It Takes a Viking: Au Revoir, Paris

There's nothing like spending St Patrick's Day in France. I was actually surprised--I saw a lot of St Paddy's Day signs around town,. I thought it was only adopted so widely in the US.

We woke up today in Paris, but there was no time to see anything since we had to be boarding the bus by 8:00 am. That meant a quick hotel breakfast, a Viking check of the luggage, and then leave for our next destination, Rheims.

This was just over a three-hour trip by highway and I must admit, a pretty smooth bus (coach) ride. It was interesting to see the scenery but I have to admit, I fell asleep for a while. My younger self was appalled.

There is a lot of history here, of course, but the only thing we really had time for was the Rheims Cathedral. In short, this is where France started as a nation when the first Clovis I was crowned king here in 481. France had seventeen (XVII) kings named Louis and I learned today that "Clovis minus the 'C' equals Louis." They all wanted to be like the first king.

Rheims Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Cathedral Entrance

The spot where Clovis was crowned king of the Franks.

Side view with buttresses. The place is huge.

Rose window and other stained glass.

These windows were created by Marc Chagall. He liked blue.

More stained glass

The Smiling Angel. This is an iconic symbol of Rheims--depictions are everywhere.

After the cathedral tour we had about an hour's free time. Not enough (IMHO) but we did what we could. We had coffee and pastry at Paul, then I snapped pictures as fast as I could before we had to be back on the bus.

Looking up the Rue Carnot

Louis XV statue in the Place Royale

French Immigration Office in the Place Royale

Porte du Chapitre

Walk through the passage--et voilà!--there's the cathedral.

Back aboard the bus and off to our next stop--and our next country, Luxembourg. The Luxembourg American Cemetery was established on December 29, 1944 at the time Allied forces were fighting the Germans' Ardennes offensive.

Cemetery Entrance

Grave Markers

Gen. George S. Patton's grave. His headquarters was in Luxembourg City.

Map of the Ardennes Offensive (Battle of the Bulge)

This last stop was powerful. It makes you think about the sacrifices made over 70 years ago to make Europe (and the world) what it is today.

After this last stop, we were in our third country, Germany (Luxembourg is a small one).

We were headed for Trier, which is just over the border from Luxembourg on our way to the Viking dock on the Moselle River. The buses dropped everyone off and we got settled into our room.