Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Blitz Visit for Train Travelers
If you're racing through Reims, here's a quick walking plan that follows the order of the
sights (described below in more detail). Pick up a town map from the TI just outside the
train station before you begin.
From the station (which retains its original 1860 facade), walk directly into the park
out front. Find the statue of hometown boy Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister of
Louis XIV back in the 17th century.
The park, or Grande Allée des Promenades, was originally a garden outside the city
walls.In1848,whenitwasclearthatReimsdidn'tneedaprotectivewall,thefortifications
were demolished to create a three-mile-long circular boulevard. Look at your town map to
see the “left-foot”-shaped outline left by the wall.
From Colbert, angle to the right, cross what was the wall, and walk along Place
Drouet d'Erlon. This long, pedestrianized street-like square marks the commercial center
of town. It's Reims' “little Champs-Elysées.” The square's centerpiece is a fountain and
columncrownedbyaglisteninggold-wingedfigureofVictory.(TheoriginalVictory,from
1906, was melted down by the Nazis—the current one is a recent replacement.) The foun-
tain—with four voluptuous women—celebrates the four major rivers of this district. After
one too many pranks in which local students (this is a big university town) put soap in the
fountain, the mayor decided to turn off the water and now the fountain is a garden.
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