Had a meal with Sparks on Saturday night and he drove me to the airport on Sunday morning. We said our goodbyes until Christmas and I had a decent flight home. I had a lovely weekend but arrived home to some bad news......
